One of Nasa’s Artemis astronauts feared they would never come home from their trip around the Moon, he has said.
Reid Wiseman led the Artemis II mission that last year took humans back to the Moon for the first time in 50 years. But, as they completed their trip around the Moon and went further from Earth than anyone before, he feared that they would drift away into space and not come home.
During the mission, Mr Wiseman and his three fellow astronauts flew around the Moon in a first test of the equipment that Nasa hopes will take humanity back onto the lunar surface in 2028. As part of that journey, they were supposed to travel 219,667 nautical miles from Earth, further than any human before.
But as they completed that slingshot around the Moon, the readout that displayed the distance continued to go up. That led him to worry that there had been a technical error that could leave them unable to get back, he told Starmus Festival in Tenerife, in what he said was the scariest part of the mission.
“Mission control in Houston had told us our maximum distance, the furthest we were supposed to be from Earth, was 219,667,” he said, in comments reported by The Telegraph.
“I was watching this number, and I saw it hit 219,667, and I thought, ‘great, this is the farthest we will be from Earth, and the next number I will see will be 219,666, we’ll be going home’, but about three minutes later, I saw 219,668. It went up. I was like, ‘huh, that’s weird’.
“And then about three minutes later, it goes to 219,669, and that was the moment that I felt real fear because I thought we had just gone too far. We’re never going to come home, and so I was very scared.”
Mr Wiseman had to wait for three minutes, watching that meter until it began to drop and the crew began their journey back home. “I knew there was a good chance we might make it,” he said.
All four of the astronauts on the Artemis II mission, including Mr Wiseman, have since retired from active spaceflight. Last month, he joined “emeritus astronaut” programme, which means that he is still able to share his experience for future missions but is no longer eligible for future flights.
Nasa’s Artemis programme will continue next year, with the third crewed launch, which will see four different astronauts head to low-Earth orbit to test out key equipment for the lunar landing. That is scheduled to be followed by the full lunar landing on Artemis IV, expected in 2028, though Nasa’s programme has been subject to repeated delays.