The astronauts behind Artemis II, the mission that sparked a new era of lunar exploration, offered glowing reviews on Thursday for their spacecraft, particularly its heat shield’s performance during the fiery return to Earth.
During their first public briefing since splashing down, the crew, three NASA astronauts and one from the Canadian Space Agency, said their successful moon flyby has significantly boosted NASA’s confidence for a crewed lunar landing planned in two years, as well as for a future moon base.
The news conference took place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team’s home port, reports AP.
Commander Reid Wiseman later shared with the Associated Press(AP) that his post-mission schedule has been so packed he hasn’t yet had a moment to look up at the moon—or even at Carroll Crater, a bright lunar feature the crew proposed naming in memory of his late wife.
He and his late wife have two daughters, whose worries about their father’s dangerous voyage finally eased after his secure splashdown late last week.
“Being 252,000 miles from Earth was the most majestic, breathtaking sight human eyes will ever witness,” Wiseman told the AP.
Yet, he added, blasting back through the atmosphere at 39 times the speed of sound is “terrifying and dangerous.” That fear made him long for home mid-flight. “You just want to hug your kids and let them know you’re safe.”
Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen launched from Florida on 1 April, marking NASA’s first lunar crew in over 50 years—and easily the most diverse.
The team set a new record for farthest human travel, surpassing Apollo 13’s mark, as they zoomed around the moon’s far side.
The sunlight there revealed features never before seen by human eyes, and a total lunar eclipse added to the awe.
Their Orion capsule, nicknamed Integrity, parachuted into the Pacific last Friday, wrapping up a nearly 10-day journey.
Their homecoming in Houston the next day fell on the 56th anniversary of Apollo 13’s launch. Wiseman noted that he and Glover “maybe saw two brief instances of minor char loss” on the heat shield as Integrity plunged through the most intense part of reentry.
Once aboard the recovery ship, they leaned over to inspect the capsule’s underside as best they could. They noticed a small amount of charred material missing from the shoulder area where the heat shield meets the capsule.
“Just from our own visual check, the heat shield looked fantastic. The ride down was truly amazing,” Wiseman said.
Still, he cautioned that thorough analysis lies ahead. “We’re going to comb through every single molecule—heck, probably every atom—of this heat shield,” he said.
The heat shield on the uncrewed Artemis test flight in 2022 returned with so many pits and gouges that it delayed Artemis II by months, if not years.
Rather than redesigning the shield, NASA changed the capsule’s reentry path to reduce heating. Future capsules will feature a new shield design.
Just before splashdown, when the parachutes deployed, Glover said he experienced five seconds of freefall that felt like “diving backward off a skyscraper.” When the ride smoothed out, he added, “it was glorious.”
Since their return, the four astronauts have undergone extensive medical exams to assess their balance, vision, muscle strength, coordination, and overall health.
They also donned spacewalking suits for exercises in simulated lunar gravity (one-sixth of Earth’s) to gauge how much stamina and dexterity future moonwalkers might have.
NASA is already pushing ahead with Artemis III, the next phase of its ambitious moon-base blueprint. The rocket’s launch platform returned Thursday to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be readied for next year’s Artemis launch.
Artemis III, still awaiting a crew assignment, will remain in Earth orbit so astronauts can practice docking the Orion capsule with one or two lunar landers being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Artemis IV is scheduled for 2028 under NASA’s current timeline, with two astronauts landing near the moon’s south pole.
This time, NASA aims for a lasting lunar presence. During the Apollo missions, visits were brief. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon, from Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 to Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
Koch said that since returning, she and her crewmates feel “even more pumped and ready to take this on as an agency. We made it happen,” she added.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen noted that everyone will have to accept extra risk to achieve these goals and trust that problems can be solved in real time. “We can’t iron out every wrinkle before we go. We’re going to have to trust one another,” he said.
Even though their own mission went smoothly, Hansen said, “it was very clear to us that things can get bumpy fast. Future crews will need to understand that it can go from smooth to rough in a heartbeat.”
