Artemis II crew tells ‘The Morning Show’ about ‘super special’ mission

The Artemis II crew visited the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Que., this week following their historic mission around the moon.

The 10-day mission, which launched on April 1, marked the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and carried astronauts farther from Earth than any humans before them.

The crew included Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch.

Following their visit, the astronauts participated in a national morning show, an English-language exclusive interview with The Morning Show. They spoke with hosts Jeff McArthur and Carolyn MacKenzie about the mission, international collaboration and the emotional experience of travelling deep into space.

Below is the full transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Jeff McArthur:  What was it like being back on Earth again and seeing faces other than your own, since you’d all been staring at each other for 10 days? And was one of you recording this hatch opening right after splashdown?

Reid Wiseman: Absolutely. We’d been in the spacecraft for probably an hour by then. We don’t remember exactly how long we were in there after splashdown. You can tell there was so much joy, so much adrenaline, and just seeing these folks that we had trained with in the United States Navy who were there to recover us and get us out of the spacecraft after a 10-day journey around the moon — it was just such a joyous moment in our lives. I’ll never forget that.

Carolyn MacKenzie: We all felt it as well. And it is so great having you all here in Canada. Yesterday we saw that you received quite the welcome at the Canadian Space Agency. You also met with the prime minister. Jeremy, specifically for you, what has it been like returning home to Canada after such a historic mission?

Jeremy Hansen: Super special for myself, but also for the whole crew and our backup astronaut, Jenni Gibbons. A warm welcome back on Canadian soil. Also, for us, we’ve been soaking in this idea that the world came along on this mission with us. It wasn’t exactly what we expected, but we’re super grateful that people like you have been sharing it and others have been leaning in and sharing the joy we experienced flying around the moon, doing something super challenging, but also demonstrating that we can have a great time and lift one another up at the same time.

Jeff McArthur: Another warm welcome we want to revisit is Christina’s reunion with (her dog) Sadie. It looked like Sadie’s tail was going to come off, it was wagging so hard. Talk to us about this.

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Christina Koch: Sadie was very excited that day. I think I was more excited than she was, though. To be honest, she might have greeted you the same way. She’s a sweet, sweet dog. I missed her so much.

Carolyn MacKenzie: Clearly, she missed you, too. One of my favourite moments was watching the kids getting to ask you questions in space. In fact, this was the mission that got my 15-year-old son really interested in space travel. He hasn’t stopped talking about it. Victor, is that one of the goals here — to inspire the next generation?

Victor Glover: It absolutely is. Not only is it a part of NASA’s mission, it was something very important to us as a crew. And, like Jeremy said earlier, we are still surprised people chose to come along with us, but it was something we hoped for, worked for and prepared for. Now it’s just great to see. I love hearing that teenagers … I have one teenager remaining at home and they were inspired by this mission. That actually inspires me very much.

Jeff McArthur: There were so many emotional moments during this mission. Perhaps the most emotional for many of us watching back on Earth, Reid, was when we watched Jeremy name that crater on the dark side of the moon after your late wife, Carol. Can you describe what that moment was like for you?

Reid Wiseman: Surreal is probably the only word that comes to mind. My two daughters, Ellie and Katie, were in mission control. We didn’t plan any of that. We didn’t know when Jeremy was going to name that crater. We had talked very briefly before launch at the Kennedy Space Center. Christina had come up with the idea. We talked as a crew, Jeremy presented it to me, and I said, ‘This is an amazing honour.’

The fact that these three human beings would even think about this to honour my family was extremely emotional for me. My only request was, ‘This is great, but I cannot give the speech.’ Jeremy knew Carol very, very well. We were all very close in Houston. When he started talking and I could hear his voice begin to waver a little bit, I didn’t know how he was going to get through the rest of it. But he did, and it was a day that bonded us certainly for the rest of the mission.

Carolyn MacKenzie: Moving forward, you guys are family now.

Reid Wiseman: Yeah, that is true. As close as you can get, yes.

Jeff McArthur: Jeremy, everyone here in Canada, the entire country, was riding along with you in that shuttle. A few weeks ago, the Canadian Space Launch Act was introduced to enable Canada’s own independent launch capabilities down the road. What’s your hope for Canada’s role in future space endeavours? And do you want to go back to space?

Jeremy Hansen: I think Canadians have an extraordinary vision for how we can leverage space to help us with the challenges we face on this planet. As NASA is leading us back to the moon and eventually to the surface of Mars, the problems we face there overlap with many of the challenges we face here in Canada.

We can tackle problems here and then take those solutions to space with our international partners. That will allow us to send more Canadians into space in the future and inspire young Canadians to dream big, show up, solve problems and actually do things. I think that’s tremendous.

Carolyn MacKenzie: Before we let you go, we always hear how humbling it is to look back at Earth when you’re in space. When you reflect on your 10-day journey, is there a particular moment that stands out as unbelievably profound?

Christina Koch: Besides splashdown? Maybe when we went sci-fi. There are so many moments. We were very lucky to witness a solar eclipse during this mission. It wasn’t something we had initially trained for, it was just orbital mechanics luck based on the day we launched.

The real experience was the human experience of looking out the window and seeing something our brains could barely process.

It was almost hard to look at this amazing orb for too long. It was three-dimensional, but also devoid of light because the tiny sun was hidden behind the moon. It was an absolutely incredible sight. I think we’re all still processing what it meant to witness that with human eyes.

Jeff McArthur: Well said, and well done. The four of you made us all incredibly proud. Your impact was profound.

Jeremy Hansen: Thanks for having us. I’ll just close by reminding Canadians how proud I am of them for putting us in the position to become the second country in the world to send a human into deep space. That was not done by me, I assure you. It was done by thousands of people over decades with a vision.