Artemis II commander recalls moments of fear during lunar mission

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman recalled experiencing genuine fear during his ten-day journey around the Moon when he noticed that the Orion spacecraft had traveled farther from Earth than expected. Live Science reported that Wiseman shared his experience while speaking to an audience at the Starmus VIII festival. [1]

The ten-day crewed mission took place from April 1 to April 10, 2026. The flight sent four astronauts, including NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover, NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. [4][6]

The mission was the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, which was named Integrity by the four-person crew. As FTMQ Science reported earlier, Artemis II was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. [2][6]

The mission surpassed the distance record previously set by Apollo 13, sending the Orion spacecraft farther from Earth than any humans had traveled before. The crewed flyby followed the uncrewed Artemis I test mission and served as a step toward future lunar landings. [4]