TENERIFE, Spain — Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman said he briefly feared he and his crewmates would not make it back to Earth after the spacecraft sailed past its planned turn-back distance during their lunar flyby.
The crew was scheduled to reach 219,667 nautical miles from Earth, or 252,788 miles (406,823 kilometers), before beginning the journey home on day six of the 10-day mission. That milestone would mark the farthest humans had traveled from Earth.
Speaking at the Starmus VIII festival, an event celebrating science and exploration, Wiseman recounted watching the spacecraft’s distance counter climb beyond the target figure. The Integrity spacecraft continued to drift farther from Earth, he told the audience, triggering a moment of alarm.
“Mission control in Houston had told us our maximum distance would be 219,667 nautical miles,” Wiseman said. “I watched it hit 219,667 and expected the next number to drop. Minutes later it rose to 219,668, then 219,669, and that was when I felt real fear.”
Moments later, the display began to fall, signaling the spacecraft had started closing the gap to Earth. While Wiseman processed the scare, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch were at the window conducting lunar observations, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen was transmitting updates to flight controllers, he said, so his concern went unnoticed by the rest of the crew.
When the readout returned to 219,668 nautical miles, Wiseman announced, “We’re going home,” drawing cheers from the team. “I knew there was a good chance we might make it,” he said.
In a separate interview with The Week Junior Science+Nature, Wiseman credited the mission’s success to teams on the ground. He praised the engineers and flight controllers who assembled and managed the rocket and spacecraft throughout the voyage, calling them “the true heroes” of the effort.
Artemis II commander on mission milestones
Artemis II launched April 1 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the first crewed flight of the Orion capsule and the first human mission to the moon’s vicinity since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The crew spent nearly 10 days looping around the lunar far side before returning to Earth. Nearly the entire mission was streamed live from inside Orion, drawing significant public attention.
At Starmus VIII in Tenerife on Oct. 17, astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. The festival’s celebration of science and exploration echoed themes seen in coverage of Digit 5 debuts as safety-first humanoid for warehouse work and other technology milestones.