\u201cTHIS GRATITUDE IS TOO BIG\u2026 IT CAN\u2019T FIT INSIDE ONE BODY\u201d \u2014 NASA astronaut Victor Glover delivers a deeply emotional reflection after returning from Artemis II, describing how seeing Earth from deep space left him overwhelmed, reflective, and filled with gratitude.<\/p>\n
After completing the historic lunar mission, Glover spoke openly about the intensity of what he experienced beyond Earth\u2019s orbit \u2014 moments that were difficult to put into words, not because of spectacle, but because of their emotional and human weight.<\/p>\n
The four astronau![\"Tears](\"https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-44.jpg?h=200\")
ts who took part in the Artemis 2 mission \u2013\u00a0(commander),\u00a0(pilot),\u00a0(specialist) and\u00a0(specialist)\u2013 spoke publicly for the first time, this Saturday (11.Apr.2026), after the 10-day trip around the Moon.<\/p>\n
Here are the speeches from each of the astronauts at an event held in Houston (USA).<\/p>\n
Reid Wiseman \u2013<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t have the slightest idea what to say. That was 24 hours ago. The Earth was that size out the window and we were at Mach 39. And here we are back home.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Each of us will just say a few words, but I got the microphone first, so I\u2019ll start: Victor, Christina and Jeremy. We are linked forever. And no one down here will ever know what the four of us just went through. And it was the most special thing that ever happened in my life.<\/i><\/p>\n (\u2026)\u00a0Nobody knows what the families went through, man. This wasn\u2019t easy. Being more than 200,000 miles away from home.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Before launch, it seems like it\u2019s the biggest dream on Earth. And when you\u2019re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends. It\u2019s something special to be a human. And it\u2019s something special to be on planet Earth. Thanks\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Victor Glover \u2013<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>When this started on April 3, I wanted to thank God in public. And I want to thank God again because, even greater than my challenge of 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, is too big to fit into one body.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And I want to thank our families for everything he\u00a0<\/i>(Reid)\u00a0just said. So, great words, great words, great words. I love you, but not just those five beautiful cocoa-skinned ladies over there.\u00a0<\/i>(I love) tall of you. And I want to thank our leadership. And it has changed since we were here in April 2023, but the qualities have not changed. And we are lucky to be at this agency now, together.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And then, I\u2019ll sit down. Thanks also to our air operations for this installation and for our ride home from San Diego. And I love you. Thanks.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cristina Koch \u2013 \u201c<\/b>I couldn\u2019t sleep this morning, so I wrote some words in my mind and I\u2019ll try to share them with you today. 10 days ago, this journey began with our mission manager knocking on my door in the crew quarters and whispering, \u201cCristina, let\u2019s have lunch. Get up.\u201d And it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, \u201cWow, can I have a hug?\u201d So, a lot has happened since then, or between those two moments, but the beginning and the end were human moments here on Earth.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Several years ago, I was giving a speech and doing my usual talk about crew, teammates, and teamwork, and someone asked the question, \u201cWhat does a crew do? What\u2019s different about a crew versus a team?\u201d And I thought: \u201cI know this one\u201d. I opened my mouth with confidence to tell them everything I knew about being a crewmate. And everything that came out of my mouth was completely worthless. I said something like:<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCrew\u2026 they, you know, they\u2019re in space, and they work together, but they eat together too. So, you know, they\u2019re a crew. And boats have crews. You\u2019re a crew if you\u2019re on a boat \u2013 it helps if you have an oar, that would be good. That would make you a crew.\u201d But over the last 10 days, I\u2019ve gotten a slightly better answer to that question.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A crew is people or a group who are in it all the time no matter what. Who is rowing together every minute with the same purpose. Who are willing to silently sacrifice themselves for each other. Who is funny and who maintains responsibility.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A crew has the same care and the same needs. And a crew is inescapably, beautifully, devotedly bound. So when we saw Tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had. And honestly, what struck me wasn\u2019t necessarily just the Earth. It was all darkness around her. Earth was just this lifeboat floating undisturbed in the universe.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n So, I may not have learned \u2014 I know I haven\u2019t learned \u2014 everything this journey still has to teach me. But there is one new thing I know and it is: planet Earth, you are a crew. Thanks\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jeremy<\/b>\u00a0Hansen<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201c<\/i><\/span>I think what I would like to share today are maybe three of the human experiences for us. And you haven\u2019t heard us talk much about the science, the things we\u2019ve learned, and that\u2019s because they\u2019re there. And they are incredible. But it is the human experience that is extraordinary for us, and it seems perhaps for you too. So I think I\u2019ll start with gratitude.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gratitude for my family, gratitude for NASA and its leadership, gratitude for the Canadian Space Agency, gratitude for Canadians. And I have the power to return with Reid, Christina and Victor to Canada.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gratitude for the teams\u2019 bravery and courage in saying \u201cno go\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(do not proceed)\u00a0when we were \u201cno go\u201d, and \u201cgo\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(proceed)\u00a0when we were \u201cgo\u201d. That took a lot. And I don\u2019t think people will ever fully understand how well supported and trained we were. It\u2019s almost unbelievable.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And as my daughter would say: \u201cI\u2019m going to try to stay focused here.\u201d The next one is joy. We have a term in our crew that we coined a long time ago: the gravy train. And you saw, I think you saw, it seems like you saw a lot of joy up there. There was a lot of joy. We\u2019re not always on the gravy train on this crew. There are many times when we are not on the gravy train, but we are committed to getting back on the gravy train as soon as we can.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And that\u2019s a useful life skill for any team trying to accomplish something. And the last one\u2026 I need your help with this. Come here, guys.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The last one is love. What you saw was a group of people who loved contributing, having a meaningful contribution, and deriving joy from it. And what we have heard is that it was something special for you to witness, and the reason I asked them to stand here with me is because I would suggest to you that when you look here, you are not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then look a little deeper. That\u2019s you.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n The Artemis 2 mission, the first manned flight of NASA\u2019s lunar program since 1972, was launched on April 1, 2026, from the Kennedy Space Center, in the USA. Four astronauts \u2013 Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency) \u2013 were aboard the Orion spacecraft, on a 10-day flight around the Moon.<\/p>\n The objective is to test Orion systems \u2013 including life support, communication and propulsion \u2013 and manned flight procedures around the Moon, in addition to evaluating the crew\u2019s routine and performance in microgravity conditions. Astronauts conducted experiments, systems monitoring and navigation maneuvers in tests to ensure the safety and effectiveness of future lunar missions.<\/p>\n The mission\u00a0to the Moon on Monday afternoon (April 6, 2026), when Orion carried out a 6-hour flyby around Earth\u2019s natural satellite. During this phase, there was a blackout of around 40 minutes in communication with the team on the ground, caused by the capsule passing through the far side of the Moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cTHIS GRATITUDE IS TOO BIG\u2026 IT CAN\u2019T FIT INSIDE ONE BODY\u201d \u2014 NASA astronaut Victor Glover delivers a deeply emotional reflection after returning from Artemis II, describing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14953,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14951\/revisions\/14953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n![\"We](\"https:\/\/media.swncdn.com\/via\/images\/2023\/04\/04\/30154\/30154-victor-glover-gettyimages-carmen-mandato-staf_source_file.jpg\")
<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtemis 2
![\"May](\"https:\/\/scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t39.30808-6\/671654642_1360632312593294_5197668593073873569_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_nc_eui2=AeEfT5dh4UIYtU8Un6ZPkMW7gRxJvgAC0FeBHEm-AALQV_s8KY4ssFlmDX83J5a0u4tiApkc1AnIjNqV1F8tYwre&_nc_ohc=PuDSQsOZzRUQ7kNvwFqdhQS&_nc_oc=AdpPwKAMBj6vyMDLIzO42SiFgcX9Ux5PnJ9RLJ2EQZGjn_Hp41HP98Zx62dShCJ8WWI&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&_nc_gid=Apwhd-vkfG_KzY-gtejc8g&_nc_ss=7a3a8&oh=00_Af1n3bbcBvCfG6i-Yv2EQnctHSfl5NbqlQCzP9gbla6NZA&oe=69E0BEB8\")
<\/b><\/h2>\n