The Metro: Artemis II is inspiring a new generation of space enthusiasts

April 9, 2026

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Integrity on NASA’s Artemis II mission have traveled further from Earth than anyone in history. They are expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 8 p.m. EST Friday, April 10 near San Diego.

A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon.

NASA’s Artemis II mission has captured the imaginations of a new generation of space enthusiasts, young and old.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are  due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 8 p.m. EST Friday, April 10 near San Diego. 

When they do, they will step foot on Earth with an extraordinary credential: they’ve been further from Earth than any humans in history, traveling over 250,000 miles and back again.

The 4-person crew will have spent a little over one week in space, with a lunar fly by that produced captivating images of the moon, including a solar eclipse and an earth rise.

The crew was in radio communication with mission control when they broke the record. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, alongside his crew members, took the opportunity to name two craters on the moon’s surfaces that had not been named yet. The first, they called Integrity, the name they had given their shuttle. The second name was deeply personal. The crater “Carroll” was dedicated to the late wife of the mission commander, Reid Wiseman.

In 2028, NASA plans to execute the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17, with the goal of establishing a lunar base on the moon.

Ed Cackett is a professor of astronomy at Wayne State University and the Michigan Science Center’s astronomer in residence. He joined The Metro to discuss the gravity of the moment, and the benefits of space exploration.

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Author

  • David Leins is the senior producer of WDET’s daily news and culture program, The Metro. He has produced several award-winning podcasts and multimedia series at WDET including Tracked and Traced, Science of Grief and COVID Diaries, which earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation. He previously led WDET’s StoryMakers program. David has an M.A. in Media Arts and Studies from Wayne State University, and a B.A. in anthropology from Grand Valley State University with a minor in Arabic. David teaches podcasting at Wayne State University and is an alumnus of the Transom Audio Storytelling Workshop.

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