Artemis II Was NASA’s First Crewed Mission To Lunar Space In Over 50 Years
NASA launched Artemis II on April 1st at 6:35 PM from the Kennedy Space Center, marking a historic moment in history.
The Artemis II crew included Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. The crew marked several historic firsts, including Christina Koch as the first woman, Victor Glover as the first Black astronaut, and Jeremy Hansen as the first Canadian to take part in a lunar mission.
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They orbited around the Moon for ten days while running experiments, doing medical checks on themselves, taking high-resolution photos of the Moon, and discovering new observations of the lunar surface.
One of the new “bright spots on the Moon” that the crew discovered, they chose to name after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. It was an emotional moment that brought the entire country together.
Hansen announced their decision, saying, “There’s a feature in a really neat place on the Moon. We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katey and Ellie. It’s a bright spot on the Moon. We would like to call it Carroll.”
On Easter, Glover also delivered another emotional moment of their journey in response to a question from CBS News’ senior national correspondent Mark Strassmann. Strassmann had asked them if they had a message for humanity on Easter, just as the Apollo 8 crew had a message for the country during Christmas in 1968.
Glover revealed he wasn’t ready for the question, saying, “You know, I don’t have anything prepared. I’m glad you brought that up, though. I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at, you know, the beauty of creation, I think, for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing.”
The mission pilot continued, “When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, who were created, you have this amazing place … You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you — just trust me — you are special. In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”
Concluding his response, Glover said, “I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”
After Returning To Earth, Wiseman Reveals A Moment That Made Him “Burst Into Tears”
At a post-splashdown press conference, Wiseman reveals what happened to him after boarding the USS John P. Murtha.
“When I got back on the on the ship, I’m not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything,” he said. “So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute, and when that man walked in, I’d never met him before in my life. But I saw the cross on his collar, and I just broke down in tears. It’s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through.”
Many people online have commended him for speaking about his religious experience!
Watch him talk about it below.