Astronauts return after venturing where no human had gone before, raising hope for humanity

New York: Four astronauts who ventured where no human has gone before in deep space returned home, touching down in the Pacific, becoming pathfinders for humanity’s return to the moon and journeys beyond.

It was a splash heard around a crisis-ridden world where millions watched on Friday, looking for a sign of hope and achievement.

“What a journey”, exclaimed Reid Wiseman, the commander of Artemis II, when they landed.

It was indeed a spectacular space odyssey of nine days and an hour for the Artemis II mission, the astronauts traveling 404,409 kilometers from the Earth, looping over the moon, setting a new record for the fartherest Earthlings have traveled, glimpsing its far side never seen by humans before.

The crew had three Americans: Commander Wiseman, a woman, Christina Koch, and an African American, Victor Glover, and adding to the diversity, Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian, on an American spaceship though the leaders of the two nations are at loggerheads.

“These were the ambassadors from humanity to the stars”, declared Jared Isaacman, the NASA head, as they returned.

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social, “The entire trip was spectacular, the landing was perfect”.

Congratulating his fellow countryman and the other crew on “an historic feat,” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X, “Welcome home”.

“We’ll be doing it again and then, next step, Mars,” saidTrump of the Artemis II role in the redoubled space race, 56 years after the first human landing on the moon.

As those working for the mission celebrated at Houston Johnson Space Centre, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya explained at a news conference the goals: “Fifty-three years ago, humanity left the moon. This time we return to stay”.

“Let us not go to plant flags and leave, but to stay with firmness in our purpose, with gratitude for the hands who built the machines and with love for the ones that we carry with us”, he added.

Next year, Artemis III is scheduled to be launched with a crew who will test the Orion for docking with a commercial spacecraft for a moon landing.

In 2028, humans are expected to land on the moon again in the Artemis IV mission, with another planned for later that year and after that once every year.

After building a moon base, the next big ambition for NASA is to send astronauts to Mars, a planet where there may have been life forms.

In a figure 8 pattern, from launch on April 1 from Kennedy Space Centre on the East Coast and rounding the moon, the Orion hurtled back to Earth, reaching a maximum speed of 39,458 kilometres per hour before parachutes unfurled, gently wafting it to the ocean surface near San Diego on the West Coast.

The Orion’s heatshield, which had raised some concerns when a similar cover on the uncrewed Artemis I showed signs of damage, held up this time to the searing 2,750 degrees Celsius generated at the top re-entry speed.

Medically trained Navy divers entered the Orion capsule to check the health of the crew, which Wiseman had declared after touchdown, “Green”, meaning healthy.

They were plucked by helicopters and taken to an amphibious landing ship, USS John Murtha.

They clapped and cheered on the ship before going to the medical bay for more medical checkups. They’ll head to Houston on Saturday.

The Artemis II mission crew faced some problems familiar to the earth-bound – a toilet malfunction and a Microsoft Outlook software problem – and a communications system glitch, all quickly fixed.

Before the launch, the Artemis II mission was postponed twice because of problems with a liquid hydrogen leak, a helium flow glitch, and hatch pressurisation. But all that was behind them on Friday.

IANS