{"id":922941,"date":"2026-07-09T10:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922941\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:20:18","slug":"record-breaking-artemis-ii-crew-returns-to-kennedy-space-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922941\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-breaking Artemis II crew returns to Kennedy Space Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The Artemis II astronauts reunited with their capsule Wednesday three months after flying around the moon<\/a> and traveling deeper into space than anyone in history.<\/p>\n

It was their first visit to Kennedy Space Center since they blasted off in April<\/a>. The last time the four saw the pad, the massive Space Launch System rocket had stood upon it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lonely place without that rocket on it,\u201d commander Reid Wiseman said. He and his crew spent the day thanking all those who helped send them on the flight.<\/p>\n

The three NASA astronauts and one Canadian set a new record for distance travel during the lunar fly-around \u2014 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). It was humanity\u2019s first trip to the moon in more than half a century.<\/p>\n

Public enthusiasm over the mission is still high, Wiseman noted. While boarding a plane in France about a week ago, he said, a woman handed him her boarding pass with this message written on it: \u201cThank you for reminding us about joy and hope in the universe again.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re excited about handing off to the next Artemis crew: three NASA astronauts and one Italian announced last month<\/a>. Set for next year, the Artemis III mission will remain in orbit around Earth and practice docking with lunar landers in development by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis IV will follow as early as 2028 with a moon landing by two astronauts not yet identified.<\/p>\n

The entire Artemis III crew is male, something that doesn\u2019t faze Artemis II\u2019s Christina Koch<\/a>, who became the first woman to fly to the moon. What would be worse, she said, was someone overruling NASA\u2019s crew selection for Artemis III just \u201cto make it look a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so glad and so proud that that\u2019s not the situation we have,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n

Wiseman and Koch flew to the moon alongside pilot Victor Glover and Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen. Hansen announced earlier this week that he will leave the Canadian Space Agency in September, but remain a reservist in the Royal Canadian Air Force and continue supporting the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The Artemis II astronauts reunited with their capsule Wednesday three months after flying…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":922942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[166,107094,238671,6064,723,284963,6756,165,248266,159,167,59001,16523,164,158,67,132,68,248265],"class_list":["post-922941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","tag-blue-origin-llc","tag-christina-koch","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-jeremy-hansen","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration","tag-reid-wiseman","tag-science","tag-space-exploration","tag-space-exploration-technologies-corp","tag-space-launches","tag-spacecraft","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-victor-glover"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116889520031476495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}