Artemis II astronauts welcomed home to Houston after historic moonshot

Space Artemis II astronauts welcomed home to Houston after historic moonshot By William Harwood William Harwood CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. Read Full Bio William Harwood April 11, 2026 / 8:08 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The four Artemis II astronauts, freshly back from a historic trip around the moon, flew back to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday to cheers and applause from family members and hundreds of space center workers who gathered to welcome them home.Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen splashed down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego Friday evening to close out a nine-day mission, the first piloted flight to the moon and back since the end of the Apollo program a half century ago. The Artemis II astronauts greeting well wishers gathered in a hangar near the Johnson Space Center in Houston to welcome the crew home. Left to right: Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and commander Reid Wiseman. Miles Doran/CBS News After medical checks and phone calls home to family and friends, all four boarded a NASA jet and flew back to Ellington Field a few miles from the space center. A raucous crowd awaited them in a nearby hangar, including the crew's families."After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on, and NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon and bringing them home safely," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the cheering crowd.Turning to the astronauts, he said, "Thank you for showing us the moon again. Thank you for showing us planet Earth again, and thank you for contributing to the greatest adventure in human history. Welcome home, Artemis II."Wiseman stood up and after joking with his crewmates, said "I have absolutely n...