HOUSTON — The four-member crew of Artemis II is preparing for their dramatic homecoming after completing humanity’s first lunar mission in more than five decades, with the astronauts calling their experience both otherworldly and deeply meaningful.
On Thursday, the penultimate day of their mission, the space travelers were within 150,000 miles of Earth and steadily approaching home while organizing their spacecraft for what pilot Victor Glover called a “fireball” descent through the atmosphere.
“We have to get back. There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There are so many more pictures, so many more stories,” Glover explained, noting that “riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”
Commander Reid Wiseman highlighted the extraordinary nature of losing communication with Earth for nearly an hour while traveling behind the lunar surface, calling the experience particularly “surreal.”
“There’s a lot that our brains have to process … and it is a true gift,” Wiseman shared during the crew’s first media briefing since launch, held late Wednesday.
During their journey behind the moon on Monday, Wiseman, Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen achieved a historic milestone, reaching a record distance of 252,756 miles from Earth — farther than any humans have ever traveled. Upon emerging from the moon’s shadow, the crew witnessed a spectacular total solar eclipse as the lunar body blocked their view of the sun.
Glover explained that their April 1 launch from Florida reduced the lighting on the moon’s far side, but noted the eclipse served as compensation, calling it “one of the greatest gifts.”
Friday’s atmospheric reentry and ocean landing near San Diego has become the crew’s primary focus, representing a phase as challenging and risky as their initial launch. The recovery vessel USS John P. Murtha is already positioned at sea, supported by military aircraft and helicopters ready to assist in the retrieval operation.
This marks the first collaboration between NASA and the Defense Department for a lunar crew’s return since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Their Orion spacecraft will barrel through Earth’s atmosphere at an estimated 34,965 feet per second — equivalent to 23,840 mph — creating intense heat and stress on the vehicle.
Mission controllers will carefully monitor the performance of the capsule’s heat shield during reentry. The previous unmanned Orion test flight to the moon in 2022 resulted in more heat shield damage than anticipated from the extreme 5,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures experienced during atmospheric reentry.
Rather than replacing the Artemis II heat shield, which would have caused significant mission delays, NASA modified the spacecraft’s descent profile to minimize exposure to the most intense heat. Future missions starting with Artemis III will incorporate newly designed heat shield technology.
The upcoming Artemis III mission will focus on astronauts practicing orbital docking procedures with lunar landing vehicles around Earth. Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028, aims to successfully land two crew members near the moon’s south pole, establishing the foundation for NASA’s planned permanent lunar outpost.
NASA leadership has been reluctant to share specific risk calculations for the nearly 10-day mission, while acknowledging that launch and reentry represent the greatest dangers.
“We’re down to the wire now,” stated NASA’s Lakiesha Hawkins. “We’re down to the end of the mission, and obviously getting the crew back home and getting them landed safely, is a significant part of the risk that’s still in front of us.”
