Artemis II crew has a new message for the world. Here's what they said

"What an amazing journey that was."

So said NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman on Thursday, April 16, at a post-Artemis mission news conference in Houston.

NASA astronauts Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, took questions from the media during the hour-long news conference.

This event was the astronauts' first public media appearance together since returning from the historic 10-day journey around the moon.

Awe and wonder

All expressed the awe and wonder of the voyage, and also stressed the importance of the worldwide support that the mission received. "Let's start by thanking the world," Wiseman said. "Thank you to every single person who built that machine."

Canada's Hansen said the spectacles seen during the mission gave him "a powerful feeling as a human being and as a group." Amazing sights included the solar eclipse, which Wiseman described as "otherworldly."

The camaraderie among the crew was also a key part of the mission, he added. "We launched as friends, and came back as best friends," Wiseman said, who said the crew was "bonded forever."

'An immense privilege'

It was also the first lunar mission to include both a Black man (Glover) and a woman (Koch). "We did what we set out to do," Glover said. He also said the Orion "flew like a dream" and said flying aboard the craft into space was an "immense privilege."

Koch said that since her return, she's awoken from dreams believing she is floating, and was surprised when she held up a shirt and it just fell back onto the floor.

Koch also said she thinks a future moon landing is possible and is thrilled to see whatever comes next, adding that "accomplishing the near impossible is exactly what we do."

A week since landing

The event took place almost a week since the astronauts returned to Earth after a 10-day journey that saw them swinging by the moon without landing.

The second mission under NASA's multibillion-dollar Artemis program, Artemis II was the first lunar venture in more than 50 years to carry a crew within the vicinity of the moon.

The mission served as a vital test flight as the U.S. space agency looks to put boots on the lunar surface in the years ahead and build a long-term base on the moon's south pole.

What was the Artemis II mission?

Artemis II marked NASA's first human moon mission since the iconic Apollo era came to an end with its final moon landing in 1972.

As the astronauts selected for the Artemis II mission, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen boarded an Orion spacecraft April 1 to hitch a ride to orbit. NASA's towering Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency has ever launched, provided the initial burst of thrust to send the mission on its way with a liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

During the 10-day journey, the Orion capsule took the astronauts farther from Earth than any humans have ever been – surpassing a record set in 1970 during the infamous Apollo 13 mission that nearly turned into a disaster. While more than a quarter-million miles from Earth, the astronauts aboard Orion whizzed by the moon, cruising no closer than about 4,000 miles above the surface while seeing sights of the far side that no one had ever laid eyes upon in person.

The mission, which served as a critical test flight ahead of a moon landing targeted for 2028, ended April 10 when the astronauts aboard the Orion vehicle splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.