Artemis II astronauts reunite with capsule after record-breaking moon mission

The Artemis II astronauts reunited with their Orion capsule on Wednesday, three months after completing a record-breaking mission around the moon that took them farther into space than any humans in history.

It was the crew’s first visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since their launch in April. When they last saw the launch pad, the Space Launch System rocket that carried them to space was still standing there.

“It’s a lonely place without that rocket on it,” mission commander Reid Wiseman said, as the four astronauts thanked the teams that supported the historic flight.

The crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—set a new human distance record by traveling 252,756 miles (406,771 km) during the lunar flyby. The mission marked humanity’s first journey to the moon in more than 50 years.

Wiseman said public enthusiasm for the mission remains strong, recalling that a passenger on a recent flight in France thanked him for “reminding us about joy and hope in the universe again.”

NASA last month announced the four-member crew for Artemis III, scheduled for next year. The mission will remain in Earth orbit to rehearse docking with lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, while Artemis IV is planned as early as 2028 and is expected to include a crewed lunar landing.

Christina Koch, the first woman to fly to the moon, said she welcomed NASA’s merit-based crew selection after Artemis III’s all-male crew drew attention.

Jeremy Hansen, Canada’s representative on Artemis II, announced earlier this week that he will leave the Canadian Space Agency in September but will continue supporting the Artemis program as a reservist in the Royal Canadian Air Force.