Episode description: In this bonus episode, go behind the scenes of key moments from Artemis II with NASA experts who made them possible. Engineers who launched the rocket describe the hours-long process that led to a successful liftoff. The leader of the closeout crew recalls his sendoff message as the astronauts were sealed inside their spacecraft. And the Artemis II lunar science lead—aka “Science Lady” in some viral social media posts—explains why the astronauts’ description of the Moon put a huge grin on her face.
[Music: Supercluster by Sergey Azbel]
HOST JACOB PINTER: You’re listening to NASA’s Curious Universe. I’m Jacob Pinter.
HOST PADI BOYD: I’m Padi Boyd.
PRODUCER CHRISTIAN ELLIOTT: And I’m Christian Elliott.
JACOB: And we are all here today to celebrate Artemis II in a special bonus episode.
This mission had so many cool moments, and we’ve had more fascinating conversations that we just cannot keep to ourselves. So we’re going to share them with you now. First things first: The astronauts of Artemis II are home safe. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are readjusting to life on this planet. NASA scientists are digging through observations and photos the crew collected as they flew around the Moon. And engineers are evaluating data from this test flight to make future Artemis missions even better.
A view from the window of the Orion spacecraft approximately 9 minutes before Earthset during the Artemis II lunar flyby on April 6, 2026.
CHRISTIAN: Now, we’ve got a lot of exciting NASA stories to share with you in the coming months. But today, while we’re still all riding this collective Moon joy high, we wanted to take a look back at Artemis II. We’ll be catching up with some of the folks you’ve met along the way in this podcas …