Commander Reid Wiseman, astronaut on the Artemis II mission, has described a moment of intense fear during the crew’s journey around the Moon when their spacecraft appeared to be traveling farther from Earth than planned, raising concerns about whether they would be able to return home. Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Tenerife, Wiseman recounted how the mission — the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972 — was intended to reach a maximum distance of 219,667 nautical miles from Earth before looping around the Moon and heading back.

According to Wiseman, the anxieties began when the spacecraft’s odometer, instead of showing the expected decrease in distance, briefly continued to increase. “I saw it hit 219,667, and I thought, ‘great, this is the farthest we will be from Earth.’ The next number I expected was 219,666, meaning we were on the way home,” he said. “But about three minutes later, it went to 219,668, and then 219,669. That was the moment I felt real fear because I thought we had just gone too far and might never come back.” After a tense three-minute wait, the recorded distance finally started to decline, reassuring the crew and prompting cheers.

The Artemis II mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1 and involved a six-day journey to lunar orbit and back. The crew included Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover — who became the first Black astronaut to fly to the Moon — Christina Koch, the first woman on the mission, and Col Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel to lunar orbit. The mission was live-streamed by NASA, allowing the public to follow the journey virtually, and the astronauts received widespread acclaim.

At the Starmus Festival, where the crew was awarded the Stephen Hawking medal for science communication, Wiseman reflected on the emotional impact of being so far from Earth. He described a feeling he termed “Earthsickness,” a profound longing to return to the planet and reconnect with loved ones. “You’re looking at an Earth so tiny it can fit underneath your thumb, surrounded by infinite black space. That little tiny dot is our home,” he said. “What I mostly felt was a deep desire to see my kids again, be with my friends, and experience life on Earth.”

After splashdown and recovery aboard the USS Martha, Wiseman said he sought comfort from the ship’s chaplain, overwhelmed by the enormity of the experience. “There was nothing I could say; the words don’t exist to capture what we felt,” he said. “But he understood.” The Artemis II mission marked a significant milestone in renewed lunar exploration and underscored both the technical challenges and emotional weight of traveling beyond Earth’s orbit.