NASA Artemis II Crew revealed What they Found on Moon Flyby during President Trump Call...

Integrity, Houston, we are three minutes out from an on-time start, and we have adjusted the fan speed. We'll take a thumbs-up if you're happy with it. Copy, thumbs-up. Imperative thumbs-up. And there on your screen you can see all of the Artemis II crew members. CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen just floated out of view behind the camera, but you can still see NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and NASA astronaut Victor Glover as they prepare for an upcoming public affairs downlink event, which is scheduled to take place in just a couple minutes from now. And there floating back onto the screen is CSA, or Canadian Space Agency, astronaut Jeremy Hansen. He is making himself comfy on some of the AUX, or Orion Crew Survival System, suits that have been stowed for the outbound and now return journey. Shortly after the completion of these couple of public affairs downlink events, we will be ready for the event. Hello, Houston. Integrity is ready for the event. Administrator Isaacman, this is Mission Control Houston. Please call Integrity for a voice check. Integrity, Jared Isaacman, comm check. Administrator Isaacman, we've got you loud and clear, sir. How are us? I've got you loud and clear. Artemis II crew, we have a very special guest who wanted to be the first person to greet you after your return from the far side of the moon. Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, it's my honor to introduce the President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump. Over to you, sir. Well, thank you very much, Jared, and you are doing a fantastic job. And hello, very special hello to Artemis II. Today you've made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud. We have a lot of things to be proud of lately, but there's nothing like what you're doing, circling around the moon for the first time in more than a half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth. Humans have really never seen anything quite like what you're doing. A manned spacecraft, it's really special. I want to personally salute and congratulate Commander Reid Weissman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. And I also want to thank the entire amazing team at NASA, headed by Jared, who's a very special guy, by the way. And you all made this day possible. You've really inspired the entire world, really. Everybody's watching. I find it incredible. I just watch you go to the back of the moon, and people haven't been there in a long time, we can say. But it's going to be more and more prevalent because we're going to be doing a lot of traveling, and then you're going to ultimately do the whole big trip to Mars, and that's going to be very exciting. So you look, and we had no astronaut has been to the moon since the days of Apollo program. The Apollo program was also very special, but that was 50 years ago. And at long last, America is back, and America is back in many ways stronger than ever before, with the hottest country anywhere in the world. The Artemis crew flew in the most powerful rocket NASA has ever made, ever launched, traveled over a quarter of a million miles, broke the distance record set by the legendary Apollo 13. And America is a frontier nation, and the four brave astronauts of Artemis II are a modern day – you really are modern day pioneers, all of you. And one of them happens to be a neighbor. You know who that is, right? You have a special person over there, a neighbor, and we like our neighbor. Your mission paves the way for America's return to the lunar surface very soon. We're going all out. We're doing everything we can, and it's headed up by Jared. We'll plant our flag once again, and this time we won't just leave footprints. We'll establish a permanent presence on the moon, and we'll push on to Mars. That'll be very exciting. I'm waiting for that so much. I'd love to be here, but maybe we won't quite make it in terms of timing. But we will be up in the moon, and that's going to happen soon. So America will be second to none in space and everything else that we're doing, and we will continue to lead the whole thing into the stars, this incredible journey into the stars. So I just wanted – it's an honor to speak to you, and I wanted to congratulate each and every one of you. And tell me, what is the most unforgettable part of this really historic day? The whole world is watching and listening. Please tell me. Mr. President, this call is certainly special to all of us, and we really have a lot of faith in our administrator, Jared Isaacman, who is with you. We appreciate his leadership in NASA and in the international community. We are doing great things, and we are proud to be a part of it. I have to tell you, as we came around the near side of the moon, seeing all the sights that we've seen from Earth for all of our lives, but we're seeing them from a different perspective. And then we started to get a glimpse of the planet, and we saw sites, oriental sites, that no human has ever seen before, not even in Apollo, and that was amazing for us. And then the surprise of the day, we just came out of an eclipse, where the sun, sun, moon, and the entire dark moon, about that big, right out the window that we were watching. We could see the corona of the sun, and then we could see the planet train line up, and all of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two-planet species. That is fantastic. You know, I had a decision to make in my first term, and the decision is what are we going to do at NASA? Are we going to have it be revived, or are we going to close it down? And I had very little hesitation, and it's really great to have somebody like Jared involved, because he really makes it much easier for me. But it was not even a question in my own mind. We just, we've spent what we had to do, and then, of course, we have Space Force, and Space Force is very much related to what you're doing. And that was my baby. That was a very important one, and it's turning out, it'll turn out to be truly one of the most important, I believe, decisions I've ever made. So we're very proud of Space Force, and we're very proud of all of you. Does anybody else have anything? Mr. President, it's a pleasure to be here with you, speaking about our incredible day today. I think one of the biggest highlights was coming back from the far side of the moon and having the first glimpses of planet Earth again, after being out of communication for about four weeks. It really just reminds you what a special place we have and how important it is for our nation to lead and not follow in exploring deep space. I'd like to ask, what was your feeling when you had no communication, zero communication, all of a sudden it was cut off by, obviously, your very special location? What was your feeling when you had no communication, a little bit different perhaps? Yes, Mr. President, it was quite different. I said a little prayer, but then I had to keep rolling. I was actually recording scientific observations of the far side of the moon. You know, that is actually the time when we were the farthest and the closest to the moon, and so we were really able to make some of our most detailed observations of the far side of the moon up close. And so we were busy up here working really hard, and I must say, it was actually quite nice. Did you see a difference, a big difference, between the far side of the moon and the near side of the moon? Was there a difference in feel or a difference in look? What did you see? Well, Mr. President, we certainly did, and our scientists really set us up well to understand what they thought we might see. And the gravitational pull of the Earth has had a profound effect on the near side of the moon, changing all those dark mares, those dark patches of the moon you see from Earth. It's very different on the far side. While you see some small patches of those mare in deep craters, it's very much absent on that side. So that's really neat. And while I have the microphone, sir, I just want to thank you on behalf of Canada. The space leadership you spoke of from America truly is extraordinary. I've said this many times before. A nation that leads like that and creates and sets big goals for humanity that brings other countries along with it is truly incredible. And I know that's a very intentional, not a necessary decision, intentional decision to lead by example and to allow other countries, like Canada, to share our gifts and help you achieve these mutually beneficial goals, like establishing a presence on the moon and eventually going to Mars. And Canadians are so proud to be a part of this program. Well, I have to say I spoke to a very special person, Wayne Gretzky, who I think you know, the great one. And I spoke to your prime minister and many other friends I have in Canada. They are so proud of you. And you have a lot of courage. I'm not sure if they'd want to do that. I'm not even sure if the great one would want to do that, to be honest with you. But you have a lot of courage doing what you're doing, a lot of bravery and a lot of genius, but they're very, very proud of you. Yes, Mr. President, we heard that. And we do love our Jeremy Hansen. We love all our Canadian astronauts, Jenny Gibbons, Josh Kutryk. They're just great people, and they're such a welcome addition to our corps. Great. Well, I really look forward to, when we can, I look forward to seeing you in the Oval Office. I'll ask Jared to bring you over, and I'll ask for your autograph, because I don't really ask for autographs much, but you deserve that. You really are something. Everybody's talking about this. And I look forward to having you in the Oval Office at the White House, and we will celebrate your incredible achievements and triumphs. This is big. This is really big stuff. The whole world is talking about it. And if you have the time, I will certainly find the time. I've been pretty busy also, as you know, but I will absolutely find the time, and we'll get together. And I'm going to be giving you a big salute on behalf of the American people and beyond that. Thank you for that, Mr. President. And when you want us, we will be there. And thank you for your leadership. Thank you to Jared for his leadership. Really, thank you for taking the time out today to visit NASA. It's really special for us, but it's really special for the team on the ground, a whole team of people all around the world pulled this off. And we just want to say thank you to all of you for this. It is the thrill and honor of a lifetime to have been on this journey. Today was amazing. But this three-year journey has been amazing, and it was made possible by the American people and the Canadian people. And we're so grateful to you all. Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much. And, Jared, congratulations. We'll see you soon. And I know that you have Mars very much in your mind, so we'll start thinking about that pretty soon, I think. And thank you. Congratulations to everybody. I'll see you at the Oval Office. Thank you for your time, Mr. President. It's been an honor. Thank you very much. Bye. Integrity, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event. Thank you. Thank you to all participants. Integrity, we are now resuming operational audio communications. Houston, Integrity for doc and camera. And we are going to start with one from me. Two crew in sight. Victor, earlier today the Orion spacecraft and its crew passed approximately 4,000 to 6,000 miles from the moon and provided the astronauts with a full disc view of the lunar surface. And from that higher vantage point, the astronauts were able to observe both poles and large-scale geological features in a single view. Towards the tail end of that observation period, they also were able to see an eclipse. And that eclipse period lasted about an hour and was when the sun was hidden from view behind the opposite side of the moon from the perspective of Orion. Since then, the crew has been working to clean up some of their observations and transfer some of the data and imagery down to the ground to begin processing. And the science team will take a look at that imagery as it comes down ahead of a post-lunar flyby conference tomorrow with the crew following their sleep period. Now we are standing by for a second public affairs event taking place in about a minute. Please call Integrity for a voice check. Integrity, Jared Isaacman, comm check. Administrator Isaacman, we've got you loud and clear up here. I've got you loud and clear. And let's see if we can top that last PO event. That was pretty special. So we are going to spend the next 20 minutes doing Q&A from a number of questions that have been submitted. And we are going to start with one from me. You all have spent years preparing for this moment and imagining what it must be like when you look down at the moon, at the lunar surface, what has surprised you all that you did not anticipate? Administrator, great to chat with you. Just something that just shocked me, because really using imagery and just the three-dimensionality of it, you know from your experience of seeing the Earth from space how it just seems different. And you look out in depth of things. And when we were on the far side of the moon looking back at Earth, it was just so obvious you had this sphere out in front of you of the moon in this three-dimensional space. You really felt like you weren't in a capsule. You'd been transported to the far side of the moon. And it really just bent your mind. It was an extraordinary human experience. I'm so grateful for it. Integrity, Jared, anyone else want to answer that one? You know, we had an amazing launch. The SLS is quite a powerful rocket. It got us into a 1,200 by, you know, eventually a 100-mile orbit. And it clearly powered speed. And then we did our translunar injection, and we were going quite fast. And so with all of that speed, though, it still took us days to get here. And so the scope of all of the things up to a 321-foot-tall rocket was amazing. It just puts, you know, the power required to do this in perspective. But then even with all that power and to get to those velocities, it still took us days. The scope and the breadth of the distance we had to cover, watching the distance from Earth count up and the distance from the moon count down, was one of the most surprising things I've enjoyed. Well, as I was trying to formulate an answer, at first I couldn't think of anything because there are so many things to choose from. I'll try to just narrow it down. But I'm going to go with something we did yesterday, a manual power flight test objective, where we just basically got to sit at the vehicle, it was Jeremy and I this time, and just drive around using the rotational hand controller, basically just drive it with a stick, and how well it handled, how tight the control algorithms were, and watching it respond when we actually degraded it on purpose by going into three degrees of freedom control, by actually inhibiting some of the jets, which even though we have jet redundancy, of course, for each other and these complicated algorithms. So it was just amazing to be in a deep space spacecraft and just be flying it around by hand. The one other thing I'll say is how fast it has gone by. I'm not ready to go home. I can't believe that something this cramped of quarters can fly by and still be fun every single minute. And I'll just close out with I think just scale, Jared, is the thing that is just blowing my mind. You know, you flew Polaris Dawn to some amazing apogee numbers, and on the International Space Station we're 250 nautical miles up, and that's the most beautiful view I think a human could ever experience. And we are dealing with numbers that are 250,000 miles, and every time mission control points to this vehicle, either at the moon or at Earth, and it reminds me every day that humans have to go, we've got to explore, we've got to go further to expand our knowledge, expand our horizons. And every time we take another step forward, it makes the world seem a little bit smaller and a little bit more manageable. And just putting these numbers in perspective, it is impossible as a human to listen to these displays and comprehend them. But here we are, and NASA's doing this, and the international team is just putting these numbers in perspective. It is impossible as a human to listen to these displays and comprehend them, but here we are and NASA is doing this, and the international team is doing this, and they're doing it very well. Excellent words, integrity. So certainly a very wild insertion orbit. I can imagine the contrast between perigee and apogee, the scale of it all, the 3D seeing the moon come alive, and then certainly manual control. Well, every Dragon crew for the last five years is very jealous on that. Okay, so we're going to questions here. This one, you, the Artemis 2 crew, inspire all of us, but what inspires you? I think as you get older, your answer to that question changes a lot. Certainly when I was a young boy and a young man, just seeing an airplane flying overhead, to me that really lit a fire in me. And then I think when you reach your middle age, it is interesting to watch leadership throughout the world kind of change the course of human history. You can watch that unfold. And now that you reach your middle age, it's just, it is interesting to watch leadership throughout the world kind of change the course of human history. You can watch that unfold. And now that I'm just a little bit over 50, you'll be there soon. Now that I'm just a little bit over 50, I mean, it all ties back to just family. And you understand just how much throughout the world kind of changed the course of human history. And certainly when I was a young boy and a young man, just seeing an airplane flying overhead, to me that really lit a fire in me. And then I think when you reach your middle age, it's just it is interesting to watch leadership throughout the world kind of change the course of human history. You can watch that unfold. And now that I'm just a little bit over 50, you'll be there soon. Now that I'm just a little bit over 50, I mean, it all ties back to just family. And you understand just how much you, the people that you surround yourself with. And that is really every night when you go to bed, that's really what you end up thinking. At least that's what I end up thinking. Thank you. All right. So here's a question. It's a good one. So for the Artemis 3 crew, what is the advice you would pass along for the next astronauts that will go in Orion? That's a great question, Jared. We've actually been thinking about the Artemis 2, sorry, the Artemis 3 crew since we were assigned as the Artemis 2 crew. It was the beginning of how we came up with how we wanted to fly this mission, how we wanted to buy down risk for the program and values as a crew. And so, you know, over the course of these three years, we've taken a lot of notes. So we've almost got a book to hand them. But I think a few practical things, you know, that we've been living for the past six days, how you pack is a huge impact to how you will live on the journey. And so things like food and your hygiene products. And then, you know, you know what's going on with our waste management system, the technology that we have, practicing that and being familiar with that and being prepared mentally. I used it on the space station. I used it at home in training. But I'll be honest, I wasn't really prepared to have to use it for over half the mission. And but, you know, we adapt and overcome. And so I can't wait to talk to that crew. I'm glad you said it or else I was. We definitely have to fix some of the plumbing. Okay, this question is from Merriam-Webster. So wordy one here. So you are going to be is from Merriam-Webster. So wordy one here. So you are going to be, well, you've already surpassed more than 250,000 miles from Earth, farther than any human has gone before. So what are some words that come to mind when you try to wrap your mind around this very unique experience? I'll be honest with you. The main word because superlatives just don't do it justice is humility. We would never be here if it weren't for so many people that came before us, starting with Neil Armstrong, Catherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Civil Rights Movement leaders, everyone who worked on this spacecraft. Before we got here in our three years of training, we went all over the country and even to our European and Canadian partners to see the people who have put their hands on this hardware, the millions of parts from every valve to this entire thing. The people that put on harnesses every day to rig it up in the VAB. There is, they all passed the record. We definitely didn't pass the record up here alone. So this is actually very similar to the question the President of the United States asked just a brief bit ago. But during the quiet moments on your journey when you were out of contact with everyone here on Earth, what were some of the thoughts that tended to occupy your mind most? Yeah, as Victor said earlier, when we were on the far side of the moon and out of contact with planet Earth, we all knew it and it was a milestone. We saw Earth disappear, the Earth set. But we were so busy with the science and we have such faith in our vehicle integrity, such faith in mission control that we were just at complete peace and just doing our job and just trying to do a good job to collect as much science data as we could while we were on the far side of the moon and we were just giddy in here like of our lives. He's being a bit humble, but as soon as we went out of com with planet Earth, we did have maple cookies as we just gathered together for about 30 seconds. Each one of us had a maple cream cookie and then right back into the science. But we had to take a moment to honor that time going behind Earth and it was a very, or I'm sorry, going behind the moon and out of touch with Earth and that was a very surreal moment for this crew. Copy that. Copy good maple cookies on the far side. And how has this journey changed? How has this journey already changed the way you see our home planet and humanity's future among the stars? There's so many directions I think we could go with that. And I just, you know, I think that there's, you know, global, but I think real impact is local. And I, to see the Earth as an entire thing and look at it, this system, and to see it all in once, but I, my daughters and just the, you know, the things that we can impact directly, the people that I can touch, that I can speak to, hug, and show love and gratitude toward, is the thing that I think is going to change and last. And you also talked about the future that we're going to have in the stars. And, you know, this mission, I think we swung for the fence and launched on our first try after learning a lot earlier this year, but I think it set the stage for us to go out and continue to swing for the fence, part in our Orion SLS and ground systems programs to go and get the next one teed up so that that crew can knock it off out of the park. And so I have huge expectations for what's coming next. Good words. Are you feeling homesick for Earth? I will tell you, last time I saw my eyes, I just, I did start thinking about getting home. It's not a homesickness at all, but I just, the first time, probably in three years, I let my mind get past the moon and back towards home. And I had to catch myself right there. You're an operator just like we are, and you know that is the place to be when you're up here. We got to look one step ahead. What's next? What's our next burn? How are we setting up our trajectory to get home? And we are going to do that. We are locked in, and we are definitely excited for the second half of this mission. And we are on guard. We are the first crew to fly this vehicle. We are ready for any contingency and any scenario, and we are going to stay locked in every second until we are back on that Navy ship and then home reunited with our families. And copy that. Astronauts like being in space. That checks out. Okay. There's a lot of questions from the space photography community. How are the pictures going so far? Well, we all love getting our hands on cameras and our eyes behind the lens here because we're just trying to share the incredible things that we're seeing, and that's obviously the best way we can try to do that. I've been into night sky photography for a long time, and so this is really a dream come true for me. I have thought specifically to that community. The time lapses I've been trying to get, those are a little tougher because we have a very dynamic vehicle. It's not like being on ISS where you can get the city lights below and the auroras and the spinning stars around the North Star. There's a lot going on. So, but what we got to do with this matter is out of this world. When we viewed that eclipse, that was the one time we all said, we literally cannot capture this with a camera. Everything else, I think we've been able to, we've really put our hearts and minds into making sure we understand so that we can bring that home to everyone. But having to set the low light features for Earth to shine on the moon while it's an eclipse, that was a new one. I had to dig deep in my book for that one. And thanks for the iPhones. They've been working great. Very glad to hear that. And there are a couple billion people back here on Earth that are extremely excited to look at the imagery you've captured up there. Okay, well, I want to thank you all. Integrity, so Reed, Victor, Christina, Jeremy, on behalf of NASA and space-loving people across the world, thank you for taking us with you to the moon. Thank you for your courage, all of your beautiful words that we've heard. You represent the absolute best of us. We are proud of you, and we look forward to welcoming you back safely to the good Earth very soon. Godspeed, and go Artemis II. Thank you so much, Administrator. We are just proud to be a part of this team, doing our work every day, and we are supported by a huge world of humans, and we are just honored to be a part of that. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Integrity, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event. Thank you. Thank you to all participants. Integrity, we are now resuming operational audio comm.