Drawing ever closer to Earth, the Artemis II astronauts tidied up their lunar cruiser for the upcoming “fireball” return and reflected on their historic journey around the moon, describing it as surreal and profound. This is the end of their journey, which began aboard NASA's new "Space Launch System" rocket which was designed, built, tested, and managed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
As the next-to-last day of their flight dawned Thursday, humanity's first lunar explorers in more than half a century were less than 150,000 miles from home with the odometer clicking down.
“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," said pilot Victor Glover, adding that "riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”
The unease surrounding the mission of Artemis-2 was perhaps best reflected by a trend on social media as their rocket blasted off last week. The hashtag "Challenger Trauma" started showing up on the platform Bluesky, as people posted about having witnessed the 1986 space shuttle Challenger. They wrote about having a negatively visceral reaction to the Artemis liftoff. APR caught up with one eyewitness who saw the shuttle explode when she was nine.
Being cut off from all of humanity for nearly an hour while behind the moon was especially “surreal,” according to commander Reid Wiseman.
“There’s a lot that our brains have to process ... and it is a true gift," Wiseman said late Wednesday during the crew's first news conference since before liftoff.
While out of contact behind the moon Monday, Wiseman, Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen became the most distant humans ever, clocking in at a record 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before heading back. As they emerged from behind the moon, they experienced a wondrous total solar eclipse as the orb blocked the sun from their perspective.
The astronauts also talked about living and working inside their gumdrop shaped space capsule.
"Wow, we have loved living in Orion," said astronaut Christina Koch, "And in fact, we've all said that sometimes you can forget where you really are because we're in this small the small space that just gives us everything we need. But the answer to your question is, yes, it is bigger in microgravity, and yes, we are bumping into each other 100% of the time, a phrase that you often hear in the cabin is, don't move your foot. I'm just going to reach for something right under it."
Launching from Florida on April 1 diminished the amount of illumination on the lunar far side, Glover noted, but the eclipse was the consolation prize “and it was one of the greatest gifts.”
While acknowledging anxiety over Friday's return, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said the crew's "expressions of love and devotion to family” have warmed hearts worldwide and served as “a great example of why we go and do these missions.”
”If you can’t take love to the stars, then what are we doing?" he said. "That’s why we send humans instead of robots sometimes, that’s why we have that firsthand witness.”
Friday's reentry and Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego — as dynamic and dangerous as liftoff — now topped everyone's minds. The recovery ship, USS John P. Murtha, was already at sea, with a squadron of military planes and helicopters poised to join the operation.
It's the first time that NASA and the Defense Department have teamed up for a lunar crew's reentry since Apollo 17 in 1972. Their Orion capsule will come screaming back, hitting the atmosphere at a predicted 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second — or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) — not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast.
Flight director Jeff Radigan said the capsule must nail the reentry angle within a single degree.
“Let’s not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly — otherwise we’re not going to have a successful reentry,” he said.
Mission Control will be paying close attention to how the capsule's heat shield holds up. During the only other Orion test flight to the moon — in 2022 without a crew — the heat shield suffered considerably more damage than expected from the 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) of reentry.
Instead of replacing Artemis II's heat shield, which would have forced another lengthy delay, NASA tweaked the capsule's descent through the atmosphere to reduce the blisteringly hot exposure. Next year's Artemis III and beyond will fly with redesigned heat shields.
Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV in 2028 will attempt to land two astronauts near the moon's south pole, setting the stage for what NASA hopes will be a sustainable lunar base.
NASA officials have been loath to provide their risk assessment numbers for the nearly 10-day mission, acknowledging launch and entry as the biggest threats.
“We’re down to the wire now,” said 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.”
