Artemis II astronauts receive hero’s welcome as they return to Houston after splashdown back on Earth

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The Artemis II astronauts received a hero’s welcome on Saturday as they returned to their Houston base after splashing back down to Earth a day earlier.

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, flying in from San Diego, where they landed in the Pacific the evening before.

After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other guests.

The crowd included NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, the space agency’s entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones, and more.

“Welcome home Artemis II,” Isaacman announced.

(AFP/Getty)

Commander Reid Wiseman and his U.S.-Canadian crew’s homecoming was poignant: They returned to their Houston home base on the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, whose “Houston, we’ve had a problem” refrain turned a near-disaster into triumph.

During Artemis II’s nearly 10-day mission, they voyaged deeper into space than the moon explorers of decades past and captured views of the lunar far side never witnessed before by human eyes. A total solar eclipse added to the cosmic wonder.

On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo’s 13 distance record.

The mission also revealed a new side of our planet with an Earthset photo, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world’s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8.

Despite the accomplishments, Artemis II astronauts had to contend with a more mundane problem — a malfunctioning space toilet. NASA promised a design fix before longer moon-landing missions.

Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were the first humans to fly to the moon since Apollo 17 closed out NASA’s first exploration era in 1972. Twenty-four astronauts flew to the moon during Apollo, including 12 moonwalkers.

Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell — who also flew on Apollo 8 — cheered the Artemis II crew on in a wake-up message recorded before he died last summer.

It was crucial for NASA that Artemis II go well. The space agency is already preparing for next year’s Artemis III, which will see a new crew practice docking its capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028, when two astronauts attempt a touchdown near the lunar south pole.

The Associated Press contributed to this report