{"id":597713,"date":"2026-04-11T20:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/597713\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:17:12","slug":"former-nasa-astronaut-says-mission-was-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/597713\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NASA astronaut says mission was success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former astronaut Clayton Anderson describes what the crew likely experienced as the vessel splashed down. <\/p>\n

The Artemis II astronauts returned to Earth yesterday evening after a 10-day voyage around the moon, with one former NASA astronaut calling this mission a \u201chuge success.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe proved that we can do it again,\u201d former NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson told CTV News Channel on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission was a huge success, with some minor hiccups.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen served as the mission specialist, making him the first Canadian to ever go to the moon. <\/p>\n

Hansen was onboard the Orion spacecraft with three NASA astronauts \u2014 commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch.<\/p>\n

Minor issues to be fixed<\/p>\n

Clayton points to the two minor issues the crew faced during the mission: communication issues with Outlook and the toilet malfunctioning on the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile those may be considered minor, the idea here is that you want to eliminate any possible areas of concern, especially a toilet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a very big item for them to look into, but they\u2019ll figure it out, we always do, and we\u2019ll move on with better ideas and keep pressing to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Splashdown In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (NASA via AP) Splashdown<\/p>\n

The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at 8:07 p.m., after hurtling roughly 40,000 km\/h through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere, where the heatshield was subject to temperatures half as hot as the sun. <\/p>\n

A series of parachutes were deployed to help slow down the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Anderson says this period is a \u201cvery dynamic time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very focused on monitoring data to make sure that everything\u2019s going well, so that they don\u2019t have to do anything or call anyone to make sure that something has to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re focused, they\u2019re strapped into their seats \u2014 probably pretty tightly \u2014 and they\u2019re starting to feel the effects of gravitational pull again, which can be discomforting, but they\u2019re also anticipating everything that\u2019s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they were nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Space enthusiasts Space enthusiasts gather to watch the Artemis II Orion Spacecraft capsule splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, over a live stream at the University of Toronto, in Toronto on Friday, April 10, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Arlyn McAdorey \u2018Artemis generation\u2019<\/p>\n

The Artemis II mission is the first crewed mission to fly to the moon and back to Earth in 54 years.<\/p>\n

The last time humans went to the moon was at the end of the Apollo program in December 1972 \u2014 Apollo 17.<\/p>\n

Anderson, who says he witnessed Apollo 8 and considers himself part of the \u201cApollo generation,\u201d says this mission impacts a new generation, some calling the \u201cArtemis generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a new generation of young people who are watching this with the same awe that I watched it with, and hopefully are deciding what their future is going to be \u2014 a future in outer space,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been a great accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NASA Artemis Moonshot In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view of the Earth next to the Moon before Earthset during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP) <\/p>\n

\u201c(…) I think this is a great example of what we can do as humans when we work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artemis II, which launched on April 1, is a test to support later missions of the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

Artemis III, with a target launch in mid-2027, will be another crew mission to conduct further tests, while Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028, is designated to be a lunar landing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former astronaut Clayton Anderson describes what the crew likely experienced as the vessel splashed down. The Artemis II…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[712,49,48,66,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-597713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}