Reflections After Artemis II

Gary Jordan (0:00)

Houston, We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 441, Reflections After Artemis II. I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more. Artemis II captivated the world with breathtaking imagery and emotional moments, and it reinvigorated an excitement about the future of deep space human space exploration. Commander Reed Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Cook and Jeremy Hansen experienced the adventure of a lifetime. And for the past few months since their splashdown on April 10th, they've had a chance to share their experiences around the US, Canada, and Europe, connecting with the public as well as the leagues of scientists and engineers that help make the mission a success. On episode 440, you heard Reed and Christina share some of their Artemis II experiences. On 441, after the conclusion of their mission and before their retirement, we sat down with Victor and Jeremy to reflect on memorable moments, shifts in perspectives, and what comes next. It was a pleasure to speak with them, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Let's get right to it.

Jeremy Hansen, welcome back to Houston. We have a podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you in the studio with us today.

Jeremy Hansen (1:35)

Great to be with you.

Gary Jordan (1:36)

Yeah, last we talked with you was before this historic mission, so I feel like we have a lot to catch up on. I looked at the date, it's July 30th that we're recording this. Four months ago at this very moment, you were two days from lunch.

So a lot has happened in the last four months, right? You got to experience your first spaceflight, which just so happened to be around the moon. You've been traveling all around the world. Give us a little bit of a look back of the last four months. What has, you know, what has it been like? Just high level.

Jeremy Hansen (2:06)

Only four months. It feels like longer.

It's been a whirlwind, but also really positive. It's been really heartwarming to feel people around the world connected with something creative and positive, collaborative. I just hear over and over again, we, I felt like I went on the mission with you, and we just loved watching the four of you work together. We loved learning about the team in Houston, and around the world, and like what it took to get there. It's really been remarkable to receive all of that. And quite frankly, humbling, because we often are the face of the program as a crew, but we represent an enormous team of people. All this praise is being heaped on us, but in reality, it reflects just so incredibly on the thousands of people it took to make that happen.

Gary Jordan (3:00)

You were the face that they were connecting with, like you said, we were doing 24-7 broadcasts, and we were showing inside the cabin. People felt like they were inside the cabin. They could tune in, and their day was looking at you guys and seeing what you were doing and just going into it. It's magical, really. It really was. And you were the face of it. But yes, there's a whole army of people that are behind it actually making it happen. It takes a lot to get to that point. Let's start, let's go chronologically. Four months ago, you were two days from launch.

You're getting ready and just in a couple of days, you're going to get strapped in. Take us through those couple of moments all the way through launch, that launch experience on an SLS as your first launch and then experiencing space for the first couple of days.

Jeremy Hansen (3:44)

For me, that launch time frame, a lot of what's in there is in those memories as family. Being at the Cape is a really special place in quarantine with your family and then these precious days before this high stress event that's coming for your family, walks on the beach, swimming in the ocean together and in and amongst all of that pressure, feeling very much at peace with it. That was what was remarkable to me. I wasn't sure how I would feel leading up to it. I didn't know if it would be a struggle to sort of compartmentalize the stress of the moment, but in hindsight, I was really at peace. I was sleeping the full eight hours each night. The night before launch, I just told my body, I'm like, we really need to sleep.