On Friday, April 10th, the Artemis II crewmembers at NASA completed their historic journey to the moon and safely landed home. This was a historic moment for everyone, as it was the first time in nearly half a century that humans have traveled to the moon.
The trip went on for 10 days, and the astronauts successfully circled around the moon and took amazing pictures. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen were the four crewmembers that had the experience of a lifetime. The crew splashed into the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of San Diego at 5:07 P.M PDT.
The voyage started with national coverage of the launch at 6:35 P.M EDT on April 1st. For the next 10 days, the crew circled around the moon and got to experience a total solar eclipse up close. This was a historic trip, as the spaceship traveled 252,736 miles from Earth, and the astronauts were the first in their own right. Christina Koch was the first female on a lunar mission, Victor Glover was the first person of color on a lunar mission, and Jeremy Hansen was the first Canadian on a lunar mission.
This was truly a memory that the astronauts will never forget, and they will always have that moment together: “We are bonded forever, and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through, and it was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life,” said by Wiseman. Koch added to the importance of having a good crew, and said, “I know I haven’t learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there’s one new thing I know, and that is, planet Earth: You. Are. A. Crew,” when talking about everybody on this wonderful planet.
Despite this amazing achievement, the mission isn’t accomplished. NASA has plans to go back into orbit with Artemis III by mid 2027, and plans on sending astronauts to actually land on the moon in 2028 with Artemis IV. In the mean time, congratulations to everyone that was involved in Artemis II, as everyone’s hard work and determination made this mission possible.
This is something that will be talked about a lot in the distant future, and hopefully in around two years time, the next article will talk about the second landing on the moon.
