So here's a nice moment of bipartisan space appreciation. Former President Barack Obama took to social media on Saturday to heap praise on NASA's Artemis II crew, who just wrapped up a historic deep-space mission. He called their safe return through Earth's atmosphere at more than 24,000 miles per hour a powerful demonstration of courage and innovation.
"What the Artemis II astronauts did over the last 10 days was a testament to their bravery," Obama said in a post on X. He noted the crew traveled farther from Earth than anyone ever has, re-entered at that blistering speed, and "splashed down safely," calling the whole endeavor a "testament to human ingenuity." He also gave a shout-out to NASA for making it all possible.
The mission itself wrapped up on Friday with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. It was a nearly 10-day journey that included a lunar flyby and set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our planet—about 694,000 miles. The Orion spacecraft brought back its crew of four: astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. This mission is seen as a critical stepping stone toward putting boots back on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission.
During a six-hour lunar flyby, the astronauts reached that record distance, with scientists back at mission control listening in as they described the Moon's surface in real time. It wasn't just Obama offering congratulations. President Donald Trump also praised the mission, calling it a symbol of American strength and global leadership. He said it marks a return to the Moon and highlights U.S. dominance in the realm of space exploration.
