This Friday, the Orion spacecraft — which has been renamed Integrity — that carried the program’s astronauts to the moon Artemis II, landed in the Pacific near San Diego, California after 10 days of travel.
After appropriate medical examinations and a meeting with the cosmonauts’ families Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch in Jeremy Hansen They gave a conference at the NASA space center in Houston and for the first time talked about their impressions after the moon flyby.
During the interventions, the astronauts joked, got excited, hugged each other and reflected on the “human experience” of this historic event.
Commander, Reid Wiseman He pointed to his companions and told them, “We are together forever and no one will ever know what the four of us just went through and it was the most special thing that has ever happened in my life.”
Remembering their families, Wiseman said, “It wasn’t easy. Being over 200,000 miles from home before launch is the biggest dream in the world. And when you’re there, you just want to get back to your family and friends. It’s a special thing to be human and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth.”
For his part, the pilot Victor Glovernoted that “when it began on April 3, I wanted to publicly thank God, and I want to thank God again, because the gratitude that we saw what we saw, did what we did, and was with who I was, is too great to be in one body, even more than my task of describing what we went through.”
Mission Specialist, Christina Koch Meanwhile, he shared some of his thoughts these days regarding the meaning of the word “the crew” which means team or crew in English.
“A team is a group of people who are always together no matter what, who work together every minute with the same goal, who are willing to silently sacrifice for each other, who give grace, who take responsibility, who have the same concerns and the same needs.”
He added that “the crew is connected irresistibly, beautifully and obediently. So when we saw the little Earth, people asked our team what impressions we had. And to be honest, I was impressed not only by the Earth, but also by all the darkness around it. The Earth was just a lifeboat floating calmly in the universe.”
“So I may not have learned… I know I haven’t learned everything this trip has yet to teach me. But there is one new thing I do know. And the thing is, planet Earth, you are a team.”Koch concluded.
Finally, the Canadian Space Agency’s mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen spoke to thank the entire team behind this mission. “I don’t think people fully understand how well supported and trained we were. It’s almost unbelievable.”
In addition to his gratitude, Hansen said he felt joy and love during this mission. Regarding the latter, he mentioned that “what you saw was a group of people who liked to contribute, to contribute something meaningful, and to get joy out of it. And what we’ve heard is that this was something special for you to witness, and the reason why I brought you here with me is because I guess, When you look up, don’t look at us. We are a mirror that reflects them. And if you like what you see, look a little further. It’s you“.
