2026年4月16日 / 美国东部时间下午5:43 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
返回地球近一周后，阿尔忒弥斯II号的四名宇航员周四对记者表示，飞越通常无法观测到的月球背面的经历近乎神秘，他们对25万英里外的地球景观感到震撼，同样对目睹日食感到难以置信。
“我想感谢全世界花时间关注我们，并为这次任务着迷，”指令长里德·怀斯曼说道。“我们返回地球后，全球范围内涌现出的支持、自豪和对这项任务的归属感让我们大吃一惊。”
“而这正是我们四人想要达成的目标。我们希望走出去，做一些能将全世界团结在一起的事情，让世界凝聚起来，”他说。“最后我想用宇航员信条来总结：始终带着友谊升空，带着友谊返航。”
怀斯曼表示，阿尔忒弥斯II号机组人员升空时是朋友，返航时已是最好的朋友。
宇航员们于4月1日从佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心发射升空。九天后，猎户座飞船在圣地亚哥海岸附近的太平洋溅落，为他们具有历史意义的任务画上了圆满的句号。
当被问及这次让人类离地球最远的飞行中，最难忘的时刻是什么，以及机组人员近距离观察了月球背面时，怀斯曼表示，他和机组人员——飞行员维克多·格洛弗、任务专家克里斯蒂娜·科赫以及加拿大宇航员杰里米·汉森——还没有足够的时间完全消化这次经历。
但这次经历的震撼程度让他在太平洋溅落后，请求海军回收舰上的牧师前来拜访。
“我并不是一个虔诚的宗教人士，但当时我找不到其他方式来表达我的感受或体验那份情绪，所以我请海军舰上的牧师过来见我们一面。我之前从未见过他，但我看到他衣领上的十字架时，当场就崩溃大哭。我们刚刚经历的一切，实在难以完全理解，”怀斯曼说道。
怀斯曼表示，自上周五在南加州海岸附近溅落以来，机组人员一直要接受“医学检查、身体测试、看医生、完成科学任务”。“我们还没有时间放松下来，也没有时间反思这次任务。”
但他提到最难忘的时刻之一，是在深空目睹日食——月球运行在猎户座飞船和太阳之间，在月球地平线周围形成了一道幽灵般的光晕。
“当太阳被月球遮住时，我转头对维克多说，我认为人类还没有进化到能够完全理解我们此刻看到的景象。这简直超脱凡俗，太不可思议了，”他说。
怀斯曼和他的机组人员于4月6日绕月飞行，并于4月1日在太平洋溅落，完成了近70万英里的航程。
对于汉森——首位进入近地轨道之外的加拿大宇航员——来说，深空飞行中最难忘的体验之一，是繁星点点的虚空、月球和地球在太空中近在咫尺的三维立体感。
“当光线合适、我们望向窗外时，最吸引我的是，我能看到这种，嗯，银河系的层次感，”他说。“不是说我能分辨出哪些恒星离我们更近或更远……但因为它们的亮度和差异，看起来就像是能看出它们的三维位置。”
“这让我感到震撼，然后你在月球和地球上也能看到同样的效果，”他说。“你从全新的视角观察它们，仿佛能感受到三维的深度。我听克里斯蒂娜聊过很多次这件事。我们都对这些让自己感到渺小的事物印象深刻，这就是我的感受。”
与此同时，汉森表示，他感受到了“作为人类、作为一个集体的强烈情感。我在这些景象中反复看到了这一点，不断产生同样的感受和共鸣。”
阿尔忒弥斯II号任务是NASA自1972年最后一次阿波罗登月以来，首次将宇航员送往月球的载人任务，主要是对该机构的猎户座飞船进行试飞，该飞船旨在接送宇航员往返月球，同时让飞行控制人员磨练技能，为即将到来的月球着陆任务做准备。
经过多次推迟，宇航员们搭乘搭载在太空发射系统火箭上的猎户座胶囊发射升空，进入了远地点超过4.4万英里的椭圆轨道。他们是首批乘坐SLS火箭进入太空的宇航员，也是首批在猎户座胶囊中飞行的机组人员。
机组人员在这个高度椭圆轨道上绕地球一周需要24小时，这让他们有一整天的时间全面测试猎户座胶囊的生命支持、导航和推进系统，确保飞船按要求运行。
随后，当他们到达轨道近地点，高度仅115英里时，他们点燃了猎户座的服务舱发动机，耗时六分钟脱离地球轨道，前往月球。
此次任务采用了“自由返回”轨道，旨在让宇航员绕月球背面飞行，利用月球引力调整轨道，无需启动任何大型推进器即可返回地球。
在跨月注入发动机点火四天后，怀斯曼和他的机组人员抵达了距离地球248655英里的太空点，打破了此前人类飞往深空最远的纪录。
这一纪录此前由1970年的阿波罗13号机组人员在紧急返回地球途中创造。在绕过月球背面与地球失去通信联系后不久，阿尔忒弥斯II号机组人员创造了新的纪录，在距离地球252756英里的位置绕月飞行，随后返回地球。
在月球背面上方约4000英里处飞行时，宇航员们能够拍摄并亲眼看到大片此前从未被观测到的地形。
机组人员与任务控制中心中断通信达40分钟。恢复无线电联系十分钟后，他们得以目睹了长达一小时的日食。
从那里，宇航员们踏上归途，以超过24000英里每小时的速度冲入太平洋上空的大气层。13分钟后，在隔热盾承受了约5000华氏度的再入高温后，飞船安全溅落。
在2022年的一次无人试飞中，猎户座胶囊的隔热盾遭遇了意外损坏。NASA表示， extensive testing and analyses showed the cause was related to the capsule’s so-called “skip” reentry trajectory that subjected the heat shield to alternating temperature extremes.
为阿尔忒弥斯II号再入大气层采用了不同的轨道，NASA官员表示没有发现明显的重大损坏。但工程师们要等到猎户座胶囊被卡车运回肯尼迪航天中心后，才有机会对隔热盾进行全面检查。
从机组人员的角度来看，他们的隔热盾表现完美。
“我们进来时速度很快，温度也很高，但我得说，整个再入过程都非常平稳，”怀斯曼说。“飞行过程非常平稳。”
他表示，他和格洛弗都注意到了“少量烧蚀脱落”，指的是隔热盾外层的小块材料脱落，飞过驾驶舱窗户。
但当飞船被抬回收纳舰后，四名机组人员都检查了飞船下方，“在我们看来一切都很棒，”怀斯曼说。“看起来状态很好，整个再入过程真的太神奇了。”
所有四名宇航员在九天的失重飞行后都安然无恙，在溅落后的第二天飞回了休斯顿的家，周六下午降落在约翰逊航天中心附近的埃林顿机场，受到了家人和数百名航天中心工作人员的欢呼和掌声迎接。
Artemis II astronauts still awed by moonshot experience: “It was otherworldly”
April 16, 2026 / 5:43 PM EDT / CBS News
Nearly a week back from a voyage around the moon, the four Artemis II astronauts described an almost mystical experience flying over the normally unseen lunar far side, awed by their views of Earth a quarter of a million miles away and equally stunned watching a solar eclipse, they told reporters Thursday.
“I want to thank the world for tuning in for a second and getting hooked on this mission,” commander Reid Wiseman said. “When we came home, we were shocked at the global outpouring of support, of pride, of ownership of this mission.”
“And really, that’s what the four of us wanted. We wanted to go out and try to do something that would bring the world together, to unite the world,” he said. “I will just wrap that all up with the astronaut’s creed, always launch as friends and land as friends.”
Wiseman said the Artemis II crew launched as friends and landed as best friends.
The astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. Nine days later, the Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, an epic ending to their historic mission.
NASA’s Artemis II crew poses for a photo during a news conference on April 16, 2026, in Houston. Ashley Landis / AP
Asked Thursday what was the most memorable event during a flight that carried them farther from Earth than any other humans and gave the crew a close-up look at the moon’s far side, Wiseman said he and his crewmates — pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — had not yet had time to fully process the experience.
But it was powerful enough for him to ask the chaplain aboard the Navy recovery ship after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to pay the crew a visit.
“I am not really a religious person, but there was no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything, so I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to come visit us for a minute. I had never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar and I broke down in tears. It’s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through,” Wiseman said.
Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen speak during a news conference on April 16, 2026, in Houston. Ashley Landis / AP
Since splashing down off the Southern California coast on Friday, the crew has been subjected to “medical testing, physical testing, doctors, science objectives,” Wiseman said. “We have not had that decompression. We have not had that reflection time.”
But the event he mentioned as one of the most memorable to him was viewing a solar eclipse in deep space when the moon moved between the Orion crew ship and the sun, producing a ghostly glow all the way around the lunar horizon.
“When the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I turned to Victor and I said I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we’re looking at right now. It was otherworldly, it was amazing,” he said.
Along with close-up views of the normally unseen far side of the moon, the astronauts also got a chance to take in a total eclipse of the sun. NASA
Wiseman and his crewmates launched flew around the moon on April 6 and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 to close out a voyage spanning nearly 700,000 miles.
For Hansen, the first Canadian to venture beyond low-Earth orbit, one of the more memorable aspects of flying in deep space was the three-dimensional appearance of the starry void, the moon and the Earth suspended in space close by.
“What kept grabbing my attention when the lighting was right and we were looking out the window is that I kept seeing this, like, depth to, I guess, the galaxy,” he said. “It’s not that I could tell which stars were really closer and farther… but because of how bright they are and their differences, they look like you can tell where they are in 3D.”
“That was mind-blowing for me, and then you see the same thing with the moon and the Earth,” he said. “You’re viewing them from this new perspective with like three-dimensional depth. I’ve heard Christina talk about this a lot. We’re all kind of struck by these things that make us feel small, and that’s the sense I had.”
Shortly after leaving Earth orbit and heading for the moon, the Artemis II astronauts captured this stunning nighttime view of Earth. NASA
At the same time, Hansen said, he experienced “this very powerful feeling as a human being, like as a group. I saw it in all these sights over and over again. I kept seeing that same thing and (having) that same feeling.”
The Artemis II mission, NASA’s first piloted voyage to the moon since the last Apollo landing in 1972, was primarily a test flight of the agency’s Orion spacecraft, designed to carry astronauts to and from the moon, and an opportunity for flight controllers to hone their skills managing upcoming lunar landing missions.
After multiple delays, the astronauts were launched aboard an Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System rocket that put them into an elliptical orbit with a high point of more than 44,000 miles. They were the first to ride into space atop an SLS rocket, the most powerful operational booster in the world, and the first crew to fly in an Orion capsule.
It took 24 hours for the crew to complete one trip around the world in that highly elliptical orbit, giving them a full day to thoroughly test their Orion capsule’s life support, navigation and propulsion systems to make sure the ship was operating as required.
Then, as they reached the low point of the orbit at an altitude of just 115 miles, they fired the Orion’s service module engine for six minutes to break away from Earth and head for the moon.
The “free-return” trajectory was designed to carry the astronauts around the far side of the moon, using lunar gravity to bend their path back toward Earth without the need for any major thruster firings.
Four days after the trans-lunar injection engine firing, Wiseman and his crewmates reached a point in space 248,655 miles from Earth, the previous record for the farthest any human has flown into deep space.
A spectacular view of the Earth setting behind the moon from the perspective of the Artemis II astronauts. NASA
That record was set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13 while making an emergency return to Earth. Shortly after passing behind the moon and out of contact with Earth, the Artemis II crew set their own record, reaching a distance of 252,756 miles before looping back toward Earth.
While flying some 4,000 miles above the moon’s far side, the astronauts were able to photograph and see with their own eyes a large swathe of the normally unseen terrain.
The crew was out of touch with mission control for 40 minutes. Ten minutes after regaining radio contact, they were able to witness an hour-long solar eclipse.
From there, the astronauts headed home, slamming back into the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean at a velocity of more than 24,000 mph. Thirteen minutes later, after their heat shield endured reentry temperatures of some 5,000 degrees, the spacecraft safely splashed down.
Artemis II crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are loaded into a raft after successfully splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10, 2026. James Blair/NASA via AP
During an unpiloted test flight in 2022, an Orion capsule’s heat shield suffered unexpected damage. NASA said extensive testing and analyses showed the cause was related to the capsule’s so-called “skip” reentry trajectory that subjected the heat shield to alternating temperature extremes.
A different trajectory was used for the Artemis II reentry, and NASA officials said there were no obvious signs of any major damage. But engineers will not get a chance to thoroughly inspect the shield until after the Orion capsule is trucked back to the Kennedy Space Center.
From the crew’s perspective, their heat shield did just fine.
“We came in fast, and we came in hot, and I will tell you, that whole way in it was a smooth ride,” Wiseman said. “It was a very smooth ride.”
He said both he and Glover noticed a “touch of char loss” during the descent, referring to small bits of the heat shield’s outer layer coming off and flying past the cockpit windows.
But all four crew members looked underneath the capsule after it was hauled inside the recovery ship and “it looked wonderful to us,” Wiseman said. “It looked great, and that ride in was really amazing.”
All four astronauts, none the worse for nine days in weightlessness, flew back to their homes in Houston the day after splashdown, landing at Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center on Saturday afternoon to cheers and applause from family members and hundreds of space center workers who gathered to welcome them home.