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One week after the Artemis II crew returned from a trip around the moon and back, the four astronauts say they're still trying to process the experience. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: NASA astronaut Victor Glover spent the last week trying to avoid the news and social media.
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VICTOR GLOVER: It's hard to live in a bubble nowadays. I'm trying very hard.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: In a press briefing, he said they did what they set out to do.
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GLOVER: And now we've got to step out and just face that reality. And so that's a great thing. But I'll figure it out tomorrow.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: His crewmate, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, said they've been busy getting checked out by doctors, talking about science with NASA experts. So they haven't had time to reflect on their otherworldly journey. He said although he's not particularly religious, right after their capsule splashed down in the Pacific, on the U.S. Navy ship that picked them up, he asked to speak with the chaplain.
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REID WISEMAN: And when that man walked in, I'd never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just - I broke down in tears. Like, it's very hard to fully grasp what we just went through.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: It wasn't just the surreal sights, like the familiar moon transforming into something strange, but also being so far from Earth.
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WISEMAN: When you look down at your display and you see 212,000 miles, and the miles are increasing, I mean, that - your awareness is heightened the whole time.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The astronaut from the Canadian space agency, Jeremy Hansen, said what kept grabbing his attention during the trip was looking out at bright stars and getting this visceral sense of three-dimensional space.
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JEREMY HANSEN: That was mind blowing for me. And then you see the same thing with the moon and the Earth. You're viewing them from this new perspective, but this perspective with, like, three-dimensional depth.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Having been so close to the moon, NASA astronaut Christina Koch says she's optimistic about the plan to land people on its surface and build a moon base.
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CHRISTINA KOCH: Accomplishing the near impossible is exactly what we do and what we just showed that we can do.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Before anyone can set foot in the lunar dust, though, NASA needs a landing vehicle. It has two in development. Next year, the agency plans to test out one or both vehicles in low-Earth orbit with the hopes of landing astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
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BEASTIE BOYS: (Singing) Intergalactic, planetary. Planetary, intergalactic. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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