Donald Trump has announced plans to host the recently returned Artemis II crew at the White House, following their triumphant mission to the Moon.
The president extended his congratulations to the team, consisting of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, shortly after their safe return to Earth.
The crew made a successful splashdown after their groundbreaking lunar mission, with the Orion spacecraft making a dramatic re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere on Friday night.
“Congratulations to the Great and Very Talented Crew of Artemis II,” Trump expressed on Truth Social.
“The entire journey was spectacular, the landing was flawless, and as President of the United States, I could not be more proud!”
“I look forward to welcoming you all to the White House soon. We’ll be embarking on another mission and then, the next goal, Mars!”
The spacecraft reached blistering speeds of up to 25,000 miles per hour before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California.
It wrapped up a ten-day mission that carried the crew around the moon and farther than any human had ever traveled into space before.
The NASA Artemis II crew, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover
Artemis II crewmembers (in orange suits) being extracted from their spacecraft after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California
The journey marked the first time in more than 50 years that humans have traveled this far into space and viewed the lunar surface with the naked eye since the Apollo era.
During the mission, the astronauts also passed behind the moon, flying over the mysterious far side, often referred to as the moon’s dark side because it permanently faces away from Earth.
The historic flight also shattered a decades-old distance record set during Apollo 13 in 1970, when astronauts traveled 248,655 miles from Earth.
Artemis II surpassed that milestone by thousands of miles, setting a new distance record for human spaceflight.
NASA administrators confirmed that the Artemis II flight crew is ‘happy and healthy.’ They added that the astronauts are ready to come home to Houston.
Rick Henfling, the entry flight director for NASA’s Artemis II, beamed as he delivered his remarks, calling the mission ‘spectacular.’
Howard Hu, a program manager at NASA, added that Artemis II was the ‘start of a new era’ of space exploration.
‘We accomplished what we set out to do,’ Shawn Quinn, manager of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, said, adding, ‘It’s good to be NASA, and it’s good to be an American today.’
Amit Kshatriya, the associate administrator of NASA, said tonight’s success was not luck, but the result of 100 people doing their jobs.
A young boy wearing an astronaut costume cheers next to a woman waving a flag as they watch a live broadcast of the return of the Artemis II crew members to Earth at the San Diego Air and Space Museum
The president said he hoped to welcome the astronauts ‘soon’ as he eyed a potential mission to Mars next
‘The path to the lunar surface is open, but the work ahead is greater than the work behind us,’ Kshatriya said.
‘Let us not go to plant flags, but to stay.’
Dr Lori Glaze, NASA’s deputy administrator, said her team was ‘thrilled’ to have the four astronauts home safely.
She added that this mission was the first of many to come.
