The Artemis II crew expressed, in their last press conference from space, that they wish to return to Earth to “pass the baton” to the astronauts who will reach the Moon, as well as sharing that the mission reaffirmed to them that humans must “create together” instead of “destroy”.
“Part of our ethos as a crew and our values from the beginning were that this is a relay race. In fact, to physically symbolize, we brought batons, which we plan to hand off to the next crew,” shared Christina Koch, NASA mission specialist, from the Orion spacecraft.
Astronauts will pass the baton
LIVE: Artemis II astronauts answer media questions as they continue their journey toward Earth following their record-breaking lunar flyby. https://t.co/iAN74RMaRk
– NASA (@NASA) April 9, 2026
The pilot, Victor Glover, confessed that the moment he is most looking forward to on the 10-day mission is the return to Earth on Friday, when they will splash down in the Pacific off the coast of California at 20:07 Eastern Daylight Time (00:07 GMT Saturday).
NASA’s Glover is eager to share the findings of Artemis II, the first crew to orbit the Moon in more than 50 years, which represents the foundation for a future U.S. base on the natural satellite and eventual human exploration of Mars.
“There’s a lot of information you’ve already seen, but all the good stuff is coming back to us. There are so many more images, so many stories and, God, I haven’t even begun to process everything we went through. We still have two more days and traveling in a fireball through the atmosphere is also profound,” the pilot said.
‘We love living on the ship’
Artemis II astronauts have traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, flown around the Moon, and observed the lunar surface like never before. Now, they’re coming home. 🌎
Watch the crew splash down on Friday, April 10, around 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11). https://t.co/Ccsk5Z3HFS pic.twitter.com/QoJW2oYVFG
– NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026
This is the first manned mission of NASA’s Artemis program, which in 2022 launched a spacecraft without astronauts to fly over the Moon, in 2027 will send a crew to orbit the Earth and in 2028 will send two groups of astronauts to reach the surface of the natural satellite.
Despite the toilet problems, odors and sharing a cramped space with three other people at all times, Koch said the crew “loved inhabiting the Orion spacecraft” and that “there’s nothing they won’t miss” about living in space.
“I will miss the camaraderie. I will miss being so close to so many people and having a common purpose, a common mission, working hard at it every day, over hundreds of thousands of miles, with a team on the ground. This sense of teamwork is something you don’t usually experience as an adult,” the astronaut recounted.
‘Humans must create together’
There’s a lot to process on Day 8 of the @NASAArtemis II mission. With Earth in view from Orion’s windows, the astronauts are packing up and reflecting on their lunar journey. pic.twitter.com/iTFuMFxJPX
– NASA (@NASA) April 9, 2026
Jeremy Hansen, an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), said that the mission told them that “humans must create solutions together instead of destroying”.
“It hasn’t changed my perspective or the perspective I took off with, which was that we live on a fragile planet in a vacuum, in the vacuum of space. We know that from science. We are very fortunate to live on planet Earth,” he stressed.
While mission commander Reid Wiseman of NASA shared that the turning point was when his teammates proposed naming a lunar crater in honor of his late wife, Carroll, just on the most important day of their mission, Monday, when they passed by the most hidden face of the celestial body.
“That was the pinnacle moment of the mission. For me, that was when the four of us were the most united, the most bonded, and we came out of it really focused on the day ahead,” he mentioned.
Filed under: Astronauts will pass the baton
With information from EFE