CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� The who ignited a lunar renaissance gave high marks Thursday to their moonship, especially the heat shield, for its performance during reentry.
In their first news conference since , the three Americans and one Canadian said their lunar flyby puts NASA in a much better position for a moon landing by a crew in two years and an eventual moon base. They spoke from NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center in Houston, their home base.
Commander Reid Wiseman later told The Associated Press that he鈥檚 been so busy since getting back that he hasn鈥檛 had time to gaze up at the moon, let alone Carroll Crater, the name suggested by the crew for a bright lunar crater in honor of his late wife. They shared two daughters whose anxieties and fears over their father鈥檚 journey ended with his safe splashdown late last week.
鈥淏eing 252,000 miles away from home was the most majestic, gorgeous thing that human eyes will ever witness,鈥� he said in an interview with the AP. But hurtling back through the atmosphere at 39 times the speed of sound, 鈥渢hat is scary and that is risky.鈥� That鈥檚 why he yearned for home midway through his flight. 鈥淵ou just want to hold your kids and you just want them to know that you鈥檙e safe.鈥�
Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada鈥檚 Jeremy Hansen on April 1, in more than a half-century and by far the most diverse.
They became the most distant travelers ever 鈥� breaking Apollo 13’s record 鈥� as they whipped around the lunar far side, illuminated enough to reveal features never viewed before by the human eye. The sight of a total lunar eclipse added to the wonderment.
Their Orion capsule, which they named Integrity, parachuted into the Pacific last Friday to close out the nearly 10-day voyage. Artemis II’s Houston homecoming the next day coincided with the 56th anniversary of the .
Wiseman said he and Glover 鈥渕aybe saw two moments of a touch of char loss鈥� to the heat shield as Integrity plunged through the fastest, hottest part of reentry. Once aboard the recovery ship, they peered at the bottom of the capsule as best they could, leaning over to view any signs of damage. They spotted a little loss of charred material on the shoulder, where the heat shield meets the capsule.
鈥淔or four humans just looking at the heat shield, it looked wonderful to us. It looked great, and that ride in was really amazing,鈥� Wiseman said.
He cautioned that detailed analyses still need to be conducted. 鈥淲e are going to fine-tooth comb every single, not even every molecule, probably every atom on this heat shield,” he said.
The heat shield on the first Artemis test flight in 2022 鈥� with no one aboard 鈥� came back so pockmarked and gouged that it pushed Artemis II back by months if not years. Instead of redoing it, NASA opted to change the capsule’s entry path to minimize heating. Future capsules will sport a new design.
As the parachutes released right before splashdown, Glover said he felt like he was in freefall 鈥� like diving backward off a skyscraper. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what it felt like for five seconds,鈥� he said, adding when the ride smoothed out: 鈥淚t was glorious.鈥�
Since their return, the four astronauts have endured round after round of medical testing to check their balance, vision, muscle strength and coordination, and overall health. They even put on spacewalking suits for exercises under conditions simulating the moon鈥檚 one-sixth gravity of Earth to see how much endurance and dexterity future moonwalkers might have upon lunar touchdown.
NASA already is working on in its grand moon base-building plans. The platform from which the rocket launches headed back Thursday to Kennedy Space Center鈥檚 Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be prepped for next year鈥檚 Artemis launch.
Still awaiting an assigned crew, Artemis III will remain in orbit around Earth as astronauts practice docking their Orion capsule with one or two lunar landers in development by Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX and Jeff Bezos鈥� Blue Origin.
Artemis IV will follow in 2028 under NASA鈥檚 latest schedule, with two astronauts landing near the moon鈥檚 south pole.
NASA is aiming for a sustainable moon presence this time around. During the , astronauts kept their visits short. Twelve astronauts explored the lunar surface, beginning with Apollo 11鈥檚 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 and ending with Apollo 17鈥檚 Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
Koch said that since returning, she and her crewmates are 鈥渇eeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.鈥�
鈥淲e made it happen,鈥� she added.
Everyone will need to accept extra risk to achieve all this and trust that any future problems can be figured out in real time, Hansen noted. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We’re going to have to trust each other,” he said.
While everything went smoothly for them, 鈥渋t was also very clear to us that it can get pretty bumpy,鈥� he said. Future crews will have to “understand it can get real bumpy real fast.鈥�
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