Overview
- The Artemis II crew met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after their Pacific splashdown on April 10.
- NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, joined by Canada's Jeremy Hansen, flew around the Moon's far side and set a human distance record of 252,756 miles from Earth, with Hansen becoming the first non‑American beyond low Earth orbit.
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Artemis III is planned for 2027 as an Earth‑orbit docking test with commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, followed by an Artemis IV attempt to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028.
- The event came as the White House proposed sharp NASA cuts, including a reported 23% overall reduction with deeper hits to science programs, while House appropriators moved a draft bill that rejects those cuts.
- The crew continues a public tour with a Tonight Show appearance on Thursday, April 30, part of outreach that keeps attention on Artemis as engineers study flight data and prepare the next missions.