Artemis II pilot Victor Glover praises God after return, says mission was 'too big to be in one body'

Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover on Saturday used a public appearance to praise God and talk about how he felt a deep sense of gratitude following the crew's monumental return from space.

Glover and his fellow astronauts spoke in Houston, Texas, about the experience of traveling to the far side of the moon, farther from Earth than any in human mission.

"I wanted to thank God in public," Victor Glover said. "And I want to thank God again, because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being with who I was with... it's too big to just be in one body."

The appearance marked the crew's first official public remarks after the mission, which carried astronauts more than 200,000 miles from Earth before returning safely. Crew members described both the technical demands of the mission and the personal impact of the journey.

"I have not processed what we just did, and I'm afraid to start even trying," Glover said.

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"I wanted to thank our families for everything, and I want to thank our leadership. We are fortunate to be in this agency at this time together."

Commander Reid Wiseman spoke about the bond formed among the crew during the mission.

"We are bonded forever and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through," Wiseman said. "And it was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life."

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Wiseman also addressed the experience of being far from Earth and the impact on the astronauts' families.

"No one knows what the families went through," he said. "This was not easy, being 200,000+ miles away from home."

Mission specialist Christina Koch described how her understanding of teamwork evolved during the mission.

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"A crew is people, that is in it all the time, no matter what, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other," Koch said. "A crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked."

"Earth was just this lifeboat, hanging undisturbingly in the universe… Planet Earth, you are a crew," Koch said.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen highlighted the human experience of the mission and the support behind it.

"It's the human experience that is extraordinary for us," Hansen said.

"Gratitude for my family, gratitude for NASA, gratitude for the teams. I don't think people will really ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were," Hansen said.

Last week, Glover drew praise on social media after he said his involvement in the Artemis II mission should be seen as part of "human history," not a racial milestone, and conservatives circulated clips of his remarks prior to the crew's launch Wednesday.

He made the remarks during a March 29 press event ahead of NASA's Artemis II mission, which is returning astronauts to lunar orbit for the first time in decades. The mission has been noted for its historic crew composition, including the first woman and first Black astronaut assigned to a lunar mission.

Glover acknowledged the significance of representation while pointing to a broader aspiration beyond it. 

"It's about human history. It's the story of humanity - not Black history, not women's history - but that it becomes human history."