'I just screamed. I was so happy': Artemis II astronauts describe joy of returning to Earth

Space'I just screamed. I was so happy': Artemis II astronauts describe joy of returning to EarthAfter completing their journey around the moon, the crew described the fiery descent, reunions with their families and the challenge of fully processing the mission.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Add NBC News to GoogleArtemis crew speaks out after historic mission03:01Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 16, 2026, 7:29 PM EDTBy Denise Chow and Al RokerAlthough it has been nearly a week since the four Artemis II astronauts completed their mission around the moon, the crew said Thursday that they have not yet fully come down to Earth mentally or been able to reflect on the big moments of their journey.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“I haven’t spent a lot of time processing all of this,” NASA astronaut Victor Glover told NBC News in response to a question about the final moments of the flight, when the Orion capsule streaked through Earth’s atmosphere at more than 24,000 miles per hour.“I will say it was just a very intense moment, because we had never seen or felt this before. Everything was important, every noise, every mechanism,” Glover said.Glover and his crewmates — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — were the first people to launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. Tensions were especially high during their final descent because the spacecraft had a known design flaw in its heat shield; NASA is still investigating the details of the shield’s performance.“I could tell we were in a fireball,” Glover said, describing the plasma outside the spacecraft during atmospheric re-entry. He admitted his first thought was, “Is it supposed to be that big?”When the hatch opened after they splashed down, Koch said, “I was completely overcome.”“I just screamed. I was so happy,” she said. “It was...