Artemis II Crew Shares Wonder of First Moon Far Side Visit

The Artemis II crew returned to Earth on April 10 after traveling farther into space than any humans in over 50 years, and their stories from the journey are filling the world with wonder.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen launched on April 1 for a mission that would take them around the far side of the Moon. What they saw changed them forever.

"It actually happened earlier than we thought," Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. "We looked at the Moon and thought 'oh that looks weird.'" The angle revealed parts of the far side that had never been seen by human eyes, and all four astronauts rushed to the windows.

Despite being called the "dark side," this hidden face of the Moon actually gets more sunlight than the side we see from Earth. We just never see it because of tidal locking, which keeps the same lunar face pointed toward our planet at all times.

The return journey proved even more intense than the launch. "Coming back to a planet is no joke," Koch explained. "On re-entry you are a literal plasma ball and you see the fire outside every single window."

Why This Inspires

Victor Glover reflected on what the mission means for all of us back home. "We did this, not we as a crew, we as countries and as humans did this," he said. During their time in space, the astronauts spent hours looking back at Earth, struck by how beautiful our home planet appeared from that distance.

For Hansen, the mission deepened his faith in humanity. "We don't always do great things. We're not always in our integrity, but our default is to be good and to be good to one another," he shared. "What I've seen has brought me more joy, but more hope for our future."

The "perfect splashdown" marked the successful completion of the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo program ended in 1972. The Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually establish a sustainable presence there.

Four people ventured farther than anyone in half a century and came back believing more than ever in what we can accomplish together.