Artemis II crew visits Marshall Sept. 2

NASA’s Artemis II crew spent Sept. 2 at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, thanking the engineers and program teams behind the lunar flyby mission and speaking publicly about what they learned in flight. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen met with Marshall employees after returning earlier this year from the first crewed Artemis mission. The stop was part of a broader post-mission tour following the crew’s April 1 launch and April 10 splashdown, NASA said. Days earlier, President Donald Trump presented the four astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. ### Why was Marshall the stop the crew wanted to make? Marshall Space Flight Center manages NASA’s Space Launch System program, the rocket that sent Orion and the Artemis II crew toward the Moon. The Sept. 2 visit put the astronauts in front of the workforce that developed, tested and supported the systems used on the mission, according to 256 Today and local television coverage from Huntsville. (256today.com) Jeremy Hansen said the visit had been “high on our list,” according to 256 Today. Hansen said seeing the work from the inside made clear “how incredible the challenges” were that Marshall teams faced and solved. ### What did the crew say about trusting the rocket and spacecraft? (256today.com) Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II commander, said his confidence before launch came down to “one word,” according to remarks reported on Sept. 2 by 256 Today. “One word is trust,” Wiseman said, describing Marshall personnel as “career-long friends” whose rigor and discipline the crew knew firsthand. (256today.com) Wiseman also said the astronauts understood the risks of flying humans on SLS and Orion for the first time. “We always know there’s possible things can go wrong,” he said, adding that the crew’s trust in the teams behind the vehicle “runs really deep.” ### What did the astronauts say they learned during the mission? (256today.com) Victor Glover said Artemis II’s preparation stretched across nearly three years and included simulator work, lunar science, classroom instruction and emergency training. Glover said the crew “wanted to be the best team that we could,” while Christina Koch said some of the training covered recovery scenarios such as getting out of Orion in the water if the capsule flipped after splashdown. (256today.com) Jeremy Hansen said the crew intentionally degraded some spacecraft systems in flight to test manual handling, according to WZDX reporting carried by KGW. Hansen said Orion “performed really well” even with degraded thrusters, giving the team more confidence for later missions. (256today.com) ### How far did Artemis II actually go? NASA said Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 after a 9-day, 1-hour, 32-minute mission. The agency said the crew traveled 252,756 miles from Earth at its farthest point and 695,081 miles in total during the lunar flyby, setting a new human distance record beyond the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970. (kgw.com) NASA also describes Artemis II as the first crewed flight of Orion and the first crewed mission of the Artemis program. The agency says the mission was designed to test the systems and operations needed for later lunar missions. ### What was the award the crew received from Trump? President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen on Aug. 28 at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA said. (nasa.gov) The agency said the award is the nation’s highest space honor and that the Artemis II crew were the first recipients since 2023. (nasa.gov) NASA said Congress authorized the medal in 1969 to recognize astronauts for exceptionally brave and meritorious service. The agency said there are now 34 recipients, including posthumous awards to the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews. ### What comes next after the Marshall visit? (nasa.gov) NASA’s Artemis mission page says the agency is using Artemis II as a step toward later Moon missions, with Orion and SLS data from the April flight feeding future planning. The agency’s Artemis news and mission pages are where NASA is posting updates on the next milestones, including future crewed lunar operations. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2)