Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman on Thursday shared a glimpse into the moment after he and his fellow astronauts returned from their historic mission circling the moon.
Once the four crew members splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10, they were taken to a U.S. Navy ship for medical evaluation, and that was the moment Wiseman said he asked to visit with the ship’s chaplain, the National Catholic Register reported on Friday.
Wiseman said, “I’m not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything, so I just asked for the Navy chaplain to come visit us for a minute.”
“When that man walked in — I’d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just broke down in tears. It’s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through,” he added:
The crew that included Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, landed safely back on Earth while inside their Orion capsule. An announcer in the Mission Control room said, “From the pages of Jules Vern to a modern-day mission to the moon, a new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete: Integrity’s astronauts back on Earth.”
Wiseman made his comments during a NASA press conference in Houston, Texas. Since their return, the crew has not had much time to reflect on their experience.
Wiseman also recalled, “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 are looking at right now, because it was otherworldly and it was amazing.”
Glover responded by stating, “The only thing I will add is I am a religious person, but everything else is the same.”
The wonder and awe Wiseman felt was also evident in his social media posts. One image he shared showed him looking at Earth from space.
He wrote simply, “There are no words.”
After their splashdown, he posted an image of the ocean when the crew was taken up in a helicopter, and highlighted the beauty of creation.
“On the helicopter leaving the ship right now. This planet is impossibly beautiful from every altitude I’ve seen it…surface to 250,000 miles,” Wiseman said:
According to the Register, a crater of the moon was to be named in honor of his late wife. He responded by saying, “I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d heard in my entire life. She was an amazing human being, and she’s the mother of my two daughters.”
“And what man on this planet deserves a gift like that — to have your crew be so thoughtful and to do something so caring and so deep and so meaningful,” he added.
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