Mission to the Moon: Artemis II Returns (Part 2)

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Joining us now is former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin. He flew in two shuttle missions to the International Space Station. We're also joining Dr. Garrett Reisman, who was in the same class, I believe, with Leland. So, Leland, as someone who's gone through this very intense stressful experience of reentry, in your mind, what is going through the crew's heads now that they are back on Earth safely? We know that they, according to NASA, are doing as well as they could be doing right now, having gone through this incredible reentry. Hey, Anderson, thanks for having me on. I think the biggest thing is they want to get out of this capsule and get those medical tests done. And then one of the things I was thinking about when we were in space and heading home was, what is the first thing that we're going to eat? Is going to be a pizza? Is going to be an inside-out cheeseburger? We want to get some real food in our bellies, and I think that's some of the things, getting back with their families, breaking bread, having these normal things happening, walking the dog, taking out the trash, those things. And then also just seeing this whole deposit of information that's coming from the dark side of the moon to help us with the next journey in Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 and living on the moon. And then also celebrating, going around the world, maybe, talking to people about, we did this together as humanity. And I think that's one of the biggest parts. I think when the Apollo astronauts came back, Neil and Buzz and Michael, they went around and they were the world's astronauts, not just U.S. astronauts, and everyone embraced them as though they were theirs. And I think that's going to be a beautiful and powerful legacy. And, Leland, you can see the divers in the water, and they're attaching that porch to the capsule, which is the next step to bringing the astronauts out. So, Leland, after spending time in space with zero gravity, what for you was it like re-entering and coming back to Earth's gravity? Anderson, my first mission. We were in space about 11 days, and I think Jeanette and some other people talked about the neurovastibular system, where you're not using the little rocks in your ears to give you orientation of your head. You're now just relying on your eyes when you're in space. But when you get home, that system is still trying to stabilize to figure out, is this real orientation or not? So one of the things that we did when we came home was to say, look at the ocean, and that will help you regage the gyros in your head so that you're not walking and turning and then falling over. And that happened to a number of people on their first missions. They would come back and they would, you know, get excited to be back on Terraferma, and then they're like falling over when they make a turn. And so those were some of the things that the doctors told us not to do. Don't drive a car in turn. You don't walk. So you're walking like Milton the Monster, where you walk and then you stop, then you turn, and then you walk the other way. So it was getting adjusted like that. But it was a really exciting time again to be connected back on Terraferma and with our families. And Garrett, I want to bring you in, your Leland's former classmate. Garrett, what is the porch that's on there now? What does that allow to happen next? Yeah, you know, I've got to say it kind of reminds me of like the party float that we have out on the lake when we go swimming. That doesn't boat well because nothing good happens on a party boat. On a lake. I just hope they have enough cup holders in there. But they're going to come out one by one and they're going to get onto that front porch. And then they'll pull away from the capsule and that gives the helicopters clear access to pluck them out individually and bring them to the ship. So hopefully we're not too far away from seeing them emerge from this capsule. And this is a question, but why? I mean, is it just that there are distance from the ship and it's easier to take them by helicopter as opposed to taking them in the boat? It's just, I think it's just faster and it's definitely cooler. So in case of an emergency, you want to have the capability to get them out as fast as you possibly can. So even though I'm sure they're doing fine and they wouldn't mind a little boat ride, I think they're just preparing for the worst. Well, also Leland, if you're, you know, if you're sort of, you've got vertigo or whatever, maybe being in the waves, I guess on a boat is probably not the best thing. It's definitely not the best thing. I think getting pulled up straight and then you can see more of the horizon to help you start getting your gyros gauged so that you don't have that vestibular neuro situation. And I think then they get their fastest Garrett set. And, you know, Garrett and I have a long history within the astronaut corps and it's just so great to have him on here because he's, he can tell you some serious, serious, crazy stories. Garrett, do you want to go ahead and tell some of these crazy stories or is that best laughed late at night? I'm just going through my head of all the ones I have about Leland and I'm trying to, or Mass Amino, man, you know, and I can't tell any of those stories, Anderson, I'm sorry. Okay, let me, let me, since I have a slew of dumb questions, but I'm very curious about what it's actually like in space. What does it smell like on a spacecraft? I mean, after, or, or, I mean, after, yeah, what? Four after the beans. Well, I mean, is it like a chemical smell? Is it just like, is there BO? What is it actually like? So I remember when I first went up to the space station, for the first five minutes after we opened the hatch from the space shuttle, I remember smelling a little whiff of like a locker room smell. Okay. And, but then after about five minutes, you got used to it and I didn't notice it for the next three months. So I think one of the things as Neil pointed out, we get this, or Dr. Gupta pointed out, we get this big fluid shift where your head gets all puffy and it feels like you're congested and that dulls your sense of smell, which might be a real blessing because it might really reek up on that space station and none of us know. Was that your, was that your, No, I was going to say what I noticed and hello, Garrett in Leland. When they opened the hatch to the shuttle, the expression of the crew, the guys were getting you out of there. Oh, no, really? Yeah, the guy said you kind of stuffed up, so you might not smell it, but when they opened that hatch, you're like, whoa, what's been going on in here? We're all seven people living together. So yeah, that's the reaction you get. You get kind of used to it and luckily, I guess you're stuffed up a little bit. So what are we seeing here? This is the front porch now that has been laid at the side hatch there of integrity of the Orion capsule. As William Shatner described this, these astronauts have been incarcerated on this ship. That incarceration is now over. I love you quoting William Shatner. Well, you know, he was like an inch away from breaking into a spoken word album at the top of the hour. It was pretty good. Which I would have welcomed, by the way. So now the astronauts are making, hopefully a beeline to a beer at some point. This has been quite a nine day, one hour, 32 minute and 15 second journey around the moon. The four Navy medical personnel were inside the capsule there with the four seats, two by two, with the mission specialist essentially seated closest to that side hatch there. The Navy crew using sniffers circled with those inflatable boats around the capsule for several moments. Trying to make sure that there were no leaking chemicals, no hazardous materials. Let's just listen to the mission control. Into the flight control room here. This is reminiscent of the scene after the final shuttle mission of STS-135. Although that was the end of a program. This is only the beginning of a program with the... He's basically talking about a party at mission control right now. Well, let's just look at it. And it's four astronauts. We're standing by for the crew to be extracted from the spacecraft. Entry flight director Rick Henfling invited all of these flight controllers who have contributed to this mission to enter the flight control room to have an opportunity to receive well wishes and to share the mutual glow that exists in the wake of a textbook mission for integrity on the front screen here in mission control. A sign that says welcome home integrity, taking humanity back to the moon going further and returning safely to Earth. So all of that jubilation, part of the post-splashdown activities, even as we await the crew being extracted from the vehicle to be hoisted onto Navy helicopters for the trip back to the USS John P. Murtha. You can hear the... I mean, it's like a cocktail party. Sure, they're probably not cocktails. But a lot of moon parties tonight is what he said. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a lot to celebrate here. We've talked a lot about inspiring little kids in science, technology, engineering, and math. But I say this as somebody who is at the dawn of their 38th year. You know, it's inspiring to me too. I was born 20 years nearly after the first landing on the moon. 13th you mentioned how young you were. Sorry. Hate to call others old. That's not the point. It also begs mentioning that my old friend had a hard launch of being a granddad earlier, my mentor Miles. I don't think that was planned. But, you know, this has been a really incredible moment and a really strong reminder of American might when it comes to spaceflight. And so we will have now cleared a huge hurdle here. This was an elongated test flight to make sure that the Orion capsule and the space launch system could make it around the moon. They were able to do maneuvering in flight. They did some of that pilot stuff up there, actually hand flying the Orion capsule, doing proxops or proximity operations around one of the stages of the rocket. They're in Earth orbit. They went around the moon and now they're back. This is something that has not been done in 53 and a half years. And now we are doing it again in order to essentially plant the flag on the moon and start a moon economy is sort of the goal with the goal of going to Mars. It is something that is truly indescribable when it comes to they're literally shooting for the moon and beyond. Leland, let me ask you, you know, when you're in space, are the all those, you know, all the folks who are down on Earth who are part of this mission, who are monitoring you guys and men and women? Are they white knuckling it? I mean, are they as, you know, kind of while you're up in space, are they on edge all the time? And is it, I mean, you see them now relaxing or is it as stressful for them? You think? Anderson, I think, you know, we go through so many years of training and we train with our, you know, when we get assigned to a mission, we train with our team. And wait, sorry, the astronauts are starting to come out. Let's drop the banner if we can at the lower terms so we don't miss this. Thank you. Jubilation here in the flight control room. The first crew member is out of integrity. Christina Cook was to be the first out. She, that was the plan from NASA. She was seated closest to the door. She needed to do a bit of triage by the Navy medical team when they arrived in the capsule to make sure that that would still be the order. We are expecting the other crew members momentarily to be extracted. There she, or there's one astronaut. Someone in orange. And these are the plans. It looks like a second, a second astronaut there. Yeah. So one is seated. One is being kind of helped to sit down. You can see if you look closely the signature orange pressure suits manufactured by the David Clark Company of Massachusetts. Two crew members and two to go. So two out, two to go of the grand total of four. The mission specialists who receded midship were to be out first. And then pilot, Glover and Commander Wiseman were to be out last. And we know the two helicopters will be there to hoist two at a time. We're about one hour from sunset out in the Pacific. Looks like the third is out now. Integrity's systems function perfectly during its entry back to Earth. And Reed Wiseman, the commander who will be last out of the vehicle, reported that all the crew members were feeling very well. The fact that the sun hasn't set in San Diego, but it is set here in New York, is evidence that Earth is round. Thought I would. Just for any doubters out there. Just in case. Crew member number three now, Alex. Obviously you can hear all the applause there at the Johnson Space Flight Center and the same mission control room they used for shuttle mission after shuttle mission. And now standing by for the commander, Reed Wiseman, who will be last out of his ship. Bobbing in the Pacific under almost ideal conditions, Integrity spanned 694,000 miles during its journey from launch to splashdown. The swells are quite placid, enabling this to go pretty smoothly. This is something they practiced over and over again for years out in the Pacific. And of course all of us remember Reed Wiseman, it looks like he is now out of the vehicle. Looks like he is in the middle of that scrum. Are they unable to stand up at this point? And we now have? They're held up by three people. Reed Wiseman out of the vehicle, all four crew members now out of Integrity. But also you are in decondition, so yeah, you don't want to stand up alone. Yeah, even on the field. Yeah, even on the field. There's the response to hearing that the commander Reed Wiseman is with the captain. Sandra, just medically, what do you think it's like for these astronauts sitting in that boat that aren't on the porch? Sorry, Anderson. Just medically for them, we see them being kind of not carried, but kind of very much helped down to a seated position. Yeah, this gets back to that same concept that people have been talking about, your neurovestibular system, your inner year. You know, your inner year when you're on Earth, it's constantly getting all these inputs. Just having gravity gives that input, and that goes away for 10 days in this case, just over close to 10 days. It's interesting because the brain can actually train itself pretty quickly to sort of get used to that, and then all of a sudden you're back into a situation where you have this gravitational force on it again. We were talking about this last hour, but someone described it to me as sort of the opposite of having sea legs. With sea legs, you almost have too much input into the inner year, and then you get on dry land, and it reduces. Here, you don't have much input to the inner year, then all of a sudden a lot there. And that's sort of, I think, what makes people feel unstable. They move sort of robotically because the head feels a little disconnected from the body. All these sorts of things. It lasts different lengths of time for different people. Astronauts have lots of training, obviously, to deal with this sort of thing, but it's inescapable, and that's the sort of thing that you're seeing as they get off the craft. Also, again, these fluid shifts, not to be minimized. You have a lot of fluid shifts when you're in space. All of a sudden, you got gravity back on your body. You may have low blood pressure. Your heart rates may change. So, the cardiovascular sort of assessment of people, all of that's probably happening. Now, maybe some of that happened on the craft itself, but that's the triage, I think, that they're talking about. I mean, honestly, I never want to be sitting next to a person who's having a fluid shift. I mean, it doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound good. And especially three others on a moving boat in rough water. No, thank you. It's all the fault inside your body though. Do you have these fluid shifts on that? Yeah, I did. You have your emesis bag nearby, just in case. It's just gravity. When you get to space, the fluid is... We're walking around the planet. The fluid is in certain areas, and then when you get to space, no gravity, it pulls up in the upper extremity, and then it gets redistributed when you get back. So, that's the shift. It's not as bad as it sounds, but now that you mention it, I need to figure out another word for it. Fluid shift. Fluid relocation. It sounds like a 70s Dutch band. I don't know. Miles, it's just remarkable to see these images. It harkens back to... So many people today have not really seen something like this in years. No, it is a flashback for those of us who witnessed those days. It's an updated version of the Apollo capsule, but in many respects it is kind of back to the future. It's worth pointing out, the shuttle era, the shuttle itself, was an inherently dangerous vehicle without any appreciable crew escape on the ride to space. And this vehicle, from the moment they left the launch pad all the way to space, and then some they had a viable way of pulling an ejection lever and breaking free of the rocket. So, this is, you know, sometimes the simple basic ideas are the better ideas. And the shuttle was as much as anything a manifestation of an era of technological hubris that gave us things like the Concorde, which didn't pan out very well either. And it was an attempt to, you know, bite off more technology than we had the money to pay for. And sometimes the simple approach is the way to go. And as nervous as we were about that ablative heat shield, it's a simple idea that actually works really well and responds well to the laws of physics. So it's nice to see, you know, a system that is sort of tried and true, even though it's new as well. And Jeanette, you were saying, I mean, you had a capsule landing in the ocean. You were brought out by a crane? Yeah, so we landed on the water, and our trajectory was very precise to land near Pensacola because that's where the boat was located. And they could come out to get us, use the crane to put us right up on the boat. What was the crane? The crane was on a boat? It was on the boat. Correct. And so were you put on a porch too? No, there was no porch for us. So we were actually hoisted, the whole capsule was hoisted onto the ship, and the hatch was open there on the ship. And there's a little ledge, but not much. They put a little plank there, opened the hatch, and then pulled out the commander, then the pilot, then seat one, and then seat four. So, I mean, they're essentially going to be lifted up into a helicopter, right? It's very different than our experience. Right. So we're going to go right into a helicopter to the boat. We're waiting for the helicopters. One by one will take, one helicopter will take two, and then another helicopter will come. Can I comment on the re-entry? Please. So there's something that nobody talks about, because everyone is like, oh my gosh, there's a ball of fire coming through, and it's got to, you know, and the heat energy has to dissipate and is dangerous. Yes, all that's true. But we talk about it as though it's a necessary evil. When in fact, it's a highly desired fact that you don't need fuel to slow down out of orbit. The atmosphere is aerobraking. They don't call it that, but that's what it is. The air slows you down. And so, if you're going to rely on that and not have to take all the fuel necessary, you know how much fuel you would need to slow down from 18,000 miles an hour in Earth orbit? And coming from the moon, you're going even faster. Which would also increase, I assume, the danger of it if you haven't got all this fuel. Well, that's right. So, but I just want to make the fact, make the statement that if you're in orbit around the Earth and you brought fuel to slow down, you could slow down and then just drop to Earth with parachutes. And there'd be no re-entry or anything. No re-entry fires, nothing. Really? Yes. And that's because of how fast they were going that all that energy has to go somewhere. The kinetic energy of their movement through space. If I eat that kinetic energy with fuel coming out the other side, then I don't burn up coming through the atmosphere. I would just drop through. So, we love the fact. So, they've now separated from the capsule. And they are now in that... In the front porch. In the loading porch. Exactly. The front porch is now floating. It's essentially like a... It's like a rescue boat. Yeah. Sort of a... It's like one of the underwater landing consequences in an airliner. This is like essentially that raft. Yeah. And then we're going to see the MH-60 helicopters swoop in, hoist each of the astronauts up one by one. It's a somewhat complicated process. And then take them to the Jhampi Murtha, which is only a two or three minute flight away. We're talking like 3,000 yards away, where the crew there, of course, will greet them. There will be in a medical bay each astronaut and assessed. But this is sort of... It's kind of planes, trains and automobiles here. We're going from the capsule to the raft to a helicopter to the boat to Naval Station, San Diego. And then they will take a jet to Houston at the Johnson Space Flight Center. It's quite complicated, but very necessary here to sort of make the last mile journey, if you'll pardon the pun, of what has been a 600,000 mile journey. Let's just listen. The vehicle in Florida that integrated the vehicle in Denver had fired the engines in Stennis that fired the boosters in Promontory. I mean, this is the entire team coming together and being tested by the environment that this machine went through. And they did it right. The work was good. They did it right. A lot of reasons for celebration right now by everybody who's been involved in this from NASA. Leland, how long is it from the time you get back to the time you get to see family and loved ones? Now, it's a little early for the full... Well, if you're married and have a spouse, they let you do it right away. But if you're a single girl like me, they left me a crew quarters and everyone turned the lights out and left. So I'm there, cannot find myself. Wait a minute. It was kind of not until the next day that I saw my family. I was in the bed laying on my back trying to push off like I was in a float to the bathroom. And it got kind of crazy. So they now have to have changed things for the single people to have a... Yeah, I mean, it seems deeply unfair. Oh, you just stay in your room. Garrett, were you isolated like this as well? And they locked the door. Wait, they locked you in a room? Maybe that was just Leland. I've never heard this before. No, you see, Anderson, I actually found a woman that would marry me. So I didn't have that in mind. To avoid that. I see, to avoid it. To avoid that, okay. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Leland, how long were you locked in that room just overnight? It felt like eternity, Anderson, because I'd been in space for like 12 days. Could you knock on the door and say like my fluids are moving? I got to get out. All that fluid movement. Yeah. It's like home alone. I forgot somebody. Wow. I actually spent the first night back, I actually went to an Airbnb and I spent it with my wife there and I remember after being up in space for three months, waking up in the middle of the night and rolling over, which you can't do in space because when you roll over in space it feels exactly the same. You know, I'm no gravity. So when I rolled over, it felt like paradise. I remember that was just like, oh wow, it's great to be back on earth. I can roll over. Did NASA rent the Airbnb or did your wife rent that? No, my wife. We were government employees. My wife rented it. Okay, all right. Yeah, that was not the taxpayer dollar. That's got to be surreal to be in space, you know, earlier in the day and then you're in an Airbnb. You know, that's kind of, that's amazing. Probably two letters. Sorry, go ahead. There's another fact that people just ignore and that is, but sci-fi has solved this long ago. If we had rotating space stations, you could have gravity in space and none of this would be a problem. The inner ear, the blood flow, the fluid collecting. Wait, you were rotating space stations. Then you have centrifugal forces simulating gravity. Yeah, Von Braun came up with that one. Yeah, so you just do that. Every sci-fi movie knows to do that. NASA has never done it. And if they did do it, we wouldn't have the bone loss, the medical problem, and we keep thinking that zero G is a property of space. No, it's not. It's a property of not having rotation or engines getting fired. Can I just be honest, this whole thing reminds me of conversations I had when I was like in seventh grade playing Dungeons and Dragons. This is a bunch of nerds. I'm enjoying this. It's like I'm back with my nerd friend. He's dog whistling to his audience. He's talking about fantasies. I'm just saying that. Let's watch this. Look, Chopper, this is the first Chopper coming and taking the press. Let's watch this. Again, the more we learn about what they did, the more magical it seems what they were able to accomplish given the technology and the learnings they had. Okay, so they're not getting a playboy player. They're allowed to play. They're lowering a diver down, a crew member down who will, I guess, place, I guess, he or she will place the harness on the astronaut. Well, and they've got a, I mean, the downwash from the helicopter. Wow, look at that. Yeah. I thought they might use a basket. Yeah, I thought they would use a basket too, but it looks like they actually have to put them, yeah. Old school. Exactly. You have the downwash. This is incredible. Yeah. So this is one of four Navy helicopters that was on the deck of the Jumpy Murtha. Two are actually flying as camera ships. One is able to give us some of these images that we've been seeing. There's another helicopter in standby about ready to take one of the astronauts. They go in sets of two. And then, of course, there is this one. Of course, they are clearly fighting the rotor wash here, which appears to be quite sizable. The conditions have been quite good here off the coast of San Diego. The swells were low, pretty large high pressure system making the weather quite good for this splashdown. And NASA has parameters for everything. They had parameters about the wind. They had parameters about the wind. They had parameters about lightning. They had parameters about solar flares for the launch. Most of the concerns when it comes to this were about the sea conditions. And they have one of those. Now it seems like one of the astronauts is now on the hoist. Hard to tell which one they're all wearing. The quintessential NASA emergency orange pressor suit there as they are hoisted up. This is quite incredible. That looks like fun. That looks like fun. And it is quite incredible. You know, this is... But answer me something. There were at least 30 people that arrived on the Zodiac crafts. Okay? And they got four astronauts. Where did the Zodiac people come from? The Zodiac people came from the Jumpy Morse. So put them back in the Zodiac and Zodiac came back to the boat. I think the goal here is expediency. And so they want to get them to the boat quickly. And then it's all fast. I'm not sure which astronaut said it's much cooler to ride on a helicopter than on a boat. It's very badass. I mean, it's very cool. Yeah. I wonder what their gyro is going through right now. This is what I want to ask them. What was that like getting hoisted? Well, I mean, Jeanette, I want to see the other helicopter on-station now. This is the second helicopter coming in. Over what is known as the helicopter. Jeanette, you were lifted by a crane. What was that like? We were inside the capsule, though. So it was not nearly this... They hadn't opened the capsule yet. Exactly. Until you were on the deck. Correct. And so this is... I'm sure the crew trained this and you have to go through it all. Let's listen to what NASA said now. They're not doing anything. That person will touch down in the front ports just there. The crew members already outfitted with a harness that will allow them to quickly attach to the hoisting device. NASA is talking to a different feed. That's why it does not match the image that you're seeing. So there's a net that's going to be attached to the hoisting device. NASA is talking to a different feed. That's why it does not match the image that you're seeing. So there's another helicopter. Again, this is a NASA feed. We don't control this. There. Now that's what they're talking about. That's a cool image right there. At the center there. The front porch. You know, movies with helicopters do financially better on average than movies that don't have helicopters. Is that right? So that, in fact, the movie Titanic had a helicopter in it. It's just here this... Think about it. And here we go. Second astronaut now off the front porch getting hoisted into the second helicopter. Those helicopters are bad-ass. They crash every once in a while too. You've got to be careful. It's problematic. Well, now... Thankfully the MA-60 is a twin zone engine failure that will still be able to fly. The first helicopter... Let's listen to the NASA. And pick up the third astronaut. So we can see the rotor watch there at the very 12 o'clock position on the screen. As we wait for that helicopter to come back, make its way back around. Seems they have it down now. Just want to mention that... It seems at first it was a bit rocky, and now it seems a bit more fluid. The president of the United States called our NASA administrator today while he was on the ship. Just minutes after we interviewed him live on our coverage, and congratulated him and NASA on this history-making moment tonight. Leland Garrett, you practiced this maneuver. What was it like? Hovering 40 feet. It was a colo with the Navy when we were astronaut candidates. We went out in the Pensacola Bay and a helicopter came out to pick us up. Leland, you remember that? And at first I remember as the helicopter came over and that rotor wash was really bad, and the water was getting in my mouth, and I felt like I drank half the Pensacola Bay, and I thought I'll never be able to actually accomplish this, connecting to that wire and being hoisted up. And then when it gets right on top of you, like you see in the picture right now on the screen, you actually, in the eye of the storm, it actually gets very calm, and then you can be lifted up. And when you get to the helicopter and they bring you inside, they give you a cookie. Third astronaut? Wow, what kind of a cookie? And Garrett, but they dropped us back in the water. Remember that? They give you a cookie and then they kick you right back out again, you're right, and they put you right back out. It's like catch and release. Hopefully they will not be doing that to the actual astronauts this time. So that is, I believe, the third astronaut now who's been taken off. It looks like there's just one left to go. I assume the commander, maybe. They would have been all home by now if they all went into little boats. I'm pretty sure. I'm just glad that Leland got a cookie. Maybe it's done like a one-dryer. They got locked inside and then even get a cookie. Hey, Mass, come on. Let's watch this. This is the last chopper coming in for the last astronaut. Here it comes. Making its final approach here. The last astronaut, Commander Reed Weisman. Now off the front porch and almost into the second helicopter. Both now on their way back to the ship where we are, the USS John P. Murtha, just west of San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. Incredible. Just incredible. The work does not stop here. And there is a NASA team called the Sasquatch team, and I'm not making this up, that goes out and looks for all of the parts that are associated with the Orion capsule that includes the hatch that blew when the parachutes opened. They will look for the parachutes. They call out the Sasquatch team because all of this is hard to find. So they will pull up. I'm glad the NASA systems are human. No, it is nice. They will pull up the John P. Murtha on the port side of the John P. Murtha, the left side for those not a Glingline, to grab the parachutes that were deployed. Remember, the main chutes were collectively the size of a football field. And now we're seeing the MH-60 Seahawk helicopter here. Let's just listen to the sound of the power of this helicopter. Let's just listen to this next. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. The helicopter is moving. This is the second helicopter. We will not be seeing them come out, I'm told. Again, we don't control these images. This is NASA's operation. I'm told though that we will not be seeing them come out, but let's just see what we see. Both helicopters have landed. All the astronauts are aboard those two helicopters, if I'm not mistaken. Again, the mission are your loops? Obviously, much easier to pick out the astronauts on board these helicopters because they're the ones wearing the bright orange, Pricer suits everyone else is wearing military green, all of flight suits. I was wrong. So each helicopter... One of our imagery helicopters... So this was one of the cameraships... Oh, two in each. I was right. So this is an imagery team coming in. They were helping get the images, the pictures. Set amid a gorgeous, soon to be sunset here in the Pacific Ocean. Look at that shot. You can see the cutaway of the John P. Murtha there. It's called a well deck ship. So it has the flat deck on the back for helicopter landings. But it also has essentially a big mouth at the bottom of it. And that will be used to recover the Orion capsule, recover integrity, as it is essentially lashed to the ship and pulled in. And there lies a ton of forensic evidence for NASA engineers at NASA facilities across the country to look at what went well and what did not go well, especially when it comes to this reentry, because there was so much intrigue about how the ablative heat shield, the abscote material, would hold up to the atmosphere. So under this depth that you're seeing live, where these three Seahawk helicopters have just landed, that is where the capsule will be recovered here in a matter of hours. So the recovery of... The humans on board, the recovery of the crew has sort of reached the end of its first stage, but the recovery of parts and pieces and the capsule itself is about to just begin. If I can add to that, returning from the moon has twice the kinetic energy as you would just coming out of orbit. So you would need that much more heat shield relative to anybody returning from orbit. So I can fully see why we'd be giving extra attention, because we haven't come back from the moon in 60 years. And especially since the hundred or so chunks that broke off of the heat shield during Artemis I, the uncrewed mission, essentially paving the way for this mission of the whole system itself, we're seeing the Navy crew there on the deck essentially tying down the helicopter, chalking it, preparing for unloading here. There are a couple shots here. You can see the pilots there in the front. This is... it seems very 20th century that we are still doing this recovery via helicopter. This is what NASA was doing in the ocean during the Mercury missions, the first missions that took us out of Earth. It is very retro. Yeah, and so, you know, not much... like Miles said, what's old is new again. Not much has changed in a way. You know, the helicopters have changed, the boats have changed, the people have changed, some of the technology has changed. But the Artemis missions are using a lot of off-the-shelf shuttle parts, even the solid rocket boosters, which Janette and I were talking about, makes such the quintessential sound during the launch of the air being ripped in two. They are incredibly powerful in total 8.8 million pounds of thrust. That comes from the shuttle. And so, we have taken some steps forward, but maybe not as many steps forward as one would expect in 2026. It's nice, there's nothing AI about this. It's very true. Yeah, it is very many. Aspower helicopters, winching people out of the water, fluids and all. It's kind of interesting that the water recovery, the shuttle for all those years, landing on a runway, now we're back to that. We did for 30 years. Well, we could plan on ground the way the Russians did. Yeah, right. The Starliner does that. The Starliner comes out. Yeah, yeah. Let's hear what they're saying. Let's hear some of our views. We will speak with storage area and flight deck. A very packed crowd over there. We will operate. Announcements being made over the ship's loudspeaker system, reminding folks to stay clear of operational areas like the flight deck. So that teams can work quickly to get the crew off of the helicopters and into the medical bay. We are just past the top of the hour to anybody who is just joining. A bit less than two hours since the spacecraft integrity brought the Artemis-2 astronauts back from their 700,000 mile trip around the moon and back. In just the last few moments, the four astronauts hoisted from a small raft near the capsule, taken to a recovery ship nearby. They've just arrived on deck. In the moments ahead, they will continue to be checked out medically. They're still in those two helicopters. Before they'll be flown to Shored and San Diego in Houston. We've been seeing celebrations at Mission Control. Joining me is former astronaut Dr. Danny O'Levis. Danny, I understand you helped troubleshoot the issues on the heat shield on Artemis-1. You've got to be relieved, excited to see this crew back safe. Obviously, the shields will be examined closely, but it worked. Yeah, absolutely. My hats off to the entire heat shield Tiger team. They did a phenomenal job. They really got to the bottom of what happened with Artemis-1. I was listening to a previous guest, Gary and Leland, are my classmates. I got a lot of respect for them, as well as everyone else on the panel. Did Leland call you when he was locked in that room? Because apparently you didn't help him get out. But anyway, continue. Yeah, he didn't help me out either. There you go. They did a phenomenal job of analyzing the Artemis-1 heat shield. They were able to make some predictions. We built a new facility at Ames Research Center, an Arcjet facility, which simulated more the trajectory of Artemis-1, which we did not have prior to Artemis-1. The data that came out of Artemis-2 is going to be vital to further qualify the Artemis-1, sorry, the Ames Arcjet facility in doing more and more of the characterizations for Lunar Entry. There's so much data. I can't wait to see the engineering coming back, because this thing is going to be picked over with a fine-tooth comb by all the engineers and scientists. They'll be looking at the hardware performance. They'll be looking at things that said they worked well, things that didn't work well, what needs to be improved for the future, and ultimately getting ready for the next steps, which would be any flights between now and Artemis-3 and or Artemis-3, 4 or 5, and the subsequent Artemis missions as we move towards colonizing the moon. It's incredible. Let's just listen to you for a second. And mission specialist Christina Cook, sitting on the edge of one of the helicopters, looking in great spirits. That familiar smile and laugh from Victor, I can see it from here. Christina, I'm sure feeling the same way. Just blocked a little bit by our camera here, but we'll see her here shortly. A photographer taking their pictures. That is Victor Glover. Victor saluting folks on the flight deck. They look like they're in great spirits. Happy to be home, I'm sure. Mike, you got an email from Victor. Was it today? I did. Yeah, this morning. Entry day. How does he have time sending you emails? I don't know. What did he say? What did he say? So he said a few things, but he did say tell the world, so I feel comfortable telling you this part of it. He said, tell the world to keep this energy going. Let's invest in togetherness. And that just came off the top of his head. Well, he had other things on his mind. What do you think of that? Very poetic. Yeah, but with this world and with this world and with this Hello to you too, Christina, yes. Welcome back. Welcome, welcome home. Welcome home, indeed. A loud speaker announcement on the ship saying welcome home integrity. Victor in great spirits. I can't see who he's talking to, but I kind of think that he might be talking to his other two crew members. Shouting from across the flight deck. Congratulations to one another. Pilots there of helicopter sea combat squadron 23 who carried out this recovery. They've done a very good job of... They'll talk to anybody. They're very friendly guys. They're very friendly guys. He's just totally awesome. I want to see some Navy personnel walking up to the helicopter. This is again the first helicopter carrying pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Cook. Both have taken off their helmets now. Some pictures, video to catalog this historic moment. A beautiful sunset just behind them here in the Pacific Ocean. Golden hour. These pictures will be beautiful. I think they timed it for the sunset. I mean, it's pretty incredible. I'm done. It's California. I thought I'd figure it out. This is the NASA administrator crossing over the flight deck to shake hands with them. Victor and Christina first. We saw the administrator walk over to the other helicopter, which is carrying commander Reed Weissman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. We heard from Rick earlier in the broadcast. Again, he said he's going to be out there on the flight deck to do another initial assessment of the crew, ask them how they're feeling, anything bothering them. But again, from what I'm seeing, they look like they're in great spirits and feeling pretty good for folks who just traveled 695,000 miles from Florida to the moon and now here to the Pacific Ocean. Also want to point out, we're expecting to hear from NASA news conference at Johnson Space Center within the hour. Mike, what do you think would surprise people about being an astronaut? I think it's the human element of it, of you get to see wonderful things and experience a lot of interesting things in your job, but it's the closeness of the crews. And you mentioned earlier the Mission Control Center. They're all really invested in the safety of that crew. And I think what you saw in that party was the relief that they got them back because they go all for a responsible. But I think it's that, that's the best thing about being an astronaut was the relationships you had, the friendships you had, the way you, the love you had for each other and for serving something greater than yourself together. And that was, I think, even better than flying in space. For me, it was that, those relationships that we had. It seems like he's standing actually, Jeanette. He's... Jeanette, what do you think? It does look like he's standing, which some people can do that when they come back, but he's also got people around him making sure he doesn't fall over. They're about to walk. Let's watch this. Let's watch. Walking, waving across the flight deck, now on his way to the medical bay. It's a short walk, less than a minute. Again, that's why the recovery team decided to use helicopters to get them on the flight deck for that short walk to medical bay. And now on the flight deck, we see the chief of the astronaut office, Scott Tingle. Rick Schuring, switching places. He's going over to the other helicopter. Big hugs, big hugs from Victor Cristina. By the way, right now we're near solar maximum. So the total radiative flux and particle flux of the sun is at an 11 year high. So that's got to be part of what this medical understanding is in terms of their exposure to the radiation in their 10 days going around the moon without the protection of Earth's magnetic blanket. I literally don't know a word you're saying. You're saying they got zapped. I am not smart enough to understand. The sun goes through cycles. Look, she's walking right now. Yeah. She's looking great. You can see she's looking up again. Lots of people, just a few levels up off the flight deck. So the people around her are probably just there for safety just in case. I am really wishing I paid more attention to Malcolm Tom since astronomy classes right now. In high school. Oh, shout out. May he rest in peace. He was a great teacher. So one thing Reed Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen are my classmates and it does my heart very good to see Jeremy fly. This was his first mission. And he's just an amazing human being. What a first mission. Exactly. That's incredible. Worth the wait. Was he the oldest one ever to leave lower thwarted? No. I believe it might have been Don Pettit. To leave? No, to leave onto the moon. To leave. Oh, guessing. To leave lower thwarted. I think. It might be right. I want to bring in the... I also want to... Let's just watch them walk across. Look, he's unaided. He's walking across the flight deck. Amazing. That's awesome. With an empty wheelchair. It's just for safety. You just want to make sure they're safe. That's kind of like what it was with the shuttle. The same duration more or less. I want to bring in former NASA astronaut, Christopher, Chris Cassidy. He knows all four of the Artemis II crew members. Chris, thanks for joining us. What are your thoughts seeing your friends walking on their own? Incredible. It is incredible. I have a whole lot of pride watching. It's kind of two facets of my life. The United States Navy combining with NASA, seeing the four of our friends walking with the smiles and the kept in their step, knowing that what they just did for the world and for mankind. Anderson, you have almost as much bravery by putting Leland and Garrett and Massimino on the show together. LAUGHTER And this is the commander now walking. There goes Reid, the last one to leave. What's he like? Reid's amazing. All four of these guys are amazing. Reid, Navy guy, Victor Glover, another Navy captain, and Jeremy, an Air Force, a Canadian Air Force officer. Christina, of course, amazing background as well, but a lot of ship time between Victor and Reid. So I'm sure they feel right at home walking across that great deck. It's also important to point out, you know, there's the folks who serve in space on that ship, and then there are the families that they leave behind, often for long periods of time, and those families are serving as well. The sacrifice of those families, which enables these people to do the missions they do, to protect us all, to journey into the beyond. They couldn't do it if it wasn't for the families behind, and we certainly saw that with Reid dedicating a crater to his wife. Yeah, absolutely. Anderson, I was just going to say the same thing. There was almost no greater testament to what you just said than the tribute that they left for Carol by naming that portion of the moon. And watching the feed the other day, Reid admitted that he couldn't get through that radio call, so Jeremy stepped up and gave the poetic words that he did, really brought tears to my eyes, knowing the whole Wiseman family, and it kind of shows you what that crew is like, the camaraderie and the love for each other, that Mike was just talking about a second ago. I'm going to agree more. Chris, I mean, you've done incredible things. Navy SEAL, astronaut, the SEAL training, legendarily incredibly difficult. Can you just talk about the different kinds of training? Yeah, training is such a fundamental thing to operations, and there's so many facets of it. The one thing that's different about space flight training is you can't just go there to, you can't go to space to train for it, so you have to come up and think of, interesting, oh, here's the helicopter, Chris, congratulations to each other. Very, very cool. On the note of training though, Anderson, you can't just go there to prepare for it, so you have to put together this creative training environment, pulling together different analogs to create your vision of what that will be, and it's kind of difficult for a first-time space fighter to understand what that is, so you talk with your experienced crew members, and then you go yourself, and you kind of piece it all together. In the military, the enemy is the bad guys with the guns. In space, the enemy is the environment, and the environment's trying to kill you. So in both cases, you have to prepare for, come up with what-if situations, know what you're going to do if the X, Y, and Z and the broader support element, in this case, Mission Control Center, the military, the operations center, and some tent, knowing what they're going to do in different communities to see what situations. So really getting the whole team on one page is what training's all about. Chris, can you just talk about it just from a... I don't know, excitement is in the right word, but just from an experience standpoint, the experience of being in a combat zone, in a kinetic environment, and the experience of being on a mission in space. I mean, two very different kinds of missions. Yeah, George, what is the different mind frame or the different experience that you went through? Well, for me, the laser focus of stepping onto a helicopter at night on the Tarmac in Bagram, Afghanistan to go into a mission was very similar to the laser focus that you feel inside of a cockpit when the countdown clock resumes out at T minus nine minutes and then the clock is rolling and you close and lock your visor and you're here in the home of a fan, blowing air over your face and you're watching all your displays getting down to zero. Those two intense moments of just all your training, all of your attention, all of your decision-making, all of your risk mitigation before the mission coming to that point. So even though those two kind of missions seem vastly different, for me, they were very similar in that sense. And then the mission happens and the environment gets a vote in a space flight and the enemy gets a vote in a combat mission. So you never know how it's going to play out. But you react and you decide and you make decisions and you do the best you can with the information you have. And then it ends. And just kind of seeing it all come together with your teammates, in this case a crew or doing the same type of feeling where you can fist bump each other and know that you pulled off something that is challenging, hard, risky, and advances the mission of the United States. And then, Chris, to go from 60 miles an hour or in the case of a space flight, 5,000 miles an hour or 15,000 miles an hour to back home in the grocery store, figuring out what vegetables to get for the dinner tonight, what is that like for each? I mean, is it, it's got to be, that's got to be such an adjustment. Yeah, indeed. I, similar to Garrett's Airbnb story, I landed on my first mission space shuttle, Florida, and a couple hours after the required medical checks, a couple hours later I was in Subway at Cocoa Beach with my family. I'm thinking, man, this person's smear and mayonnaise on my bread and has no idea what just happened. I'm still, I'm still peeing tang. Yes. But, and then, and then I deployed to Afghanistan right after 9-11, a couple weeks later, and when I came home from that deployment in, I guess, would have been April of 2002, after all the chaos of seven months of combat operations. I remember we were driving, my family, we were driving from the Norfolk Naval Base Airport back home, and we passed Target, and it was nighttime, and there was McDonald's and Target and gas stations, and it was a very overwhelming feeling. Like, life just continued, and that's what I remember thinking. It was a normal night in Norfolk, Virginia. People getting gas, going to Target, oh, I forgot ice cream. And, and it was hard to process. Yeah. Yeah, I've had times I've been overseas and had these incredible life-changing experiences and then come home, and it's been a regular weekend for everybody else, and it's a weird feeling. But for you even more, who was actually doing something when, when, you know, you were on a mission, I was just, you know, talking to people. Well, you've seen a lot, Anderson. The nation appreciates your coverage of all those things, so thank you on behalf of a dedicated watcher. I appreciate you. Well, that's very kind, but, well, I mean, for you to be in Afghanistan right from 9-11 is extraordinary, and your entire career is extraordinary, as is everybody on this panel who's served. Do you, do you miss space? You know, it's funny. I, I'd be curious the answers of the panel and my colleagues and my friends here, but I've been out of the government now for, for five years, and I thought when I left, I would have a burning hole to get, a burning desire in my, in a hole in my gut to get back there, and I would go in a heartbeat, but I found myself getting more and more satisfaction of watching the smiles on the faces of the Reeds and the Victors and the Jeremies and the Christeners of the world, and I think that will continue to be the case. I mean, don't get me wrong. If, if Jared Eisenman and Colin said, Chris, you got to go tomorrow. I, you'd see the wheels peeling out in my driveway, but I don't think that's happening. I'm very proud to see the success of our teammates, though. It's pretty cool to see, and the galvanization that's happening with this mission around the nation, around the world, our partners in Canada, it's just really, really special. I don't think there's anything like Space Flight that can bring nations and people together. Well, it's also amazing to see how, you know, you all stand on the shoulders of those who came before you in, in this line of work, and, you know, it builds on the programs that have existed before going back, you know, generations. I just want to show our viewers some, some of what we have witnessed for viewers who are just joining at, at this time. I want to show us the, this, the splashdown. Pete, can you, can you just talk us through a little bit what we're seeing? This was probably one of the more dangerous parts. Maybe we lose the, the, the graphic so we can see it. Of, of this entire mission, reentry was really a test of tweaks that were made to the profile of the spacecraft as it was coming in for reentry, essentially the angle of attack or the bite that the Orion was going to take out of the atmosphere, initially skipping off of it and then making sort of a deeper dive into the atmosphere to try and abate some of the heat for a shorter period of time on a heat shield that was sort of remained to be seen about how well it would work. The splashdown here into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, 8.07, 27 p.m. Eastern daylight time, 5.07, 27 seconds, Pacific time, ending a nine day, one hour, 32 minute mission and 15 seconds. We're talking 695,000 miles traversed by the crew of Artemis 2. This went so successfully. They nailed it when it came to the reentry. A NASA official quoted not long after this reentry said this was picture perfect. They could not have envisioned this going any better. The capsule landed right side up, not upside down, meaning those helium inflatable bags at the top of the spacecraft did not need to be employed to right it right side up, but they still deployed it anyway. The Navy divers swept in to make sure that there were no toxic fumes caused by some of the spend materials on board the spacecraft as it came in during reentry. And then of course the side hatch was opened and all four astronauts were pulled out one by one under what is called the floating dock there. They called the front porch of the spacecraft, turns into essentially a big raft and that brings us to now. All four astronauts are now in medical bay on board the USS John P. Murtha, a well deck ship where the Orion capsule will essentially be swallowed by the ship a little bit later on. The parachutes will be recovered among some of the other parts that were shed during reentry. And then of course the astronauts can go back to land. They sort of have the option after this medical assessment on board the USS Murtha to fly back tonight to the Naval Air Station in San Diego. If they were going to Norfolk, Chris could recommend a subway for them. Or they could stay in a hotel. Thankfully, subway is nationwide. This went so, so, so well. And I was at the launch at the Cape. That was just an incredible sight to behold. Such a visceral sensory, just incredible moment to be there for. I'd never witnessed a launch at such close range before as sort of the new person covering space here for CNN. And it was just something that went so well. They only took off, they only departed nine minutes late. Take that airlines. That was pretty good. They did not anticipate things going so well. And this mission has just been incredibly smooth from the get go. Let me let me bring in Danny. Leave us. Danny, is there a moment from this mission that stands out to you or the one moment that for you was the most compelling or interesting, whether it's the reentry or any time in the mission? Well, you know, I think for me, it was really once we hit an entry interface and probably because the heat shield was the one aspect of Ryan that I probably know the best. Just because I'm involved with it. Knowing full well that risk can never be taken down to zero. So, you know, we knew that the heat shield was going to crack. We were confident that it wasn't going to be, you know, cracked to the extent that it was on Artemis one. But still, you know, you look at the data, you convince yourself that everything looks good. And, you know, for all rational purposes, it is good. And you're ready to come home. And NASA didn't make the right decision to fly Artemis the way it was. But there's still that irrational part of your brain that says, you know, but maybe I forgot something. What if I forgot something? And, you know, fortunately, actually, NASA did the testing where they actually tested for a piece of Avco. You know, they actually completely came out. A whole block came out just to see whether or not the back shell had capacity to be able to handle the heat load as well or what level of heat load it could handle. And sure enough, they found that they had margin there as well, not only to maintaining the pressure within the capsule, but also maintaining the loads that would happen on impact. As we saw just recently with the, when it splashed down in the water, there's a lot of forces on the air shell, on the back shell. So, they really did a great job in knocking the heat shield out of the park. And yeah, I held my breath. And when I heard the crew come on after the six minute blackout, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yeah, I think a lot of people did. I just want to show a live shot of the Empire State Building here in New York, lit up in red, white, and blue in tribute to the four Artemis astronauts. Also want to bring in former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force Colonel Terry Verz. Colonel Verz, I appreciate you being with us. How would you rate this mission? What are you looking forward to hearing about from the astronauts? Well, this mission was an A plus. I mean, this was so exciting. There's been a lot of bad news recently, and this is definitely a huge bright spot. They said that Apollo 8 saved 1968 and maybe some ways Artemis 2 will save 2026. I can't wait to hear what it was like to ride that capsule back. My first flight was on a space shuttle, which was a nice, gentle kind of airliner type of landing. My second flight was in a capsule, the Soyuz capsule. And that thing, man, that was a crash landing. I've heard those tumble. I've heard those tumble. I was telling you. Is that right? The Soyuz was tumbling. The night before we landed, I was there with Scott Kelly, and he had done it before I had only landed on the shuttle. And he said, hey, guys, you're going to think you're going to die, but don't worry, you're not going to die. I was so glad he told us that. Because if he had told me that, I would have thought we were going to die. We were tumbling so much. But as it was, it was pretty cool. When I read you were tumbling, I mean, you're literally like, just the ship is tumbling over it, so you're going around and around and around? I assume it was when the drogue shoot came out. It felt like a couple of minutes. It was me and Samantha Chris-Freddie in a Russian cosmonaut. We were all yelling Rusky Gorky, which is the Russian word for roller coaster. Because it felt like you were on, and they were like, woohoo, it was crazy. But so I don't know if Orion was like that or not. No one knows only these four. They're the first four human beings, Americans and Canadians to ever fly in this capsule. So I want to know what the re-entry was like. Wow. Garrett, what for you stands out about this mission? Well, I'd like to pick up on something that Chris was talking about, about how it fosters, what gives us this glimpse into this world where we're united and where we're all one species on this planet, sharing the same home. And we've been joking around a lot and having fun on this broadcast. And by the way, Anderson, thank you so much for organizing this amazing reunion. Yeah, I wish we had some beer. I don't drink, but it's fun. That's what you mean. That would help. Yeah, yeah. But it's, so there's been lots of light moments here, but I can't help but notice that there's such a contrast to, and you know this Anderson, compared to all the other stories you've been covering, it's been a pretty dismal couple of weeks. We've had war, we've had all this conflict and division. And here you see the best of us. You see this crew from all the different walks of life came together for a common purpose and put aside their differences, or actually as Victor said, Victor is so eloquent. I think he said they didn't put aside their differences. They brought their differences together and it made them stronger. And you see that, you see Canadians, you see Europeans providing this, and compare that with what's happening in the rest of the world. This is a glimpse, I think, of the future that I want for my grandkids and I want for my kids going forward where we get along and we find common ground and we work towards a common purpose and we can do amazing things. Yeah, and get things done. I mean it's just about getting things done. It's getting the mission done and everybody's joined in that and unified in it. Exactly. Space will do that. Do you know that the International Space Station is the, only after the waging of war is the International Space Station the greatest investment of human capital that the world has ever seen, of international capital. And so war, you're killing people, International Space Station, you're collaborating. Space is a place to collaborate when given the opportunity. And it's something we need to do more of, and not only just because you can, but in space you look back at Earth, this man here to your right was brought to tears looking back at Earth after looking out in space he wrote in his memoir, it can change you. And what we should all do is vote to send all the world's leaders out to the moon and then don't bring them back until they can all agree. And the moon would be a good place to have that happen. Mike, what sense it's you? Yeah, I think that as you refer to the opportunity of you, the planet, I believe we're living in an absolute paradise and we should be amazed that we're here every day. And then the other thing that changed for me, I grew up not too far from here out on Long Island when I was a little kid that was my home. And then I started going to college and traveling around a little bit and I identified as a New Yorker, you know, the general New York area. And then became an astronaut and I thought of home as United States, you know, the American flags in my arm when I went to work. And on my final space walk looking at the planet, I realized that that is home. And we all share it. And when I think of home now, I'm always going to be a kid from Long Island and a New Yorker and an American, but I consider myself a citizen of planet Earth. And when I think of home now, I think of Earth. You look at it, you realize that's where everybody is, everyone that's come before us, everyone that's going to come after us, and let's maybe find another place, but for the time being, that's all there and it's a place we all share. And I think that this crew reminded us of that in what they said and what they saw. And we're anticipating a press conference that will bring you, but Jeanette, just for you, what stands out from this mission? Well, watching the news nowadays and listening to the whole world talk about Artemis II, it just reminds me of, you know, back in the 60s when we went to the moon, how we inspired just a whole generation, a whole world. And now this generation is going to, it's the Artemis generation. We're going to see a lot more students involved in STEM. We're going to see a lot more tech being developed, a lot more ways we can help our planet Earth and live on the moon and potentially get to Mars. So I think for me, I see excitement, hope, just a whole different feel in the world right now. I don't want to leave Leland feeling like he's locked in a TV closet somewhere. Leland, what stands out to you in this? Hey, Anderson, I'm out of that space now. I really see in this mission, I see legacy. You look at the story of the legacy of NASA and the people that have given us Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, all these different platforms. But when you go back to some of the really early people, like someone like Ed Dwight, who would have been the first black Apollo astronaut and he was kicked out of the program because of issues at the time, but he mentored Victor and helped Victor become a pilot in this program called Shades of Blue. And so Ed Dwight is now the oldest person to fly and space it, 90 years old on Blue Origin. And Victor, myself, Charlie Bolden and all of us were there celebrating that. And then Victor sent Ed a message saying, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here. I love you. And that's the part, the legacy of how we carry this on to the next generation, the STEM education that kids are going to be learning. We do this in a way that changes the universe, one person at a time. And I was with Neil at the Project Hell Mary opening in New York. And he had this hat on that said 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd. And it was the Avogadro's number. So he's got this nerd hat on showing chemistry. And we can get these kids to think that that's cool and that this kind of working together around the world is cool. And to learn these hard subjects, to do these hard things, to change the universe in a way that's going to be beautiful. It's incredible. I keep trying to say to my son, we do hard things. And sometimes I'm not sure I do, but I certainly want him to feel he can and all of us can. Very quickly, if we can, Colonel Verts, for you, what's the high point of this? Well, I think the human inspiration that everybody's been talking about, it's been a rough time on planet Earth, and this shows the best of what we can be. But the big picture of what's happening here, though, Artemis II is a test flight. It's one of many stepping stones, hopefully. The next one, we're going to test out the lunar landers in Earth orbit. The one after that, hopefully, will send at least one of the lunar landers to the surface of the moon with astronauts. And that is just going to be one of many other missions, unmanned rovers and robots. And so this is going to be a concerted, sustained plan to get back to the moon. This has been too long. This program was really born in 2004 under President George W. Bush. So I think this next NASA administrator, Jared Isakman, is going to light a fire and we're going to start flying at the moon a lot more. So the test pilot in me is excited for the test mission. Again, this is just one step of many. As the crew was saying, hopefully this record will be broken of how far they went, and we can get back to the business of exploring the moon and learning to live on the moon, and hopefully be on the moon in the years and decades to come. Let's listen to the press conference now at Johnson Space Center. I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm setting out to really experience France to savor its world celebrated cuisine and explore the country's rich history. Eva Longoria, searching for France, premieres April 12th on CNN and next day on the CNN app. Influential journalist Cara Swisher is taking a hard look at the longevity industry. There's so much bad information that the really good information gets drowned. In the new CNN original series, Cara Swisher wants to live forever. Now streaming on the CNN app.