{"id":391064,"date":"2026-04-10T04:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/391064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T04:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:46:10","slug":"artemis-ii-crew-hails-golden-age-of-space-travel-as-they-prepare-for-return-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/391064\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II crew hails \u2018golden age of space travel\u2019 as they prepare for return | Nasa"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the crew of Artemis II<\/a> set to return to Earth on Friday following its historic 10-day lunar flyby mission, the astronauts celebrated their lunar expedition and hailed the \u201cgolden age of space travel\u201d, saying they hoped the historic mission would inspire the next generation.<\/p>\n

Speaking from on board the Artemis II on Thursday evening, the crew fielded questions from members of Congress as they prepared for their return to Earth.<\/p>\n

The mood of Thursday\u2019s press conference was jubilant as politicians from both sides of the aisle congratulated the astronauts on their trip while asking questions about their experiences and its ability to inspire others.<\/p>\n

The record-breaking<\/a> nature of the mission was also on the minds of several crew members. \u201cIt is unbelievable to think that we could build an international team led by the United States of America and set our sights out on a sustained presence on the moon and onto Mars and then we can go and achieve it,\u201d said Commander Reid Wiseman, calling the mission \u201cincredible\u201d. \u201cThere is nothing this nation cannot do when it has a vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the golden age of space travel right now,\u201d added Wiseman. \u201cThere\u2019s just limitless potential here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several congresspeople asked how the Artemis II trip could serve as an inspiration, especially to younger generations. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California called the expedition \u201cunifying in so many ways\u201d, asking the four-person crew what they hoped the public took away from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that we connect back to when we went to the moon the first time and we started calling big things humanity accomplished \u2018moon shots\u2019 and we take ownership of this \u2018moonshot\u2019,\u201d said pilot Victor Glover, the first Black man to travel beyond low-Earth orbit<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that we can\u2019t accomplish when we pull all of our differences together \u2026 and when we work on something big for the good of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artemis II crew members have already begun repacking for their re-entry to Earth following their lunar expedition. Earlier on Thursday, Nasa<\/a> leaders described the precise logistics needed to get the crew home.<\/p>\n

The return will see the Orion capsule traveling at nearly 24,000mph before making a final splashdown several miles off the coast of San Diego. The operation requires multiple teams and careful coordination to safely extract the crew from the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference, Nasa\u2019s associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said: \u201cTo every engineer, every technician that\u2019s touched this machine, tomorrow belongs to you. The crew has done their part. Now we have to do ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Radigan, lead flight director of the mission, emphasized the precision required for re-entry, noting the team has \u201cless than a degree of an angle\u201d to hit the correct flight path. \u201cLet\u2019s not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly \u2013 otherwise we\u2019re not going to have a successful re-entry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Radigan outlined the timeline for the spacecraft\u2019s return. The Orion crew module and service module are set to separate at 4.33pm PT (7.33pm ET, 12.33am UK time), with the service module burning up in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. This will be followed by a crew module raise burn at 4.37pm PT, and Orion\u2019s entry interface at 4.53pm PT, which will cause a brief blackout. Drogue parachutes are set to deploy at about 5.03pm PT, followed by main parachutes, before a final splashdown at 5.07pm PT.<\/p>\n

He added that the splashdown will occur far off the southern California coast. \u201cThe path that we\u2019re coming in, I don\u2019t expect it to be visible from the folks in California \u2026 We\u2019re working with the Department of War to recover the capsule out there and it is a fairly large exclusion zone so I would caution folks \u2026 please avoid the area,\u201d Radigan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of debris that comes down and we work with our recovery forces in order to ensure that it doesn\u2019t hit them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The USS John P Murtha is ready to assist with recovery operations, which will unfold in several stages and are expected to take between an hour and an hour and a half. \u201cThere\u2019s a number of systems that we have to begin an orderly shutdown, and the crew then has to orient themselves and begin \u2018safing\u2019 the spacecraft so they can open the hatch, and that takes a little bit of time,\u201d Radigan said.<\/p>\n

He added that recovery teams must initially remain at a safe distance because of the debris. \u201cOnce we confirm that there\u2019s no risk \u2026 which takes a matter of minutes, then they\u2019re able to approach the spacecraft and begin the process of extracting the crew,\u201d Radigan said.<\/p>\n

After extraction, the crew will undergo post-mission medical evaluations before being flown to Nasa\u2019s Johnson Space<\/a> Center in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n

Back on board Thursday night, the crew members spoke directly to their children and other young people interested in space exploration.<\/p>\n

Glover said that he and his wife look forward to \u201cchasing and catching [the] dreams\u201d of his four children. Speaking to the \u201cfuture citizens\u201d, Glover said: \u201cI hope this mission is giving you something you can take and put in your pocket or in your heart or mind, that you keep with you \u2026 we want you to take this and build a vocabulary to explain the world to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most striking experiences, according to multiple crew members, was seeing the eclipse of the moon in person. Christina Koch, mission specialist in the Artemis II crew, said that the sight \u201crendered us speechless\u201d. Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency mission specialist, seconded Koch\u2019s remarks, adding: \u201cI know you saw some pictures,\u201d referring to images captured of the moon, \u201cBut it really was something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the crew of Artemis II set to return to Earth on Friday following its historic 10-day lunar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-391064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}