By Burt Dicht
NSS Space Coast Correspondent

“Hey, Let’s Go to the Moon”

I was at Kennedy Space Center yesterday for the arrival of the Artemis II crew, and while I have attended several International Space Station crew arrivals over the past few years, this one carried a very different energy. Those arrivals are always exciting. But this was something more.

This is not a low Earth orbit mission. Artemis II will take astronauts beyond LEO and around the Moon, marking the first time in more than 50 years that humans will travel that far from Earth. Everyone there understood that.

There was a large contingent of media on site, along with many members of the Artemis team. When the crew arrived in three NASA T-38 jets, they broke formation and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway. The sound of the jets grew louder as the T-38s taxied in and parked, and the astronauts stepped out. It was an exciting moment.

On board were the Artemis II prime crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, along with the Artemis II backup astronauts, Andre Douglas and Jenni Gibbons, who are training alongside the crew and ready to step in if needed.

After landing, the astronauts greeted those gathered and took time to make remarks and answer questions. Commander Reid Wiseman opened with a simple line: “Hey, let’s go to the Moon.” It got an immediate reaction and set the tone.

Christina Koch shared that during their flight from Houston, an air traffic controller asked about the launch weather and wished them luck. It was a small moment, but it says a lot about how many people are paying attention to this mission.

As the astronauts answered questions, you could tell they were ready. There was a sense that they understood both the challenge and the opportunity in front of them. I had a chance to ask about flying the first crewed mission on the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System. That is something that has only happened a handful of times in NASA human spaceflight, flying a new spacecraft and launch system together for the first time with a crew.

Jeremy Hansen said that astronauts are drawn to challenges, and that when it comes to “firsts,” it brings out the best in people and in the entire team. He also noted that Artemis II will not just be a first, but the beginning of much to come.

The crew is now in quarantine as final preparations continue ahead of a targeted April 1 launch. The work at the pad will intensify in the coming days but yesterday was about something else. It was about seeing the people who will carry this mission forward, standing on the threshold of a journey that will extend human presence beyond low Earth orbit once again.