A week after astronaut Jeremy Hansen blasted off on the historic Artemis II mission to the Moon, his wife Catherine recalled the anxiety and thrill of witnessing the journey from afar.<\/p>\n
The Canadian obstetrician-gynecologist told AFP that she has closely followed the mission carrying her husband among a crew of four, hanging onto every update during family phone calls and from NASA mission control.<\/p>\n
“It’s incredible to me to know that they were up close,” said Catherine, wearing rocket-shaped earrings during a video call.<\/p>\n
Lifting off from Florida, Hansen became the first non-American to journey toward the Moon as the crew reached a record-breaking distance of 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth.<\/p>\n
Catherine and her children followed the lunar flyby from NASA mission control in Houston on Monday, and later heard Hansen share his observations in a family call.<\/p>\n
“Jeremy was describing… the fact that it looks so three-dimensional, like this globe outside the window,” recalled his wife.<\/p>\n
“He certainly will continue to describe to us and everyone else what it felt like to be that close to that celestial body.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Emotional’ –<\/p>\n
Catherine said, before liftoff, her husband gave her a pair of powerful binoculars to follow the space voyage.<\/p>\n
“Our family would lie down and look at various places on the Moon that he would identify based on his mapping and his study guides,” she said.<\/p>\n
Some of those sites were later observed up close by the Artemis II crew.<\/p>\n
As the astronauts flew on the far side of the Moon, they lost connection with Earth for some 40 minutes during an expected communications blackout.<\/p>\n
That was the moment Catherine got especially anxious. “I wanted to be there for that, because as someone who has never flown in space, I wanted to make sure they actually reacquired signal.”<\/p>\n
As onlookers held their breath, she was surprised by the “energy in mission control.”<\/p>\n
“There was no stress or anxiety. Everyone just trusted that this is what’s going to happen: they’re going to lose signal and come back again,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It has been a very emotional week.”<\/p>\n
Catherine and their three children also recorded videos that Jeremy was able to watch near the Moon.<\/p>\n
“When you’re out in deep space by the Moon, and you are listening to a video they recorded for you before you launch. That’s something,” the Canadian astronaut told a press conference.<\/p>\n
– ‘Get him home safely’ –<\/p>\n
“There’s been a lot of happiness and excitement, a lot of joy” but also “some anxiety and some wanting to get him home safely,” Catherine said.<\/p>\n
She is now preparing for the moment when the crew splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, expected for Friday.<\/p>\n
The Artemis II, the first mission to carry humans around the Moon in more than 50 years, was considered a risky first spaceflight for Jeremy.<\/p>\n
Described by NASA as a “test mission,” the flight aimed to verify the reliability of the rocket and Orion capsule, which had not carried humans before.<\/p>\n
At the moment of liftoff, Catherine was with her children and the other astronauts’ families near the launch pad in Florida.<\/p>\n
“It was absolutely incredible. And I think everyone is sort of at a loss for words,” she recalled.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think anyone was quite prepared.”<\/p>\n
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