By Joey RouletteHOUSTON, April 8 (Reuters) – Four astronauts traveling back to Earth from the far side of the moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission spoke of their emotions as they wrapped up the unprecedented flight and prepared to re-enter the atmosphere in a “fireball”, during their first press conference from space on Wednesday.The Artemis II crew, flying in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, are due to splash down off the Southern California coast on Friday evening after reaching the moon earlier this week. They cruised along a path that took them past the shadowed, lunar far side to become the farthest-flying humans in history.AdvertisementAdvertisementOn the trip back home, they will reach speeds of up to 23,839 mph (38,365 kph) as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, a high-risk phase of the mission that will put Orion’s heatshield to the test as it gets battered by intense atmospheric friction.”I’ve actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023 when we got assigned to this mission,” said Artemis II mission pilot Victor Glover, when asked how he was feeling about the return.”There’s so many more pictures, so many more stories, and gosh, I haven’t even begun to process what we’ve been through. We’ve still got two more days, and riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”Glover and fellow NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are the first wave of astronauts in a multibillion-dollar series of missions under the Artemis program that aims to return humans to the moon’s surface by 2028 before China, and establish a long-term U.S. presence over the next decade, building a moon base for potential fu …
