Artemis II races back to Earth after leaving moon’s sphere of influence

Both Orion’s Integrity and the International Space Station crews joked Tuesday night in a historical space-to-space call that they were elbowing each other to set milestones of going distances where no man or woman has gone before.

“We like to joke about that up here, too, because everyone’s talking about the records of the distance,” ISS Commander Jessica Weir told Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman and her fellow former ISS resident Christina Koch.

“And we ran to the far end of the space station when you guys were on the other side, so that we could claim we were the furthest away from you in that moment.

“I love all four of you so, so much.”

Wiseman replied with a joke in kind.

“We were doing the same shenanigans here when we got to the furthest point from the moon,” he said. “I tried to get to the furthest point from Earth. I tried to get to the furthest point in the spacecraft, and my roommates were clawing me down.

“I know, that’s a joke. We were busy doing science, but we had that same conversation. It was a lot of fun.”

Wiseman turned more serious, thanking the seven-member ISS crew for the historic call.

“I don’t know how much longer we have here, but from the four members of the spacecraft integrity, we really want to just say our deepest appreciation to the seven members of the International Space Station,” he concluded. “This has been a true treat. iIt takes the entire world to do amazing things like this and to get to come together as this group of people, and talk for just a minute at these distances.

“We are all off the planet Earth right now, and we’re all going to go home to that planet, and that is a very special thing. So thank you all for tying in.”