CALGARY — Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen says there are “no words” to describe the experience of being part of NASA’s Artemis II mission.Speaking at a press conference in Houston on Thursday with the three other crew members, the 50-year-old from London, Ontario, reflected on a journey that took them farther from Earth than any humans in history.“I've been trying to find words for it. I don't really have it yet, we just saw so many amazing things, you can't pick one,” Hansen said.“[There is] this depth to the galaxy that I just had never experienced before... We're all kind of struck by these things that make us feel small. I had this sense of fragility and feeling small, infinitesimally small, but yet this very powerful feeling as a human being, as a group.”Hansen became the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit last week on the Artemis II mission, which was the first crewed lunar voyage in more than 50 years..He was joined on the mission by commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch.The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego last Friday after a 10-day flight that set a record for the greatest distance travelled by humans from Earth.They have since been undergoing medical evaluations and debriefings at NASA's Johnson Space Center.Since returning, he said the public's response to the mission has moved him deeply.“I found it really refreshing to find out how people have followed the mission and been creative with the mission, there's lots of funny stuff online,” he said.“It just reinforces something I already knew — humans are just great people in general. We don't always do great things. We're not always in our integrity, but our default is to be good to one another.”.MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Artemis II successfully returns to Earth with Pacific splash down.Physically and psychologically, Hansen said the mission didn’t take as much of a toll as some observers might have thought, which allowed him to focus fully on his role during the mission and reinforced his worldview.“I was able to complete the mission and just do my job, so that’s positive. On the other hand, it didn’t really change the way I see the world or our lives, but it reinforced it a lot,” Hansen stated.“I launched with the belief that collaboration for humanity is the next thing we need to keep working on. Seeing Earth from the perspective of the Moon really strengthened that goal — this objective for humanity. So I now have a renewed desire to work with the world to make that happen.”The mission was just one part of the Artemis program, whose overall objective is to establish a lasting human presence on the moon and then eventually send astronauts to Mars.Since returning to Earth successfully, NASA has confirmed the crew met all of the primary mission objectives, including testing life support systems, manually piloting the Orion spacecraft, and completing a lunar flyby with unprecedented views of the moon's far side, paving the way for the Artemis III mission, which has a targeted launch for mid-2027.
