Artemis II live: Trump speaks to NASA astronauts as they head home following historic circling of moon – UK Times

Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman said the crew was “locked in” and “excited for second half of the mission” as they circled the Moon and are headed for Earth during a live broadcast on Tuesday.

“We are the first crew to fly this vehicle and ready for any contingency and any scenario,” Wiseman said.

“We are locked in till we’re back on the navy ship and till we’re back home with our families,” he said.

Astronauts shared that during the 45-minute communications blackout with Earth, they took a 30-second break to take turns to eat maple cookies in space, before quickly getting back to focusing on their science missions.

“We gathered together quickly for about 30 seconds, and each one of us had maple cream cookies and went back into science,” Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman said during a live broadcast on Tuesday.

“We took that moment to honour the time we went behind the Moon and out of touch with Earth, and that was a very surreal moment for this group,” he said.

The Artemis II crew lost signal with ground systems for over 40 minutes, as their spacecraft passed behind the Moon.

“I think one of the biggest highlights was coming back from the far side of the Moon, and having the first glimpses of planet Earth again after being out of communication for about 45 minutes,” astronaut Cristina Koch said during a live broadcast on Tuesday.

“It really does remind you what a special place we have,” Koch said.

Crew member Victor Glover said he had to keep making observations of the Moon during the blackout period.

“I said a little prayer but then had to keep recording scientific observations of the far side of the Moon,” Glover said.

Speaking to the Nasa Artemis II crew on Tuesday on a live broadcast, US president Donald Trump thanked the astronauts for “inspiring the world”, adding that the current mission would pave the way for America’s return to the lunar surface soon.

“We’ll plant our flag once again and this time we won’t just leave footprints but have a permanent presence on the Moon and we’ll push onto Mars,” Trump said.

“So America we’ll be second to none in everything we do in space,” he said.

The crew has been carrying with it a soft toy named “Rise” created by an eight-year-old as their zero-gravity indicator for the mission.

It can be seen during the live video broadcast floating near astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Rise, designed by second grader Lucas Ye from Mountain View, California, flies along with the crew to visually indicate when they are in zero gravity.

It was designed at Nasa’s Thermal Blanket Lab at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Artemis II astronauts’ observations raise fascinating questions about the composition of the moon’s surface, science communicator Bill Nye has said.

Noting that the crew had seen many “pinpricks” of light down on the surface, Nye said there was a “mystery” about what substances could be reflecting the sun’s light to that degree.

“If there is water ice on the moon, why isn’t it evaporating? What’s going on?” he asked. “Is there something strange about the solar wind, protons streaming off the sun, that creates minerals that are highly reflective, and not extant here on Earth’s surface?

“I’m most excited about this. I didn’t expect [the astronauts] to be saying how reflective things are.”

Asked by Nasa chief Jared Isaacman how the pictures taken by the crew have been so far, Christina Koch said all astronauts loved getting their hands behind the lens.

“I’ve been into night time photography and it’s a dream come true for me. The timelapses I’ve been trying to get have been tougher… but what we’ve got so far has been out of this world,” Koch said during the live broadcast.

“Having to set the low light features for Earth shine near the Moon while there was an eclipse – that was a new one and I had to dig deep into the book for that one,” she said as crew commander Reid Wiseman.

“Thanks for the iPhones! They’ve been working great,” Wiseman said on the broadcast.

The Artemis II crew were visibly emotional when they radioed through their request to name a crater after commander Reid Wiseman‘s late wife Carroll earlier today.

“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” said mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, sounded audibly choked up.

“Her name was Carroll. The spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie.”

Wiseman himself had his hand on Hansen’s shoulder as he finished the broadcast, while mission specialist Christina Koch could be seen rubbing her eyes.

We couldn’t hear what was said after that, since they were no longer be transmitting. But Wiseman floated over to embrace Hansen in a hug, soon joined by Koch and Glover.

They stayed in that embrace for another 14 seconds.

The Nasa Artemis II crew are speaking now over a video chat broadcast live on YouTube.

They were asked what advice they would give to astronauts who will be part of the subsequent Artemis III mission to the Moon.

“How you pack has a huge impact on how you’ll live on the journey,” the crew’s pilot Victor Glover said during the broadcast.

“Things like food and hygiene products and you know what’s going on with our waste management system – so practising the technology we have and being familiar with that mentally is important,” he said.