Overview
- The crew, which briefed reporters Thursday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said a week of medical exams and debriefs has left little time to decompress.
- Artemis II completed an almost 10‑day loop around the Moon with a Pacific splashdown, marking the first crewed lunar voyage since 1972 and the first to include a woman, a Black astronaut, and a non‑American.
- Christina Koch described tearing up after a message from her husband and said she kept waking with a vivid sense of floating during the first days back on Earth.
- NASA streamed the mission live to large audiences, and AFP later debunked a viral claim about “missing” astronauts on phone screens by pointing to viewing angles, privacy screen filters, and heavy video compression, with NASA’s 4K feed showing the crew on those displays.
- The astronauts voiced confidence in NASA’s timeline, saying the flight advances plans to land in 2028 as part of building a sustained presence on the Moon to prepare for future Mars missions.