NASA/Bill Stafford
The Artemis II crew and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, right, interact with a crowd of friends, family and colleagues assembled for the return of the crew at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
Two weeks ago, four NASA astronauts left from Ellington Airport in Houston to embark on a historic mission, the likes of which had not been accomplished in decades. On Saturday, they returned to Houston, now titans in the field of space exploration and icons in the public eye.
Less than a day after splashing down off the coast of San Diego, Artemis II crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremey Hansen arrived in Houston. They were reunited with their families for the first time since flying around the moon and back.
Each of the crew members then gave their first public remarks since returning to Earth, speaking at a hanger at Ellington Airport in front of their families, NASA leaders, elected officials and their fellow astronauts from the Johnson Space Center.
Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.
“Twenty-four hours ago, the Earth was that big out the window …” Wiseman said, holding his hands as wide as his shoulders, “and here we are back at Ellington back home.”
RELATED: Artemis II astronauts take questions while 178,000 miles away from Earth
A crowd of dozens inside the hanger cheered Wiseman, who then high-fived each of his fellow crewmates. Wiseman spoke about the bonding experience for each of them, saying “no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through.”
Glover, a devout Christian, said he wanted to end the mission just as he started, by praising God.
“Even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through,” Glover said, “the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with, it’s too big to be in just one body.”
Koch, too, reminisced on the bookends of the mission, saying it started and ended with human moments on Earth.
“Ten days ago, this journey started with our mission manager Sean Duvall knocking on my door in crew quarters, and whispering, ‘Christina, we’re go for launch, get up,’” she said. “And it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, ‘Ma’am, can I get a hug?’”
Hansen, seated four seats down from Wiseman, stated it was the farthest he had been from Wiseman since the start of the mission. Wiseman then walked over and put his hand on Hansen’s knee, to laughter in the audience.
“I don’t think people will really ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were,” Hansen said. “It is almost unbelievable.”
NASA/Bill Stafford
The Artemis II crew, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen embrace at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
As each of the astronauts put it, the mission presented them with something of an existential awakening, realizing the Earth and its inhabitants hold a special place in the universe.
“It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” Wiseman said, growing visibly emotional. At that, the audience members rose to their feet, and the astronauts embraced.
In his own remarks, Hansen asked his crewmates to stand alongside him, describing the love and devotion toward each other and their mission.
“When you look up here, you’re not looking at us,” he said, each of the crew members’ arms around one another. “We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you.”
“Dude,” Wiseman said in reply, seemingly in awe, as the audience began applauding. “Come on.”