HOUSTON \u2014 Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his crew members received a standing ovation as they were welcomed back in Houston after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, concluding the\u00a0Artemis\u00a0II mission.<\/p>\n
Hansen expressed gratitude for his family, NASA, and the Canadian Space Agency. He said in French: \u2018\u2019I\u2019m excited to come back to Canada with Reid, Christina, and Victor.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Still marvelling over their record-breaking lunar fly-around, the crew of four flew to Houston\u2019s Ellington Field from San Diego on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
After a quick reunion with their families, the astronauts took the stage, surrounded by hundreds who took part in NASA\u2019s historic lunar comeback.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7ZSHW7IWDYQHCUINRKJ6G7VPJM.jpg\")
The Artemis II crew The Artemis II crew, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman come to the center stage at the end of a crew return event Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Ellington Field in Houston. (AP Photo\/Michael Wyke) <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you saw was a group of people who love contributing,\u201d said Hansen, speaking on the level of commitment of the\u00a0Artemis\u00a0II crew.<\/p>\n
Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell hugged all four astronauts before she expressed how proud she was of Hansen and his crew members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve represented the very best of what it represents to be Canadian,\u201d she said about Hansen.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center director, Vanessa Wyche, said that beyond the data, the mission highlighted the connection between humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the four astronauts stood side by side, linked arm in arm, Hansen said, \u201cWhen you look up here, we are a mirror reflecting you, this is you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special thing to be a human, and it\u2019s a special thing to be on planet Earth,\u201d said Commander Reid Wiseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe start and the end were human moments on Earth,\u201d said American astronaut Christina Koch. She spoke briefly about understanding new levels of the word \u201ccrew,\u201d concluding by saying, \u201cPlanet Earth, you are a crew.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew accomplished many milestones on their 10-day mission, surpassing the Apollo 13 record for farthest crewed space flight from Earth and observing the lunar surface like never before.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
–with files from the Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his crew members received a standing ovation as they were welcomed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,47,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-598091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-national","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598091","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=598091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}