Artemis II crew members have described their mission as “the greatest dream on Earth” after landing on Saturday and setting a new deep space travel record.

“This was not easy,” Commander Reid Wiseman said.

Speaking for the first time, the crew received a thunderous ovation as they entered the hangar stage, surrounded by space centre workers and other invited guests.

“Before you launch, it feels like it’s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you’re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends,”  Commander Reid Wiseman said.

“It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth.”

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The four crew members arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control Center after flying in from San Diego, where they splashed down offshore the previous evening.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canada’s mission specialist Jeremy Hansen took to the stage, greeted by space centre workers.

A NASA press conference with people and astronauts.

Artemis II crew members at their first press conference since landing. (Reuters: Lexi Parra)

They became the first humans to travel towards the Moon since Apollo 17 ended NASA’s initial exploration era in 1972. 

On Monday, they reached a record-breaking distance of more than 405,000 kilometres from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 record set 56 years ago.

On the return journey, they hit speeds of up to 40,000 kilometres per hour as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere — a high-risk phase that tested Orion’s heat shield against extreme atmospheric friction.

How NASA and the Artemis II crew completed the ‘perfect’ splashdown

Four astronauts have safely splashed down into the Pacific after journeying farther from Earth than any human before them.

They were introduced by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who was among the first to welcome the four aboard the recovery ship on Friday.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis II crew,” Mr Isaacman said to a standing ovation.

Their homecoming carried added significance, as they returned to NASA’s Houston base on the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 13 launch, whose famous “Houston, we’ve had a problem” call turned a near-disaster into a story of survival.

The only female crew member, Christina Koch, described the experience in a speech to the crowd.

“Honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it,” she said.A man and a woman in orange NASA-branded space suits pose for the camera with a wave and a thumbs up.

Victor Glover and Christina Koch were two of the first humans to travel towards the Moon since Apollo 17. (NASA: Bill Ingalls)

Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe.

“Planet Earth you are a crew.”

Despite their achievements, the Artemis II astronauts faced a far more mundane issue: a malfunctioning space toilet.

NASA has promised a design fix ahead of future, longer-duration Moon missions.

AP