Artemis II Crew Returns With Moon Photos No One Has Ever Seen

The Artemis II crew is heading home with something extraordinary: photographs and stories from parts of the Moon no human eyes have ever witnessed before.

Four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft spoke to reporters Wednesday as they cruised back to Earth after completing their historic lunar mission. They're carrying data, images, and memories from a journey that took them further from our planet than anyone in human history.

"All the good stuff is coming back with us," said mission pilot Victor Glover during the virtual news conference. "There's so many more pictures, so many more stories."

The spacecraft broke the distance record Monday, reaching beyond 248,655 miles from Earth. That beat Apollo 13's record that had stood since 1970. But the real prize wasn't the distance. It was what they saw.

Orion flew around the far side of the Moon, the side permanently hidden from Earth. Satellites have photographed it before, but the astronauts became the first humans to see some parts of its surface with their own eyes. They witnessed vast craters and ancient lava plains that most people only know from textbook images.

Commander Reid Wiseman described 40 minutes of "profound solitude" when the spacecraft lost contact with Earth behind the Moon. The crew used that time for critical geological observations. They also took a quieter moment together, sharing maple cookies and reflecting on where they were.

The Ripple Effect spreads beyond just scientific achievement. For Glover, the "greatest gift" was witnessing a lunar eclipse from beyond the Moon itself. For Wiseman, the emotional peak came when the crew named a lunar crater after his late wife Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. "I looked over and Christina was crying," he said.

Astronaut Christina Koch said the team won't miss the inconveniences of space travel. "We can't explore deeper unless we're doing a few things that are inconvenient, unless we're making a few sacrifices," she explained. Those sacrifices are "all worth it."

The crew now faces their final challenge: reentering Earth's atmosphere at nearly 25,000 miles per hour. They're expected to splash down off San Diego's coast Friday evening around 8 p.m. Pacific time.

Glover said he'll be "thinking about and talking about all of these things for the rest of my life." Soon, the rest of us will get to see what they saw too.