Update: Artemis II Crew Comes Home

01You're listening to NASA's Curious Universe.

02I'm Jacob Pinter.

03The astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission, Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and Jeremy Hansen, are back home.

04Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, we are bonded forever.

05And no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through.

06And it was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life.

07In this special update episode, How Artemis II Ended.

08We'll listen in to the moments the astronauts return to Earth and splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

09And we'll hear the astronauts recap their journey in their own words.

10The Artemis II astronauts flew their Orion spacecraft, which is named Integrity, farther from Earth than any other human has ever traveled.

11This was a test flight, and a crucial step to eventually return humans to the moon's surface through the Artemis program.

12On day six of the mission, the astronauts flew around the moon, seeing parts of it that no other unaided human eyes have ever seen.

13In the moment, they relayed details to NASA scientists, and they brought back pictures, videos, and voice notes that will keep scientists busy for a long time.

14Then the astronauts spent several days traveling back home.

15And on day 10, they returned.

16The final total on Integrity's odometer, 694,481 miles, or just a shade over 1.1 million kilometers.

17In the final hours of NASA's livestream of Artemis II, on April 10, 2026, we watched as a partially lit Earth grew larger and larger.

18Integrity was almost home.

19Commander Reed Wiseman kept in touch with Mission Control.

20And we have a great view of the moon out window, too.

21Looks a little smaller than yesterday.

22Guess we'll have to go back.

23In another episode of Curious Universe, we go into detail about NASA's preparations to recover the astronauts once they landed, and the intense conditions Integrity faced in the final minutes of the mission.

24Here's a quick recap.

25As Integrity entered the atmosphere, it traveled about 35 times the speed of sound.

26As the spacecraft fell, it compressed the atmosphere, creating temperatures of several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

27and superheated plasma built up around the spacecraft.

28NASA engineers knew that because of those extreme conditions, it would be impossible to communicate with Integrity for about six minutes.

29And we have crossed the threshold, now entering the Earth's atmosphere.

30We're at 400,000 feet, traveling 34,800 feet per second.

31And as predicted, we've entered our communications blackout.

32During the six-minute blackout, NASA engineers could only wait.

33There were no data about the condition of the spacecraft.

34There was no word from the crew.

35Mission Control stayed ready until the moment when they expected to reestablish contact.

36Integrity, Houston, Comcheck post-blackout.

37Houston, Integrity, we have you loud and clear.

38Your trajectory is nominal, and your recovery...

39On the live stream, cameras captured Integrity's parachutes deploying as the capsule descended.

40Finally, just minutes after reentering the atmosphere, Integrity landed in the ocean with three orange and white parachutes billowing above it.

41Houston, Integrity, splashdown, sending post-landing command now.

42The recovery team kicked into gear.

43And again, we have much more detail about the recovery of Artemis II in another episode right here in this podcast feed.

44As the astronauts waited to be let out of their spacecraft, they radioed Mission Control, but they were feeling green.

45Not green like their complexion, green as in go.

46They were feeling good.

47Houston, we have you loud and clear on VLDR, or how are we?

48We have you the same.

49We'll meet you over in post-landing.

50Perfect communications established.

51A journey.

52We are stable one, four green crew members.

53Houston copies all.

54Integrity bobbed in the water with the astronauts still sealed inside.

55Until...

56Yes!

57Yes!

58Yes!

59Let's go!

60Pin, pin!

61A team of Navy divers opened the hatch, found four smiling astronauts, and gave them their first fist bumps back on Earth.

62Fort green!

63Fort green!

64Fort green!

65Hank, welcome home!

66Christina, welcome home!

67Yes!

68Jeremy!

69Absolutely!

70Welcome home, brother!

71There it is!

72Reed!

73What's up?

74Welcome home, brother!

75Thank you!

76All right!

77After the recovery team retrieved the astronauts, they brought them to a ship waiting nearby.

78The astronauts went through medical evaluations, and the next day, they made it back home to Houston, Texas.

79A crowd was waiting for the astronauts, including their families, colleagues in the astronaut corps, and other NASA employees.

80NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman welcomed the crew on stage.

81Commander Wiseman, Reed, you said in an interview back in February that you hoped this mission would be forgotten, overshadowed by all that was to come after.

82But I'm very sorry to disappoint you all.

83Artemis II will always be remembered.

84Then, it was time for the astronauts to speak.

85One by one, they took the mic.

86Commander Reed Wiseman went first.

87I have absolutely no idea what to say.

88This is 24 hours ago, the Earth was that big out the window, and we were doing Mach 39, and here we are back at Ellington at home.

89If you've ever taken a vacation and then needed a couple of days to decompress and process your trip before you get back to real life, it seemed like the astronauts were going through a version of that.

90Fresh off an experience of a lifetime, they occasionally struggled to put into words exactly what they were feeling.

91No one knows what the families went through, man.

92This was not easy.

93Being 200,000-plus miles away from home, like before you launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on Earth.

94And when you're out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends.

95It's a special thing to be a human, and it's a special thing to be on planet Earth.

96Thank you.

97When Reed was done, pilot Victor Glover took the mic.

98I'm going to keep it brief because I'm afraid to start talking.

99I have not processed what we just did, and I'm afraid to start even trying.

100When this started on April 3rd, I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with, it's too big to just be in one body.

101Next was mission specialist Christina Cook.

102She spent a little bit of time teasing out the word crew and what makes a crew different from a team.

103A crew, according to Christina, is a group of people with the same needs, working together, and willing to sacrifice when they need to and to give grace when they need to.

104When we saw Tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had.

105And honestly, what struck me wasn't necessarily just Earth.

106It was all the blackness around it.

107Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe.

108At this point, Christina started to get choked up.

109Uh-oh.

110I may have not learned, I know I haven't learned, everything that this journey has yet to teach me.

111But there's one new thing I know, and that is, planet Earth, you are a crew.

112Thank you.

113Rounding out the Artemis 2 crew was mission specialist Jeremy Hansen with the Canadian Space Agency.

114He said he felt gratitude for his family and the people he works with, and then he asked his crewmates to stand up and join him.

115They stood linked, with their arms around each other's shoulders.

116As Jeremy said, the four astronauts were united by love.

117What you saw was a group of people who loved contributing, having meaningful contribution, and extracting joy out of that.

118And what we've been hearing is that was something special for you to witness.

119And the reason I had them form up here with me is because I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you're not looking at us.

120We are a mirror reflecting you.

121And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper.

122This is you.

123Dude, come on.

124There were more toasts to the crew.

125There was, as one NASA official put it, a big Texas round of applause.

126And after a few more speeches celebrating the success of Artemis 2, Reed Wiseman looked directly at other NASA astronauts in the audience.

127There was a crowd of them wearing royal blue flight suits.

128He said, it's their turn to keep exploring.

129We would be remiss if the four of us didn't look right there and say, it is time to go and be ready because it takes courage, it takes determination, and you all are freaking going and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way possible.

130Thank you.

131Thank you.

132Thank you.

133Thank you.

134Thank you.

135Thank you.

136Thank you.

137Thank you.

138Thank you.

139Thank you.

140Thank you.

141Thank you.

142Thank you.

143On that note, I want to leave you with one more parting thought.

144Because as huge of an accomplishment as Artemis 2 is, it's not the end of an era.

145It's just the beginning.

146As the Artemis 2 astronauts put it, they're carrying a relay baton.

147Now, they hand it off to the next crew to continue pushing humanity further.

148Shortly after splashdown, Amit Shatria, NASA's associate administrator, put the focus on the teams of experts at NASA and its partners, the ones who fought all kinds of challenges to make this mission succeed.

149We talk a lot about what gets in our way.

150The impediment to action is where we find the way to get to action.

151What stands in the way becomes the way.

152This program faced every obstacle an institution could face.

153The team met each one with work, and tonight is the proof.

154But that work needs to continue.

155The path to the lunar surface is open, but the work ahead is greater than the work behind us.

156It always will be.

15753 years ago, humanity left the moon.

158This time, we return to stay.

159Let us finish what they started.

160Let us focus on what was left undone.

161Let us not go to plant flags and leave, but to stay.

162With firmness in our purpose, with gratitude for the hands who built the machines, and with love for the ones that we carry with us.

163Welcome home, integrity.

164Thank you.

165Thank you.

166Thank you.

167Thank you.

168Thank you.

169Thank you.

170This is NASA's Curious Universe, an official NASA podcast.

171You can find our whole Artemis 2 series at nasa.gov slash Artemis podcast.

172Again, that's nasa.gov slash Artemis podcast.

173Our Artemis 2 series was written and produced by Christian Elliott and me, Jacob Pinter.

174Our executive producer is Katie Conantz.

175Wes Buchanan designed the show art for this series.

176Music for this series comes from Universal Production Music.

177We had support throughout this series from Rachel Craft, Lisa Allen, Laura Bleacher, Brandi Dean, Courtney Beasley, Amber Jacobson, and Thalia Petrinos.

178For this episode, we had extra help from James Gannon.

179You can find transcripts for every episode of Curious Universe and explore NASA's other podcasts at nasa.gov slash podcasts.

180If you enjoyed this episode of NASA's Curious Universe or this series about Artemis 2, let us know.

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