Tim Peake

That's three of the Artemis crew there speaking to the world just a few days after our last episode, safely back on ground at Houston. And as ever, we are joined by space journalist Kristen Fisher. Hi, Kristen. Hi, Tim. Hi, Maggie. It's great to see you both again. And I got to say, my favorite thing that I've done since I last spoke with both of you, at 10 p.m. the night before, I decided to fly down to Texas to the Johnson Space Center for the crew's first news conference.

Okei, me otamme kaksi enemmän täällä ruudulla ja sitten menemme puhelimessamme. Kristen, menet.

Hi, Kristin Fischer, welcome home. It's been such a joy watching how much this mission has gotten people so excited about space. My question is a little bit deep, so bear with me. When Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell was returning from the moon, he had an experience so profound that when he returned to Earth, he devoted the rest of his life to studying the nature of human consciousness.

It's a theme that all four of you touched on to varying degrees at some point during the mission. My question is, now that you've been back on Earth for just a few days and had a little bit of time to sit with it, do any of you feel as though you had an experience similar to what Mitchell described, this sense of universal connectedness? Did you experience somehow a shift in consciousness? Thanks. Yes.

So you heard Reid Weissman and Victor Glover answer my question. I feel like Jeremy Hansen was about to answer it too, but then we quickly moved on to the next question. So our very special guest for this episode is Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, one of the mission specialists on this mission. So Tim Maggie, I'm hoping I can maybe sneak this question into him.

Back in 1985 I was talking to him about this press conference, this mission, and how the humanness, the feelings and the emotions almost eclipsed the technical achievements, which of course were so immense. And my dad said, oh gosh, all this talk of feelings and emotions. He was like, Kristen, that's the wrong stuff. He just couldn't believe that they were talking about...

mental health and that they needed time to process. His mind just couldn't compute this. And I was like, dad, no, this is, that was the wrong stuff back then when you were flying, perhaps, but this is the right stuff now in the Artemis generation. But it shows how we've evolved and that how, yes, talking about this stuff just makes more people connect to it, really.

And perhaps that's a testament to the fact that the technical stuff just works so well as well. You know, we were able to focus on the human element. And everything about this mission was just, yes, they ran into some issues, not with the toilet, as Reid said, but with the valve for all of their, you know, urine to exit the spacecraft freezing. But yes, they ran into some hiccups as we knew that they would. But

Yeah, and how about a round of applause for the heat shield? Orion's heat shield that we were all so worried about. You know, we're still going to wait for the official analysis by NASA as to exactly how it performed. But early indications from NASA administrator Jared Isaacman are that it did perform better than in Artemis 1. And that's very good news for NASA.

And while we're talking about future Artemis missions, I think it's really fascinating to think that, you know, I was just talking to some folks at NASA at the Johnson Space Center a few days ago, and they said, look, the ball's now in...

Blue Origin and SpaceX's court. We had a successful mission. And now for Artemis 3 to happen, we've already rolled out the core stage of Artemis 3 for the SLS rocket. Our hardware is ready to go. Now the ball is squarely in Blue Origin and SpaceX's court. And just a few days ago on Capitol Hill, Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator, was testifying about NASA's budget. And he said that

Those two space companies, the potential human landing system providers, they told him that their landing systems, human landing systems, which is Blue Moon for Blue Origin and Starship for SpaceX, would be ready in late 2020.

Ja se on erilainen kuin se, mitä NASA oli sanonut juuri vuoden ajan. Vuoden ajan tarjoukset olivat viimeisen vuoden ajan, nyt viimeisen vuoden ajan. Joten jollekin me voimme nähdä hieman ristiriitaa loppuun.

And so Artemis 3, remember, it was originally targeting mid-2027. Now NASA administrator Jared Isaacman says that SpaceX and Blue Origin say it will likely be late 2027 before their human landing systems are ready.

So assuming a successful Artemis 3, then NASA's team's effort will shift to Artemis 4, which is currently targeted for early 2028. And that will actually place boots on the moon. And Artemis 4 will carry four astronauts to lunar orbit aboard Orion. And waiting for them there, hopefully, will be a fully tested human landing system, either Starship or Blue Moon, placed in orbit by a separate launch.

Once they're there on the surface, they'll spend about a week conducting experiments, collecting samples, testing out new technology, and of course wearing those brand new spacesuits, which have been designed and built by Axiom Space. The whole purpose of these spacesuits is to make them a little bit more comfortable and flexible for surface operations.

Jeremy, it's so great to see you. And I was so pleased I got to see you and give you a hug in Houston. Welcome home. I'm just so relieved that all of you are back safe on Earth. My first question to you is about how this was your very first flight to space and the fact that it was such a historic mission.

What were your first moments and your first night like in space? A lot of astronauts get sick. A lot of astronauts take some time to adjust. What was your first 24 hours in space like and did you get any sleep?

Jeremy, I had a chance to ask a question at y'all's first news conference back on Earth. And Reid and Victor answered, and I felt like you were going to answer it too, but then we moved on to the next question very quickly. So I'd love to get your answer to that question. And the question was, when Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell was returning from the moon,

He had this really profound experience. When he got back to Earth, he left NASA and devoted the rest of his life to the study of human consciousness. My question was if you or any of you had felt that you had experienced something similar to what Mitchell did, a shift in consciousness at some point in your journey. Reid said immediately, yes. Victor said there was something in there, but that he still needed to process it.