Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Artemis II Crew Reentering Earth's Atmoshpere. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 10, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Senator Kelly as we are watching this, what does it feel like inside that capsule?
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, they're going to get up to about 4Gs, so, it'll get pretty heavy. Your body will feel four times its weight on Earth.
COOPER: And were told helicopters have a visual of the capsule.
KELLY: That's great, that's good. It's still a while until the chutes open, right here, they're going to splash down to the seven. So, they get little ways to go here and cruise, you know, busy now monitoring the trajectory of the space craft, not much they can do about it, but Orion will do it like a series of role reversals to change its bank angle to control its lift vector, to control the place that's going to land.
COOPER: Obviously, Artemis II, Jeanette, is coming in at a different trajectory, reentry trajectory than Artemis I was.
JEANETTE EPPS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, it is. Well, we've got a crew on here this time, so it's going to do slightly different maneuvers in order to, you know, make it a little bit more comfortable for the crew as well. And then when the parachutes come out, the crew will feel that force and it will, you know, once that happens, it will slow the craft down to a much slower speed, manageable speed. And then the secondary, the main parachutes, the three main parachutes will deploy.
COOPER: Pete, right now, what stands out to you? What should we all be watching for?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This is the most dangerous part of this whole mission, and the crew is not out of danger yet. Remember that the heat shield faced problems after Artemis I --
COOPER: The same trajectory is perfect, and we're starting to get intermittent views. I just want to be clear --
MUNTEAN: Yes, and this view that we're seeing here, this is switched by NASA. It's directed by NASA and this is coming from P3 aircraft flying high covering near the touchdown zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... you loud and clear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your trajectory is nominal and your recovery teams have visual.
COOPER: So, they have communications now.
KELLY: This appears to be the end of the block.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No action for the enabled internal camera controller fail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big cheers from the viewing room here in mission control as voice communication reestablished with Commander Reid Wiseman for America and awaiting world Integrity is five-and-a-half minutes away from coming home.
COOPER: So, all the concern about the space, about the heat shield, they seem good.
KELLY: Well, not sure exactly where peak heating is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passing 100,000 feet now.
KELLY: They're probably through that.
COOPER: Peak heating would be about 4,000 to 5,000 Fahrenheit.
KELLY: Yes, about half the temperature of the surface of the sun. Also, about twice as hot as the space shuttle tiles would get during reentry. So, it's hot, they're coming back at Mach 35. We were, we'd hit the atmosphere about Mach 25 on the space shuttle.
COOPER: And just in terms of the speed, Pete, that they're going to be landing, it'll slow what, like 20 miles an hour? And that's what, the actual splashdown.
MUNTEAN: That's for the splashdown. So, I'm not sure the exact speed, but like the trajectory they're coming in is so that they'll land in the exact spot, so that the crew can pick them up immediately, and they're about to deploy the chutes.
KELLY: You know, the interesting thing about this trajectory is they're not just hitting the atmosphere and reentering -- actually skip off the atmosphere a little bit to slow down a little bit control the temperature and then reenter, sort of reenter like a second time.
COOPER: Four and a half minutes to splashdown.
KELLY: Here is the view, Anderson, we've gone from Mach 32 to the surface of the ocean. The speed of a bike in 13 minutes time. This is an incredible feat of engineering here and we're going to see the set of 11 different parachutes begin to deploy.
COOPER: We're seeing it.
MUNTEAN: They're clearly through the --
COOPER: Through the danger zone.
KELLY: Yes, yes, now, the critical part of this is --
COOPER: Looking how fast that is -- I mean that's --
KELLY: --making sure the drogue chutes open and then the main parachute.
COOPER: For the astronauts inside that capsule, can they, they don't, do they have a sense of how fast they're moving? I mean, are they seeing land so they can have a sense because I've heard from other astronauts who have had a different kind of trajectory, they can see the land. So, they get a sense of how fast they may be going. But this --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --series of parachutes.
KELLY: the drogue chutes are still closed. So, if they're looking at the window, they're looking up, so they can't see the water. Two good drogue chutes, next up
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We copy, we see them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next up, the deployment of pilot parachutes that will pull the main chutes out. Time to splashdown three minutes and 10 seconds.
MUNTEAN: The drogues essentially designed to sort of stabilize the spacecraft as it's making its initial descent here in the atmosphere. The atmosphere did a lot of the deceleration for the spacecraft, bringing it to about 300 miles an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to flight dynamics --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rates on two drogues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see the same on board.
EPPS: Awesome.
[20:05:018]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passing through 10,000 feet, still on drogues
COOPER: Ten thousand feet.
KELLY: They're probably going 300 miles an hour or something like.
MUNTEAN: Maybe a little less, yes.
KELLY: And there goes the drogues. That's good news. Those are the main chutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Main chute deployed.
KELLY: The main chutes when fully deployed --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're 5000 feet. KELLY: --roughly the size of a football field, three different parachutes here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --has been activated on integrity.
KELLY: --328 feet in surface area and we have three good main chutes. Now they're in really good shape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good briefing, good descent rate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we see three good looking parachutes.
KELLY: Just like the previous ten days of the mission.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Integrity cabin pressure indicates no need for hydrazine checks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Integrity copies.
KELLY: The next big test here is when --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a perfect descent for integrity. Its crew sounding hale and hearty on board.
KELLY: When integrity touches down --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time splashdown, one minute, 15 seconds.
KELLY: -- Will it be right side up or upside down? And that is the big question here. And bags will deploy five of them filled with helium around the circumference of the spacecraft in order to write it. If it lands upside down, if it lands right side up, all okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- spanning 694,481 miles from its launch from the Kennedy Space Center back on April 1st and a trip around the moon.
COOPER: This is the first time the Orion capsule is doing this.
KELLY: No, the first Artemis mission, it was the Orion capsule, but with no crew members on board.
We're about a minute out to splashdown. And so far, the timing has been really good. The estimate was that this would happen at 70707 central time in Houston.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passing through 1,000 feet.
COOPER: And the naval vessel, I mean, they are right there. They are not far from the splashdown.
KELLY: All very close to the ship.
MUNTEAN: It seems they have the touchdown.
COOPER: Wow, there it is.
KELLY: It should be about 60 miles or so I think, from San Diego. And this is the view from the USS John Murtha.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --sending post landing command.
Now splashdown confirmed.
COOPER: So, now they have teams who are already on the water who will go to them. They'll have divers who will check the outside.
MUNTEAN: There are four Navy helicopters standing by on the Uss John Murtha. Two are camera ships, two are part of the recovery operation here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. Integrity's astronauts back on earth.
COOPER: Incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the landing and support officer reports the vehicle is stable one. We still will be deploying the crew module uprighting system to maintain that orientation. A perfect bull's eye splashdown for Integrity and it's for astronauts.
The reference there, of course, to the helium bags that I referred to before, obviously not needed in this case because the integrity and Orion capsule is upright, would be needed if it was upside down. They're still going to do the test anyway. On this long litany of milestones and tests on what is essentially been a ten-day long test flight of the space launch system and the Orion capsule, paving the way to Artemis III in 2027. If anything here went wrong, this would have pushed the timeline.
The official splashdown time 7:07 and 47 seconds P.M. central time. We'll get that refined for you. That would put the end of the mission at a mission elapsed time of nine days, one hour, 31 minutes, 35 seconds.
KELLY: And one critical aspect of this is going to be to take a close look at the heat shield and do the necessary analysis -- make sure it performed as they expected.
[20:10:10]
MUNTEAN: After Artemis I, that was so critical because it was clear that --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --splashdown occurring in Pacific south of southwest of San Diego at 7:07 and 47 seconds P.M.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Integrity, Houston com check on VLD-R.
MUNTEAN: Boats are there fast.
COOPER: Boats, divers, medical personnel as well on them to do medical checks.
KELLY: And essentially, they do a bit of a triage on site to figure out if there's anything amiss among the four crew on board Orion, that likelihood. We're hearing here from NASA is that Christina --
MUNTEAN: Yes, there's a full medical team on the boat to check them out.
Reid wiseman reporting for green crew members. That is not their complexion that is the fact that they're in great condition that's what that means.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's probably sitting right next to the hatch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --upright, the crew module uprighting system is being deployed, the five airbags being inflated through helium to maintain the upright configuration for the vehicle. This was a textbook entry and a textbook touchdown for Integrity. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, back on earth after a journey around the moon.
COOPER: What does that feel like? I mean, after being in space. Yes, it sounds like being on the water to just being home and having gone through a reentry. I mean, they're hitting the water, say 20 miles an hour. It's like a 20 mile an hour car crash.
KELLY: Car crash, my four missions are all aboard the space shuttle, so I didn't experience anything like this. But I will say like emotionally, they're and they should be, right, incredibly proud of what they've accomplished. The mission, they must be a little bit sad that it's over. You know, I felt that way when I came back from space. But they're also looking forward to seeing their families again and having the opportunity to talk to people about this.
EPPS: And they may be a little deconditioned as well, yes.
COOPER: What were you saying?
EPPS: They may be a little deconditioned. So, they may, you know, they're probably going a little crazy, but they're feeling great on that and just probably slightly Wobbly but it's normal, it's normal.
COOPER: How long does that last?
EPPS: Well, it depends on how long you're in space as well. Like on the shorter duration missions, you do come back deconditioned. But the longer you're away, you're probably a little more deconditioned, say 100 days, 200 days, you're a lot more deconditioned. And so, it takes a little longer to come back. Maybe six months. I'll say that from my experience, but for the shorter duration, probably. I'm not sure what you would say, Mark.
KELLY: I would say it seems to be about the amount of time you spent in space is about the time it takes to recover. Because I know just speaking to my brother about this, it was in space for a year. He felt it was a year before he got back, right.
COOPER: And Dr. Epps, you were saying it took you about six months.
EPPS: It took a little longer than that. But in general, 95% back about six months, yes.
COOPER: We also have Dr. Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut. Dr. Reisman, what was it like for you returning?
DR. GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, I was really scared coming back because the guy that was on the controls of the spacecraft during my first landing was a guy sitting right next to you, Mark Kelly, and --
KELLY: Perfect landing.
REISMAN: It was it was a perfect landing. We had it easy compared to what these guys just went through. I mean, we didn't pull much more than the G. They reached up to 3.9 and we were coming in a lot slower. Were at Mach 25, they're at Mach 35. So, we didn't have parachutes. It was much more gentlemanly the way we came back. Um, but uh, so they had quite a wild ride and they must be so happy right now.
And, Anderson, I also think they're kind of relieved, you know, we have a lot of confidence when the NASA engineers do their homework and tell us that they've done the analysis and everything's going to be okay, but you're still in your in your head. You still know that there are problems the last time we did this around this entry period with the heat shield. So, I'm sure that didn't escape their notice. And now sitting there in the ocean, there must be a sense of relief and just exaltation and a sense of victory that they got through that and everything went great. I mean, it was just perfect.
COOPER: How long, do you think, Garrett, that they're going to be in that capsule waiting before the hatch is opened?
REISMAN: I don't think it's going to be that much longer. I think they're going to deploy a kind of a porch is what I heard. Like an inflatable porch. And then they're going to be plucked out by the helicopters one by one, and then only a few minutes to get them on the deck of the ship. So, you know, they have a couple of checks to go through.
Their boat's out there sniffing for hydrazine to make sure there's no leaks or that toxic fuel. And as long as that's all clear, I think the helicopters will come in pretty soon.
COOPER: But, Pete, I mean, you can't understate this given the problems with the heat shield on Artemis I, which they say in the analysis they did, even if there had been humans on board, they would have been okay on Artemis I if it was carrying astronauts, which it wasn't. But given those problems, there were concerns about the heat shield this time, it seems like there may obviously, as you said, Senator Kelly, that's got to be examined. But, they're okay.
[20:15:46]
MUNTEAN: There were definite concerns but the news that they were okay, the jubilation in mission control and the press room that were hearing, one comms was reestablished after the six-minute blackout was widespread. Of course, NASA will want to know whether or not its change in the angle of attack, essentially the change in the bite that the spacecraft was going to take first when it skipped off the atmosphere and then came into the atmosphere.
If that really worked to make it so that the heat shield did not take as much abuse for essentially a shorter period of time. It was going to be hotter, but a shorter period of time, less distance traveled to the splashdown site. Those tweaks were made between Artemis I and Artemis II. Will they have to make more tweaks between Artemis II and Artemis III?
And there have been so, so many questions around whether or not the heat shield would really stand up to this. So far, it seems like a successful test, but of course they'll have to dig into it more. And there was a tiger team put on this case after Artemis I.
REISMAN: It's worth noting, as Pete just mentioned, you know, when Artemis I came down, it was floating in the ocean. It looked perfect as well. It looked just like this and it was only when they brought it aboard and looked at the bottom of the heat shield, that they saw that big chunks were missing. So, I think it's too soon to tell exactly how well the heat shield did. But the important thing, of course, is that the crew is safe. And we had a successful entry. We'll learn a little bit more.
And there also, the heat shield on the next Orion vehicle will be different. They do intend to redesign it. They just didn't have time to do that before this mission. So, they had this operational workaround, but they will be improving the heat shield for future missions.
COOPER: What do you see, on I mean, Dr. Epps, what do you see on reentry?
EPPS: Well, as we were coming back on the dragon, you're at an angle and you're coming in and you see a light show through the window. I mean, the friction that of compressing the atmosphere on the ionized gas around the vehicle, you could see a light show at the windows and you could start feeling the force of gravity on your body.
COOPER: But is there any temperature change inside?
EPPS: No, you don't feel any temperature change on the inside. So, you're just coming through. You could hear the noise of just the it's like a light show. I don't even know how to describe exactly, what we see, but you can see everything happening. You can feel it, but it's not -- the temperature inside is perfectly comfortable. We do have our visors down. We're buttoned up in our suits and were in the seats. We're pretty comfortable.
COOPER: This is a dumb question, but are you sweating inside this? Like, I mean, obviously --
EPPS: There's ventilation into the suit and through an umbilical on the, on our thigh or right thigh. You feel very comfortable. You could just feel all the forces and you could see through the windows just sparks coming up. And it's just an amazing ride. REISMAN: Space shuttle gets hot inside, but were also wearing like liquid cooling garment underneath --
COOPER: There's actually liquid in the garment?
REISMAN: Yeah, and so, you wear long johns in case you wound up in the water, but you have a pressure suit.
COOPER: So, there's a 30-minute delay on the power down, they're saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And standby, we have the master diver on --
COOPER: There is a coms problem I guess, so, that's -- let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey Jackie, we just got the master diver on star.
COOPER: So, it's actually a master diver on the site.
REISMAN: Yes, it sounds like on the spacecraft.
COOPER: And they, initially they check for any cracks or anything outside the spacecraft.
KELLY: Well, the big thing is to make sure and Garrett mentioned this, that there's no hydrazine leak, which is really very toxic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Integrity, Houston, if you are happy with your calm with master diver, you can go back to the 15-minute power down.
MUNTEAN: So now they're starting to turn things off. We know that the propellant system, the concern about hydrazine has been saved, meaning it's now safe for all of these crews on these Navy fast boats to approach Integrity.
Right now, they're still working through some postflight checklists. We knew there would be a bit of a delay here for the recovery team to arrive on site and then begin removing astronauts.
[20:20:25]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...phone communications capability between the crew on board, Integrity and the recovery team that will get sorted out here shortly. There's plenty of cooling on board, Integrity, so there's no rush to begin the power down. Call you on the sat phone and not getting an answer there either.
COOPER: It's kind of amazing to me that they're able to communicate in space, and they're having trouble with the sat phone now that they're back here on earth.
MUNTEAN: Communication after splashdown was always going to be a bit of a concern. And if they ended up upside down in the water, then that would have led to a comms blackout again. So, this has always been a bit of a tricky part of the post-flight procedure is making sure that they establish the line of the coms. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...to recovery, that we hear them, but it does not appear as though they are hearing us.
MUNTEAN: So, they're essentially having to relay comms through Houston to the Navy crew, is what it sounds like now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Houston copies and read just to confirm, you are pushing the PTT on the radio.
KELLY: Oh no.
MUNTEAN: She's asking if they're -- are you actually pushing the push to talk?
KELLY: That was not a good question.
COOPER: That's something I would say to my mom she talks.
KELLY: That is not a good question.
(Voice Overlap)
COOPER: Was that a diss or --
REISMAN: Well, that's the one that capcom should say to the flight director, I am not sending them, ain't happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you see, the recovery teams are moving towards the --
COOPER: I mean, it's nice to be able to joke about something. I mean, they are safe. They are here and what an incredible, incredible --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ...inflatable raft called the front porch that will be the port of call for the crew as they're being extracted one by one from the vehicle.
COOPER: It's also got to be an extraordinary feeling to have been in space for ten days, have a 20-mile an hour crash into the ocean. This incredible journey through the atmosphere, and then to suddenly find yourself in the sea and the hatch opens and you're smelling sea air and the salt, and it's --
KELLY: That's why, it's easy for these guys to get a little bit sick here in this environment. You know, the spacecraft is, its bobbing around in the ocean and their neural vestibular systems all messed up from being in space for ten days. It is actually a concern when I was involved with the design as a representative from the crew office for Orion, and that's actually a big concern.
EPPS: Yes, sometimes they wait till the sea state is pretty steady, but even then, once you splash down, you do get some bobbing. You've already got something akin to like vertigo. And so, it could be made. It can make it worse.
COOPER: So, is that, you know, people have been on boats and come back and they sort of feel sometimes like they're still in a boat. Is that what it feels like? Like, what is it for the first couple of days? What do you feel like in your head?
EPPS: Well, everything, you feel like you're upright, but then your body is not upright. You will end up falling.
COOPER: Really.
EPPS: So, you do feel like --
COOPER: You mean if you try to stand, you mean you're lying down, you feel like you're upright or you're up --
EPPS: Well, if you're laying down, you'll feel like the room is spinning almost. And that's what I felt initially. Like the room is spinning --
COOPER: Feels like vertigo.
EPPS: Yes, very much so. And but these guys, you know, they've been gone for ten days. They still feel it in their body -- for maybe a day or two, they'll have that feeling. Hopefully they won't tip over or anything like that, but it goes away relatively fast.
MUNTEAN: It's important to underscore here though. Everything that went right, sort of an hour and a half of event after event after event when it comes to this -- when it came to this reentry is what was described by the flight director during one of the press conferences last night and even the sea swells are pretty low at this point. They said for days, NASA has been saying the weather is go, everything is good.
It's a really quite big high-pressure system there off the coast of San Diego. Things are relatively placid out in the Pacific Ocean, which is aiding in this recovery, although of course things like this comms issue crop up and there's not much you can do about it. It seems like they're doing the low-tech relay it through Houston to get to the people just outside of the spacecraft. Not convenient, but necessary.
KELLY: NASA and this crew made this mission look very, very easy. This stuff is really hard. It's incredibly complex and just the engineering that went into the spacecraft and the rocket ship SLSs stuff operating at extremes of temperature and pressure. Navigating all the way to the moon, successfully back hitting the atmosphere at 35 times the speed of sound, it's an incredible achievement, and in this case, I mean they did a great job and things went very, very smoothly. Makes it look easy.
[20:25:33]
COOPER: Senator Kelly, you posted on social media yesterday something that I want to read to our viewers. You said somewhere out there a kid is watching this mission who might be inspired to study science and engineering and one day be the first person to walk on another planet. That's one of the reasons why space exploration matters and why Artemis II matters. KELLY: Yes, I was that kid in between really for the second half of the Apollo missions. I was in kindergarten when Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon. My brother remembers it. My mom said I fell asleep on the floor, so I missed it. But I do remember the later Apollo missions, and it really inspired me and I wanted to do that. I wanted to be the first person to go to mars. I think that person is alive today.
COOPER: Really?
KELLY: I think so. I think it might be a kid out there, could be somebody in college right now. I mean, who knows?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Communications between Integrity and the recovery team that is basically standing by very close to the spacecraft. We're going to go to the deck of the USS John P. Murtha, where Megan Cruz is standing by with administrator Jared Isaacman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey Bobby, it's such an honor to be able to be here on the ship, to be able to share and experience this moment with everyone together. And of course, as you just said, yes, here with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, administrator, how did you feel getting to witness this and seeing NASA at its best?
JARED ISAACMAN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: I mean, I'm honestly I'm still at a loss for words. I mean, you know, like the childhood Jared right now. Can't believe what I just saw. I mean, almost been waiting my whole lifetime to see to see this. And then as NASA administrator, I just couldn't be more proud of the entire workforce, the years, the effort, the late nights, all the hard work from across the country that contributed to this incredible moment right now. And, yes, incredibly grateful to for our teams here on the John P. Murtha right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, look at behind us here.
ISAACMAN: What do you guys think, we just brought some astronauts back from the moon, huh?
(CHEERING)
ISAACMAN: Unbelievable. Thank you, yes. So grateful to the Navy, the sailors, they're here, the NASA teams. I mean, this is a joint effort that's on their way right now. These recovery forces are getting out to our Orion spacecraft to integrity, to get our astronauts back on the ship safely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, and this is not just an accomplishment for NASA, this is an accomplishment for humanity. Again, a historic mission to the moon and back. How does this make you feel and what do you hope people take away from this?
ISAACMAN: Well, I'll tell you, you know, I think about, I think about the crew members that we've all had an opportunity to observe over the last ten days, right? I mean absolutely professional astronauts. I mean, wonderful communicators, almost poets. But then I think these were the ambassadors from humanity to the stars that we sent out there right now. And I can't imagine a better crew than the Artemis II crew that just completed a perfect mission right now.
So yes, it's a huge moment for everybody, right? I mean, we are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon, bringing them back safely, and to set up for a series more. I mean, this is not a once in a lifetime, which you hear sometimes around here. This was a once in a lifetime. No, it's not. This is just the beginning. We are going to get back into doing this with frequency sending missions to the moon until we land on it in 2028 and start building our base.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, are we going to build on the momentum for Artemis III? I mean, it's just around the corner.
ISAACMAN: Absolutely, so I mean, that's, you know, part of me too. I can't wait to get the crew off of off of integrity right now. But also getting integrity back on this ship so we can start taking a look at it because all that data is so precious to us right now. I mean, we are going to definitely want to take a good look at the thermal protection system. We're going to want to download all the data they couldn't transmit back to us and use that to inform Artemis III. But were already making progress, right. You had SRB segments already showing up at KSC core stage for Artemis III is rolling out on April 20th.
We're getting 39, we're getting mobile launcher one back in vehicle assembly building. So yes, there is a lot to celebrate right now on a mission well accomplished for Artemis II. And at the same time, we got to start getting ready for three.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amazing, and last question. You know, for people who joined us for all ten days to see what we can accomplish together with our international partners, what do you what do you think about the fact that we're going to keep doing this more and more and more?
ISAACMAN: It's incredibly exciting. I mean, yes, it's the contributions like the best and brightest across the NASA workforce from across the country, our industry partners, our international partners. We had a Canadian space agency astronaut on board and Jeremy, we had the European service module.
And you think in the days leading up to this launch, I mean, 48 hours prior to launching Artemis II, I was meeting with the Italian space We signed a memorandum of understanding to build a habitation module on the moon. I mean, you have countries, all of our allies and partners coming together saying we are committed to this effort. We are returning to the moon. We're doing it to stay. We are building that enduring presence. We are going to master the skills on the surface of the moon. So someday we can undertake missions to Mars.
[20:30:40]
It's just an exciting, incredibly exciting time.
And we're not going at it alone. We're bringing everybody along with us. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. And speaking of everyone, one more time, we're going to ask the crew here, you guys ready to land on the moon?
COOPER: A lot of excitement there. I want to check in with Randi Kaye at the Johnson Space center in Houston as we continue to watch these incredible images of this capsule and waiting for the first sight obviously of these remarkable astronauts. What's the mood like there?
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Anderson, there's a whole lot of relief here at Johnson Space Center and a whole lot of cheering going on when they establish contact here in Mission Control. They, in Houston, they cheered when you heard Integrity say Integrity copies.
And then reporting from Commander Reid Wiseman that there were four green crew members saying that they were all good and well. And as they went through reentry, there was just, you know, just incredible feeling of relief. And just to think about this mission, Anderson, you know, nearly 695,000 miles around the moon. I mean, just absolutely remarkable.
It's just a great sense of relief because there were a lot of questions about that heat shield, of course. And so there's just a lot of celebration here, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes. And as we were hearing from the administrator, they're obviously going to be looking very closely at this version of that heat shield to see how it did, to see any improvements that need to be made. Randi, appreciate it. We'll talk to you throughout the night.
I want to go to CNN's Elex Michaelson at Naval Base San Diego. Alex, obviously a very successful event tonight.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and a lot of celebration here as well. We heard some people clapping when this finally came down. And now the work that the folks here at the Naval Base San Diego have been training for and preparing for over a year. What we're looking at, the live picture there right now, you see what has been inflated. They call this the front porch.
And essentially there's, you know, divers who are doctors, who are trained in the Navy, who are going to be the first people to greet the astronauts and give them a checkup on board. Make sure they're OK, are they coherent, are they able to communicate with them, go through sort of a basic medical checkup to then be able to diagnose that they are safe to get on the helicopter and head back to the USS John P. Murtha, which we've been also seeing those live pictures from.
Now, all indications so far is that the crew is in excellent health, which is obviously great news. But once they're aboard the Murtha, they're going to go through even more medical checks. Each one of them assigned their own doctor there, their own medical suite to make sure that they're OK after this grueling process of going literally to the moon and back, and now going through this reentry process as well.
The folks here have been training for this process for over a year. The Murtha has been out there for days getting ready for this. The Murtha about five miles away from where that capsule came down, they knew the exact spot that the capsule would come down. And eventually once the astronauts are taken off of that capsule, the Murtha will move towards the capsule and then take the capsule back itself, Anderson.
COOPER: Elex, thanks very much. Back with our team who's monitoring this. Dr. Garrett Reisman, I want to ask you. You flew on three space shuttles and what was return like for you? What do you think is going through these astronauts mind right now as they are waiting inside this capsule?
GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, it was kind of bittersweet and I'm sure it is for them too, because, yes, you're coming back to Earth and you're seeing your family. And I remember when they first opened the hatch and I get that first breath of like fresh air coming in, it felt great.
But at the same time, space is awesome. And they just had a historic and remarkable mission that, you know, is just such a life event for them, and now it's kind of over. I'm sure they're looking forward to the post-flight and getting on with it, but the great adventure has now come to a close. And that's what I mean by it being bittersweet.
COOPER: You're friends with the commander. What's Wiseman like?
[20:35:05]
REISMAN: He's a great guy. So as you probably -- the whole world kind of has seen that now. But when I was on the board, when we selected him to be an astronaut and we knew that we had a special person there. He's a natural leader. He's the kind of guy that you want to go have a beer with.
He's just really friendly. And he was the right pick to be the commander of this mission, I have no doubt.
COOPER: Dr. Epps, you were in a splashdown. How long were you in the capsule for?
JEANETTE EPPS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Oh, gosh. So once we splashed down, it was a matter of about an hour-and-a-half at most. And so the way the seats are set up, they initially take out the commander and the pilot because they're the easiest to take out. And then, seat one, where I was, and then seat four come out.
And so inside the capsule, you're -- we had been away for so long, getting used to gravity again was the big thing. And instead of moving too fast, we allowed the PJs that came in to take us out of the capsule, let them do their job and move our bodies. Because, for example, we hadn't held our heads up for over 200 days and so in space, your head just floats. So everything feels incredibly heavy.
COOPER: And what are you wearing? What are you wearing on a return like this?
EPPS: Oh, we're wearing the pressure suit from SpaceX, the Dragon Suit. And, you know, it's a one piece suit that you wear.
COOPER: But do you have a helmet?
EPPS: You do have a helmet on. You can open your visor once they open the hatch.
COOPER: So right now with the hatch not open, their visors are down?
EPPS: No, their visors should be open at this point. Yes. So it's a little different for the Orion. Some of the procedures are Dragon versus Orion are, you know, they're similar but different.
COOPER: Yes.
EPPS: So inside the capsule, we had four crew members. One by one, we came out. We were put on the stretcher and we were actually on board the ship at that point when they took us out.
COOPER: And is, I mean, the air system inside the capsule, I assume it must still be -- it's obviously still working because there's no ventilation otherwise.
EPPS: Well, and plus, once they get the hatch open, you know, they're back here. Yes. Then everything's fine, yes. They're pretty comfortable in there.
They're probably, like Garrett said, they're probably just, you know, it's over. It's a little bittersweet and they're being pulled out the capsule at this point.
COOPER: Senator Kelly, how important do you think it is to, I mean, obviously there is a race between China and the United States to get on the moon.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Yes. The Chinese are trying to put Chinese astronauts on the moon. What we're trying to do is different. We want to land on the moon. We want to build an economy on the moon, have more of a permanent presence. So it is a different challenge, much harder.
I think the American people need to be really proud of our country right now. Russians have never sent anybody around the moon. Chinese haven't done it yet. You know, we're kind of rare in our ability to do really, really hard things, and push science and technology forward in a way that other countries can.
It's great to have a partner on this mission. You know, I think right now, especially at this time, it's good to have a Canadian astronaut on board. It's an incredible crew, a lot of success. Now we have to build on it.
COOPER: I want to check in with Tom Foreman just to talk us through those next -- the next crucial steps. Walk us through, Tom, the immediate moments after they splashdown, what happens before they're extracted? TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of stuff has been going on. Even doesn't look like a whole lot. One of the things is, you know, as soon as they landed, all these shoots had to be cut loose.
We've been talking a lot about the uprighting system. You see those big orange sort of balloons on the top there. One of the reasons it's there is because there have been in the past concerns about the parachutes themselves tipping it over once it's in the water.
You've been hearing them run the checklist that's going on with Houston, where they're going over the details of what they need to do and this process of shutting down the capsule. One of the reasons they're shutting down the capsule is so that when the actual extraction happens, everybody is all together and there's nothing that's going to present a threat to the crew or to the people who are approaching there.
So all of this is keeping everyone still busy, even though it looks like nothing's happening so they can have a safe approach, set up that floating front porch. As soon as they open it up, look in and make sure everyone really is OK, and then start the extraction, Anderson.
COOPER: And then what happens to the crew once the capsule is open?
FOREMAN: Well, the crew gets transported --
COOPER: To the capsule, I mean.
FOREMAN: The capsule itself is really an interesting part of the story because people sort of forget about it at that point, but that's not the thing to do. Look, what's going to happen is the same thing that happened with Artemis I. They will hook up to the capsule after everyone is gone, and then they're going to haul it very gently back to the Murtha, where it will be pulled into this sort of wet deck facility here.
[20:40:00]
There the water can be drained away and the capsule can be brought back. Because remember, it is a tremendous, just a treasure full of artifacts of the trip, how it operated, what happened to the systems on board. One of the things they were checking back was during all this pressure, did it make any plates within the craft misalign? They had to remove some little parts and put them back to see if it was all lined up properly.
Tremendous amount of study to be done here. That's why even as they recover the astronauts, they also have to recover this hardware. And remember, very famously, many years ago, there was a disaster with the Liberty Bell many years ago where it got away from them. Their hatch blew off prematurely and it sank. And it took a very long time until the Liberty Bell was actually recovered.
Look at that. When they finally got up off the ocean floor, all encrusted this way, huge difference there. So the capsule matters and they're going to treat it very carefully too as soon as they secure these astronauts.
COOPER: Yes. Tom Foreman, Tom, thanks very much. Back with our team here, joining us as well as former astronaut Mike Massimino. Mike, what stands out? We're going to be getting Mike shortly.
Pete, just in terms of the race between China and the US, where does that stand?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're beating everybody right now. I mean, that's where it stands. And, you know, the fact that we just put somebody, crew of four, around the moon. We've now got the official exact splashdown time, 8:07:27, 8:07 and 27 seconds PM Eastern Daylight Time. So 9 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 15 seconds.
COOPER: You can really see in this shot the divers, the boats going around the capsule.
MUNTEAN: Yes. And they approach this slowly. You know, this is a methodical process. Before they are able to put out what is called the front porch, this sort of inflatable platform where the Navy divers will approach Integrity and the Orion capsule open the hatch, and then begin bringing out the crew of four one by one.
It is a methodical process. They don't want to rush this. And so, we knew from the get go that this would take a couple hours. There's also not only getting the astronauts out, but then hoisting them up one by one to an MH-60S helicopter, the Navy version of the Blackhawk, known as a Seahawk, hoisting them up to the helicopter, flying them to the USS John P. Murtha at a few miles away where they'll be assessed by this medical team.
We don't exactly know when the astronauts will speak to the press. That's sort of a time to be determined in NASA speak. They will be flown by jet after the John P. Murtha sails to San Diego Naval Air Station, and then taken to Johnson Space Flight Center. So this is a days, this is the start of a days long process on top of what has been a nine day long mission. This has been so incredible.
COOPER: I'm so excited to just get a look at them.
MUNTEAN: Yes, right. And it will be a moment for sure. You know, there's been so many milestones here. Not only has this been the first time that an American crew or anybody has gone on a mission to the moon in more than 50 years, but the first woman, the first Canadian, the first person of color.
This is really something a mission for everybody. And we are just at the start of what those possibilities will be in Artemis III continuing to build on this with some docking and then Artemis IV, where we will likely put Americans on the moon once again.
COOPER: Yes. Back with our panel, joining us is also former astronaut Mike Massimino. Mike, it's good to have you here. There had been obviously a lot of concern before this. I'm concerned. I heard you talking before reentry. You were confident it would go OK. It seems to have gone --
MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Yes. You know, it's -- we, as I heard my friend speaking earlier here, that we shouldn't take it for granted. What they were able to accomplish was absolutely remarkable. I call it a series of many miracles. Actually got that from Victor Glover, that's what he calls it.
But they all happened but we should be in awe of what they did. But also, yes, very confident that the team was going to make sure the crew was going to be OK. And I'm really happy for everyone involved. It's a great accomplishment.
COOPER: That's Victor Glover saying that's what has to occur in a space.
MASSIMINO: Yes.
COOPER: Many miracles, a series of them.
MASSIMINO: A series of them. And that's what happened and that's what NASA has done. And yes, I think this was a reminder of what we're able to do as a country, as a space program, as people when we work together for something that's bigger than all of us. We all work together like this Artemis team did, we can accomplish great things.
Dr. Epps, do you feel that when you're in space that, you know, you're relying on kind of miracles all the time?
[20:45:00]
EPPS: Well, I'm relying on many miracles, definitely, but also the faith that we have in the engineers putting in the work, making sure that they bring us home safely, that they're doing due diligence, making sure that the heat shield is working, making sure that all systems are go before they actually launch us. And, you know, there's definitely a lot of miracles and great engineers.
And you don't go to space alone. You go with everyone who helps prepare you to get there.
COOPER: Well, that's the thing. I mean, it is the ultimate in teamwork. You can't -- there's only so much any individual astronaut can do to control events. I mean, it's remarkable all the pieces that have to fall into place and all the people who have to be absolutely right in what they are, you know, arguing for, suggesting and producing.
MASSIMINO: It builds relationships, friendships when you're in those situations where you're so reliant on each other for the success and for your life, but also for the success of the mission. And I think we saw a lot of that in this mission, of how the crew really cared about each other and how they were so professional and caring and respectful of the folks on the ground. And we kind of were brought inside of their spacecraft to see that.
COOPER: It looks like there's -- are those like gas detectors in the hands of the people on the boats there?
MUNTEAN: The divers are approaching the Orion capsule here and doing essentially a hazard assessment. You talk about the team effort here in synchronous and simpatico. There are 318 crew members on board the USS John P. Murtha. Of course, the Navy divers here are key on these inflatable boats, essentially just circling the capsule to make sure that everything is OK.
We have not achieved the big next step, which is putting out the inflatable platform for the astronauts to be removed after the hatch is removed. So we are essentially in a bit of a holding pattern here. I can tell you that the comms issue, the communications issue, the hiccup of what has been an otherwise spotless and nearly perfect mission has been worked out.
The recovery teams are now in direct communication with the astronauts. They're no longer having to relay comms through the Johnson Space Center in Houston. So things are working out OK,.
COOPER: Everybody here stand by. Joining us right now is Nicky Fox, the Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Dr. Fox, appreciate your time. First of all, your reaction to how things have gone so far tonight. What can you tell us about what is happening right now inside that capsule?
NICKY FOX, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, NASA'S SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE: Oh, my Goodness, it was a spectacular evening. I think I share the sort of the sentiments of there was a calmness, there was a -- everything's going really well, but it really is a series of those mini miracles.
I am sure, inside that capsule right now, there's a very mixed emotions with the astronauts either, you know, being really happy to be home and relieved. But also, I know Christina said she wasn't ready to come home. She wanted to stay up longer. And so, I think they'll all be, you know, raising their hands to go on another moon mission.
COOPER: Did reentry go as you expected?
FOX: It certainly sounds like it did. From, from all of the commentary and all of the comments, I think it was kind of picture perfect. And certainly the sight of those parachutes coming out, that beautiful blue sky, amazing ocean beneath. I mean, it just -- it literally looked like you were putting a cup of tea down on a table.
COOPER: The mission obviously took these astronauts farther than anyone has ever traveled in space. What are you going to be looking for in terms of the impacts that had on individual crew members?
FOX: So that's a great question. So we have an amazing science experiment that flew with them. It's called AVATAR, and it is living cells basically on a chip. There's one for each of the crew. They took part in the experiment. So those have flown with the astronauts on Orion.
We have an identical set that stayed here on Earth. And so, of course, we'll be able to do some really great comparisons and look exactly how both radiation, because they were out in deep space. So they were out in, you know, pretty, you know, harsh radiation region, as well as, of course, the microgravity.
And their bone marrow tissue chips that we have, and so that's a great indicator of just kind of how the body has reacted to that. In addition, they were also wearing -- sorry.
COOPER: They're saying that the crew is in excellent shape. I just want to listen in quickly to the comms here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crew is in excellent shape. No issues. They're just currently biding their time, waiting for the front porch to be erected. We have no hazardous -- we have no hazard gases and no hazardous situation with the vehicle. It performed perfectly all the way down from entry interface to its splashdown in the Pacific at 7:07 and 27 seconds PM Central Time.
[20:50:13]
COOPER: Dr. Fox, it looks like one of the -- let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phalanx of recovery personnel now pulling up alongside of Integrity. This includes Navy divers and Navy flight surgeon, and other recovery personnel who have trained for several years for this recovery process.
COOPER: And, Dr. Fox, how quickly do you think they will open up the -- will they attach that kind of porch before opening up that, I assume before opening up the hatch?
FOX: Yes, that's a sort of inflatable, as you say. They call it the front porch, but that will be attached to enable the crew to come out. They'll then get transferred into the boats. They'll move that front porch distance away from the Orion capsule, and then from there the helicopters will lift the astronauts and deliver them to the ship.
COOPER: It's incredible to watch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --emanating from the vehicle. That's why the first team of recovery personnel has been able to pull alongside Integrity. And the reports continue to come in that the four astronauts are in excellent shape.
COOPER: Dr. Fox, thank you so much for being with us. The Artemis astronauts have gone a long way, more than farther than anyone has in their 10 days in space. Their bodies have been through very high G forces, long stretches of zero gravity. They've been exposed to considerably more radiation than here on Earth.
Joining us to try to help us understand the implications and how NASA deals with CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So, Sanjay, talk a little bit about how the astronauts are likely feeling now that they landed. We've been talking about it with some former astronauts, but just from a medical perspective. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, it's pretty remarkable. I will tell you, there is, and I think Senator Kelly was talking about this. There is this sensory adaptation syndrome that often occurs. So basically your inner ear has not been getting signals for 10 days.
The gravitational force on Earth constantly provides signals to your inner ear, sort of orienting it, and those go away. As one NASA doctor sort of explained it to me years ago, it's kind of like the opposite of seasickness. When you're on a boat and you're sort of on, you know, getting constant sort of a barrage of back and forth, and then you step on land that sort of diminishes.
This is the opposite. You haven't had signals to the inner ear and then all of a sudden you're getting a lot with gravity, and then obviously being in the Middle of the ocean. So it can be very disorienting.
And you'll see when the astronauts are coming off, sometimes they're having a hard time sort of their heads and their bodies seem a little disoriented or a little disconnected. They may be unstable, have a hard time keeping their balance. They can look when they're up in space, to be a bit puffy.
And that's because fluid is sort of migrating from the lower part of the body to the upper part of the body that suddenly reverses, and that can cause people to feel lightheaded and even have low blood pressure as well. So those are some of the physical things that happen. You know, it's unclear how long that lasts. I think it's different for different people, but tends to get better pretty quickly.
And they're going to test, obviously, the basic things. Blood pressure, heart rate, just doing cardiovascular profile. I don't know if they do that on the capsule itself, maybe some of that. They'll be doing biomarker testing, blood testing in short order.
And then, I think they were just talking about those AVATAR chips. Those will be examined as well. They have those chips basically carrying their cells in space. They're going to compare those to the cells back here on earth.
COOPER: Dr. Nicky Fox was just talking about the AVATAR program in organ-on-a-chip. What do you know about that?
GUPTA: Yes. So it's basically taking their bone marrow cells and putting it on a chip. And so, you're taking those cells, and now they've been exposed to everything the astronauts were exposed to for the last 10 days. The microgravity, the radiation, all these sorts of things.
And the goal, Anderson, then, and there's basically a twin chip that is kept back on Earth. And you then compare these two things. See what was the impact of the microgravity and radiation, and other things, but also even the speed of aging of the cells. I mean, Senator Kelly will know about this because he and his brother were part of this famous twin study where they were actually comparing twins.
In some ways, they're doing a similar thing, but with these cells on a chip. There's lots of unknowns in terms of what all these forces will do to these cells. This is one way to do it.
[20:55:10]
You have the cells going up on the capsule, and then you have a control group essentially back on Earth.
COOPER: What do you think of the kind of health risks that NASA most worries about while astronauts are in space?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting. They sort of, because they use acronyms for everything. They use an acronym for sort of the big buckets of things that they think about as well. Which is RIDGE, and that's radiation isolation, distance from Earth, gravity and the overall environment. So those are sort of the big buckets of things that they're concerned about radiation.
We just talked about the isolation, another big one. Just in terms of being in that small space with four people for a prolonged period of time. It's a little bit of a harbinger for even longer missions. Obviously, as you get further and further away from Earth, just the time that it takes to communicate back and forth, those are things that they think about. And then, you know, again, the microgravity, it's so fascinating, all the things that happen.
I was talking about the fluid that migrates from the lower part of the body to the upper part of the body. When you see the images of the astronauts up, their faces look puffy as a result, but they also get congested. Their taste buds are affected, their smell is affected. Food doesn't taste as good. They send all sorts of hot sauces, for example, up to the --
COOPER: They just -- sorry. Hey, Sanjay, they've just opened a hatch, it looks like. Mike Massimino, What is that moment like?\
MASSIMINO: This is big. They've been waiting. They were floating around, and now they're going to let some fresh air in that cabin and let whatever, you know, whatever the air is inside is going to mix with what's outside.
COOPER: I thought they were going to wait for it to put the porch on because were told that might --
MASSIMINO: Maybe. Maybe it just -- maybe just give it a little fresh air in there. Yes, I think just checking on them and seeing what's going on, so.
COOPER: And they can talk now to the --
MASSIMINO: Yes, certainly. They probably -- they've been able -- as soon as they got -- they've been able to communicate as soon as they got through that blackout period? COOPER: No, but I mean, like, can they actually -- the folks on the boat, Dr. Epps, do you think they can actually, like, shout stuff to the --
EPPS: Oh, yes, they definitely can. It's slightly different than what we experienced. But once they open that hatch, they should have direct communications with the commander and the crew so.
COOPER: As we wait for them to put on the front porch and get our first look at the astronauts, we're told that's a few minutes away, getting that porch on. Joining us now is legendary actor William Shatner, who traveled to space and Blue Origin mission in 2021.
Mr. Shatner, it's great to have you back. How do you feel watching this after this remarkable 10 day journey?
WILLIAM SHATNER, ACTOR: Well, I've got an inkling of the relief they must feel for having landed. Although, you know, these guys, these people are explorers, they're Magellan. They relish and love this adventure and the challenge of their life, and the possibility of ending their life.
There's a certain mentality that NASA searches out for these astronauts that these legendary explorers had as well. Imagine going into the Antarctic to get to the South Pole, why? And here we have these incredible individuals, educated, trained, and yet the flames coming out of that, the front of, the nose of that vehicle, the flames shooting up over their heads, I don't know how anybody doesn't say, oh my Lord, what have I got myself into?
COOPER: The -- we mentioned your visit in 2021. You would describe the sort of blackness of space and your shock at that and sort of sadness and almost grief over that. When you saw the images that Artemis II, and we're going to be seeing more of them that Artemis II has sent of the moon and Earth, what did you make of that?
SHATNER: Well, if you allow yourself -- if you allow your imagination to go through the universe, the incredible forces that are at work, the magic of what happened, the attempt by mankind to solve how did it all begin and how is it going to end, there's such a brilliance of information that we are all seeking. And bit by bit, little tiny chips of information coming to us by a voyage like this, we begin to see that mankind can solve eventually the mystery of existence.
And this is one small step, if you will, in trying to solve the mystery of existence. And this is one small step, if you will, in trying to solve the mystery of what is this -- what is -- how does quantum and Newtonian physics, how do they stay together, what is the unifying theory of this.
