Six days after returning to Earth, the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission are already thinking about what it might be like to walk on the moon.
In a social media post Thursday morning, Jeremy Hansen, an Artemis II mission specialist from the Canadian Space Agency, described how the crew was running simulations of walking on the moon’s surface during future missions.
It was a sign that while the astronauts have concluded their historic journey that took them around the moon’s far side and back to Earth, NASA is keeping its attention on forthcoming missions in which astronauts will walk on the moon again.
Mr. Hansen and his fellow crewmates are expected to delve into more detail about their 10-day lunar outing at a news conference Thursday afternoon at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Mr. Hansen — last spoke to the public on Sunday in Houston, where they reunited with family and friends and gave one another group hugs.
They had returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down off the coast of San Diego. They were the first people to leave low-Earth orbit since 1972 and traveled farther from the planet than any humans before them.
Since Sunday, they and people they know have shared their homecomings and reunions on social media.
In League City, Tex., on Sunday, neighbors lined the streets with American flags and balloons to welcome back Mr. Glover.
Mr. Hansen posted a picture on X of himself and his wedding ring in zero gravity on Sunday and wrote, “I got back in time to celebrate my 23rd wedding anniversary with Catherine today!” He said that he was looking forward to “some cuddle time on Earth.”
Ms. Koch on Monday posted a video on Instagram of her dog standing on its hind legs, pawing the windowed front door and peering out when Ms. Koch appeared on the doorstep.
“I’m still pretty sure I was the happier side of this reunion,” she wrote in the post, which received 1.6 million likes.
She also posted pictures of herself hugging her loved ones, writing: “Families are on the mission, too. They have the harder job.”
Artemis II launched on April 1 and traveled 694,481 miles in all. Future Artemis missions aim to put Americans back on the surface of the moon and, eventually, send the first astronauts to Mars.
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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