The last and most dangerous stage
The four astronauts of the Artemis II mission are right now, almost a quarter of a million kilometers away, fine-tuning the details for what is to come. What is coming is the most critical moment of this entire historic journey: re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. A process that they themselves bluntly describe as becoming a ‘ball of fire’.
They have completed the first manned trip around the Moon in more than 50 years. But the work isn’t over until your feet touch solid ground. And between them and that moment is a controlled hell of friction and extreme heat.
Lunar silence and human legacy
The trip left indelible moments. Like that almost complete hour in which, when passing behind the Moon, they were completely cut off from the Earth. Commander Reid Wiseman described it simply as ‘surreal’.
Beyond the spectacle, there is the purpose. Pilot Victor Glover summed it up well:
“This trip has left a large amount of data, images and stories to share. It is science, but it is also something deeply human.”
Now, they concentrate all that accumulated experience on a single objective: navigate that final fireball and return home to tell the tale.




