Follow Us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter TENERIFE, Spain — The commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission briefly feared that he and his crew would never return home from their trip around the Moon after passing their return point. Commander Reid Wiseman and his three crewmates were supposed to reach 219,667 nautical miles (252,788 standard miles, or 406,823 kilometers), further out. than any human being has ever traveled from their home planet, before returning to Earth on the sixth day of their 10-day mission to the moon. But the Integrity spacecraft’s odometer continued to climb as they passed their planned return point, leading the astronaut to fear that something had gone terribly wrong, he told an audience here at the Starmus VIII festival earlier this week. (This semi-annual event is held to celebrate achievements in science, exploration and creativity.) Latest videos from Live Science “Mission control in Houston had told us that our maximum distance would be 219,667 nautical miles and that was the farthest we were supposed to be from Earth,” Wiseman said. “I was looking at this number and I saw it hit 219,667 and I thought, ‘Great, this is the furthest we’ll be from Earth, and the next number I’ll see is 219,666; we’ll go home.’ But about three minutes later, I didn’t see 219,666; I saw 219,668. It went up. I was like, ‘Huh? That’s weird.’ Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Scientific Communication at the Starmus VIII festival in Tenerife, Spain, on October 17. (Image credit: Max Alexander/Starmus) “And then about three minutes later it hit 219.669, and that was the moment I felt real fear because I thought we’ve gone too far, we’re never going home, and so I was really scared,” he said. added. You might like Then, finally, he saw the counter begin to lower. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch were at the window, making scientific observations of the moon, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen was sending reports to mission control, so Wiseman’s moment of terror went unnoticed. When Wiseman saw the odometer return to 219,668 nautical miles, he said, “We’re going home,” and the crew let out a cheer. “I knew there was a good chance we could make it,” he added. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. In an interview with Live Science’s sister publication, The Week Junior Science+Nature, Wiseman paid tribute to NASA’s ground teams for the mission’s ultimate success. back. Those are the real heroes of this mission. They have real courage.”The Artemis II mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. It was the first crewed flight of the Orion space capsule and the first crewed mission to travel to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and it took nearly 10 days to fly around the far side of the Moon and return to Earth. Almost every moment of the crew’s activities in the Orion capsule was broadcast live to the world, generating enormous public interest in the mission. The Artemis II crew members received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Scientific Communication at the Starmus VIII festival. Are you a NASA nerd? See how well you do on our Artemis quiz to find out!
