{"id":578634,"date":"2026-04-11T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578634\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T21:53:07","slug":"artemis-iis-moon-traveling-astronauts-return-home-to-cheers-after-a-record-breaking-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578634\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II’s moon-traveling astronauts return home to cheers after a record-breaking trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Still marveling over their moon mission<\/a>, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home Saturday from hundreds who took part in NASA’s lunar comeback<\/a> that set a record for deep space travel. <\/p>\n

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, flying in from San Diego where they splashed down<\/a> just offshore the evening before. <\/p>\n

After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other invited guests. 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, the space agency\u2019s entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones, and more. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe long wait is over. After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on,\u201d 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 U.S.-Canadian crew’s homecoming was poignant: They returned to their Houston home base on the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13<\/a>, whose \u201cHouston, we\u2019ve had a problem\u201d refrain turned a near-disaster into triumph. <\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis was not easy.\u201d 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 necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe,\u201d she said. \u201cPlanet Earth you are a crew.\u201d<\/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

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

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

During Artemis II’s 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 kilometers) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo’s 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 gray, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world\u2019s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8. <\/p>\n

Despite the accomplishments, Artemis II astronauts had to contend with a more mundane problem \u2014 a malfunctioning space toilet. NASA promised a design fix before longer moon-landing missions. <\/p>\n

Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were the first humans to fly to the moon since Apollo 17 closed out NASA’s first exploration era in 1972. Twenty-four astronauts flew to the moon during Apollo, including 12 moonwalkers.<\/p>\n

Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell \u2014 who also flew on Apollo 8 \u2014 cheered the Artemis II crew on in a wake-up message recorded before he died last summer.<\/p>\n

It was crucial for NASA that Artemis II go well. The space agency is already preparing for next year’s Artemis III, which will see a new crew practice docking its capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028, when two astronauts attempt a touchdown near the lunar south pole.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,196513,451,198167,3,121358,79,452,453,795,130459,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-578634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-christina-koch","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-jeremy-hansen","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-reid-wiseman","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-u-s-news","19":"tag-victor-glover","20":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}