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'Flames soon engulfed us': Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen describes his mission's riskiest moment
Live Science · By John Larsen ·
The Brief
- NASA's four-person Artemis II crew spent nine days in space.
- On April 10, 2026, the crew looked out their Orion capsule window and saw Earth from more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) away.
- Astronaut Jeremy Hansen describes the mission's riskiest moment, which the headline ties to flames engulfing the capsule.
Why it matters
First-hand accounts of the most dangerous phase of a crewed lunar mission give science readers a concrete view of what spacecraft return and splashdown involve.
Who’s affected
- space engineers and spaceflight enthusiasts
- science readers following crewed lunar missions
- Artemis II
- #artemis ii
- #nasa
- #spaceflight
- #orion
- #astronauts
After nine days in space, the four crewmembers of NASA's Artemis II mission looked out their capsule window on April 10, 2026, and saw the bright-blue Earth below them. The crew had traveled more than 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from our planet — farther from Earth than…
Timeline
Crew looks out capsule window and sees Earth from over 250,000 miles away
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'Flames soon engulfed us': Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen describes his mission's riskiest moment