{"id":394111,"date":"2026-04-12T02:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394111\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:18:08","slug":"artemis-astronauts-receive-thunderous-welcome-home-at-mission-control-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394111\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis astronauts receive thunderous welcome home at Mission Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Artemis II astronauts have received a thunderous welcome home from hundreds of people involved in Nasa\u2019s lunar comeback that set a record for deep space travel.<\/p>\n

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa\u2019s Johnson Space Centre and Mission Control in Houston on Saturday, flying in from San Diego where they splashed down just offshore the evening before.<\/p>\n

After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took to the hangar stage, surrounded by space centre workers and other invited guests.<\/p>\n

The crowd included Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman, flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, members of Congress and the space agency\u2019s entire blue-suited astronaut corps.<\/p>\n

\"NASAArtemis II astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch (NASA via AP)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long wait is over. After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on,\u201d Mr Isaacman said. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, your Artemis II crew,\u201d he added, as the crowd stood, applauded and cheered<\/p>\n

Commander Reid Wiseman and his US-Canadian crew\u2019s homecoming was poignant. They returned to their Houston home base on the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, whose \u201cHouston, we\u2019ve had a problem\u201d refrain turned a near-disaster into triumph.<\/p>\n

Mr Wiseman told his crewmates: \u201cWe are bonded forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not easy.\u201d Mr Wiseman said. \u201cBefore you launch, it feels like it\u2019s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you\u2019re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends. It\u2019s a special thing to be a human and it\u2019s a special thing to be on planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to his wife and four daughters, pilot Victor Glover said: \u201cI love you but not just those five beautiful cocoa skinned ladies there, but all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christina Koch said she was struck by her view of Earth from space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, what struck me wasn\u2019t just Earth, it was all of the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbably in the universe. Planet Earth you are a crew,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fellow astronaut Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen thanked the bravery of the launch teams to be \u201cno-go\u201d all the times they were, referring to the months of delay.<\/p>\n

Mr Hansen said the crew embodied love \u201cand extracting joy out of that\u201d as the four joined together to stand in a row, embracing one another. \u201cWhen you look up here, you\u2019re not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see then just look a little deeper. This is you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASAA photo of the lunar surface (NASA via AP)\n<\/p>\n

Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell called the mission \u201ca powerful moment\u201d. She told Mr Hansen he represents \u201cthe best of what it means to be Canadian\u201d.<\/p>\n

During Artemis II\u2019s nearly 10-day mission, they voyaged deeper into space than the moon explorers of decades past and captured views of the lunar far side never witnessed before by human eyes. A total solar eclipse added to the cosmic wonder.<\/p>\n

On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometres) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo\u2019s 13 distance record.<\/p>\n

The mission also revealed a new side of our planet with an Earthset photo, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the grey, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world\u2019s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Artemis II astronauts have received a thunderous welcome home from hundreds of people involved in Nasa\u2019s lunar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-394111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394111","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=394111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}