Reed Wiseman, the commander of Artemis II, shared some heartfelt reflections shortly after returning with his crew from their significant lunar mission.
The astronauts made their splashdown near San Diego on April 10, after which they were taken to a U.S. Navy ship for medical evaluations. It was then that Wiseman requested a visit from the ship’s chaplain, something the National Catholic Registrar reported.
Wiseman mentioned, “I’m not particularly religious, but I found myself at a loss to express what I was feeling, so I asked the Navy chaplain to come by for a bit.”
When the chaplain arrived, Wiseman recounted meeting him for the first time and, seeing the cross on his collar, he broke down in tears. “It’s hard to put into words what we’ve just experienced,” he noted.
The crew—Wiseman, along with Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—returned home in the Orion capsule. The mission control team exclaimed, “From tales of Jules Verne to today’s Moon missions, a new chapter in exploring our celestial neighbor has now been written. The Integrity astronauts are on their way back to Earth.”
Wiseman shared these thoughts during a NASA press conference in Houston, Texas, noting that since their return, they haven’t had much time to reflect.
He also described a stunning moment: “The sun went behind the moon. I turned to Victor and said, I don’t think humans are evolved enough to grasp what we’re witnessing, because it felt like we were in another realm, and it was just incredible.”
In response, Mr. Glover said, “I consider myself religious, but everything else remains the same.”
Wiseman’s sense of wonder came through in his social media updates. In one post, he shared an image of Earth from space, simply captioning it, “I’m speechless.”
Following their splashdown, he posted a picture of the sea while being transported by helicopter. “Right now, I’m on a helicopter taking off from a ship. This planet is beautiful from every angle I’ve seen it…even from 250,000 miles away,” he expressed.
According to reports, a crater on the moon is to be named after his late wife. Wiseman remarked, “Those are the most beautiful words I’ve heard in my life. She was a wonderful person, the mother of my two daughters.”
“Who on this planet deserves such a thoughtful gesture? For the crew to do something so meaningful and caring, it just touches the heart,” he concluded.
