CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four astronauts who completed NASA’s groundbreaking return to lunar exploration offered glowing reviews of their spacecraft Thursday, particularly highlighting how well the heat shield performed during their journey back to Earth.
During their initial press conference since touching down, the international crew of three Americans and one Canadian expressed confidence that their successful moon flyby significantly advances NASA’s timeline for putting astronauts on the lunar surface within two years and establishing a permanent lunar outpost. The astronauts addressed media from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Mission Commander Reid Wiseman, along with pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, departed Florida on April 1 aboard what became NASA’s first crewed lunar expedition in more than five decades and the most diverse crew ever assembled for such a mission.
The team achieved a new human spaceflight distance record, surpassing Apollo 13’s mark as they traveled around the moon’s far side, where lighting conditions allowed them to observe lunar features never before seen by human eyes. A total lunar eclipse during their voyage added to the spectacular experience.
Their Orion spacecraft, christened “Integrity” by the crew, safely descended by parachute into Pacific waters last Friday, concluding their nearly 10-day expedition. The crew’s return to Houston the following day marked exactly 56 years since Apollo 13’s launch.
According to Wiseman, he and Glover observed “maybe saw two moments of a touch of char loss” from the heat shield during Integrity’s descent through the most intense phase of reentry. After boarding the recovery vessel, they examined the capsule’s underside as thoroughly as possible, discovering minor charred material loss where the heat shield connects to the main capsule.
“For four humans just looking at the heat shield, it looked wonderful to us. It looked great, and that ride in was really amazing,” Wiseman stated.
However, he emphasized that comprehensive analysis remains ahead. “We are going to fine-tooth comb every single, not even every molecule, probably every atom on this heat shield,” he explained.
The heat shield from the unmanned 2022 Artemis test mission returned so severely damaged that it delayed Artemis II by several months or potentially years. Rather than redesigning the shield, NASA modified the capsule’s reentry trajectory to reduce thermal stress. Upcoming capsules will feature updated heat shield technology.
Glover described the sensation when parachutes deployed just before ocean landing as feeling like freefall — comparable to “diving backward off a skyscraper.” “That’s what it felt like for five seconds,” he recalled, noting that once the descent stabilized, “It was glorious.”
Following their return, all four crew members have undergone extensive medical evaluations examining their balance, eyesight, muscle condition, coordination, and general health status. They also tested spacewalking equipment under simulated lunar gravity conditions — one-sixth of Earth’s gravity — to assess how future moon explorers might perform immediately after landing.
NASA has already begun preparations for Artemis III, the subsequent phase in its ambitious lunar base development program. The launch platform returned Thursday to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building for preparation ahead of next year’s Artemis mission.
Artemis III, which has not yet received crew assignments, will orbit Earth while astronauts practice connecting their Orion capsule with lunar landing vehicles being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin companies.
Artemis IV is scheduled for 2028 according to NASA’s current timeline, featuring two astronauts landing near the moon’s south polar region.
NASA seeks to establish a lasting lunar presence this time, contrasting with the brief Apollo missions. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during the Apollo era, starting with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 and concluding with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
Koch expressed that since returning, she and her teammates are “feeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.”
“We made it happen,” she added.
Hansen noted that achieving these ambitious goals will require accepting increased risks and trusting that unexpected challenges can be resolved in real time. “We’re not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We’re going to have to trust each other,” he said.
Despite their smooth mission experience, “it was also very clear to us that it can get pretty bumpy,” Hansen observed. Future crews must “understand it can get real bumpy real fast.”
