During their 10 day trip, the crew \u2014 pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and commander Reid Wiseman from NASA, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen \u2014 did not land on the moon<\/a>; instead they were part of a test flight in hopes that in the next two years, humans could return to the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n During the mission, the Artemis II crew set a record<\/a> for farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth, surpassing the record of 248,655 miles previously set by the Apollo 13 flight crew in 1970, according to NASA.<\/p>\n After splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California on Friday, April 10 the crew is finally beginning to process what they witnessed.<\/p>\n For Hansen, he said the galaxy had a depth like no other, telling the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> in an article published Friday, April 17, \u201cWhere I keep coming back to is what kept grabbing my attention when the lighting was right and we were looking at the window.\u201d<\/p>\n During a press conference on Thursday, April 16, Wiseman, Glover and Koch, talked about their roller coaster of emotions since coming home.<\/p>\n The crew flew around the far side of the moon and, on their way home, saw a solar eclipse from space.<\/p>\n Hansen described his experience as profound, with space\u2019s vastness leaving him at a loss for words.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sense I had was the sense of fragility and feeling small, infinitesimally small, but yet this very powerful feeling as a human being,\u201d he said. \u201cSmall and powerless, but yet powerful together.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiseman, although not religious, said there was no other way to explain what he had seen.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute,\u201d Wiseman said, referring to the first hours after returning to Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen that man walked in, I\u2019d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just, I broke down in tears. It\u2019s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through,\u201d Wiseman continued.<\/p>\n Wiseman said the crew hasn\u2019t had time to reflect on what they witnessed in space, but called the experience surreal.<\/p>\n \u201cI turned to Victor and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we\u2019re looking at right now,\u2019 because it was otherworldly and it was amazing,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Artemis II and its crew splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California on Friday, April 10 Glover, who is religious, agreed, but hasn\u2019t been able to give the mission its much-deserved time for reflection just yet.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t had a chance to really unpack it all yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Koch gave insight into the crew\u2019s worries before the mission, saying the astronauts grappled with the idea that the mission wouldn\u2019t make much of a difference.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until her husband assured her during a video call in space that she was paving the way for future research, leaving her in tears.<\/p>\n![\"Artemis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1678c9d822ac0235464835f75c3c44e9.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: NASA<\/p>\n