Artemis II astronauts on their out-of-this-world mission: 'Adventure of a lifetime'

The astronauts behind the Artemis II mission -- Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen -- are back on Earth and say they're thrilled people from all walks of life and across the world connected with their journey to the moon, one Wiseman called an "adventure of a lifetime."

"Now that we're out here sharing the good news, it's been amazing. I'm still just overjoyed that people connected with this mission so much," Glover, the mission's pilot, said on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "We really wanted that, and it's great to see that it happened."

The Artemis II mission sent the four astronauts on a 10-day journey, more than 690,000 miles, to and around the moon to test spacecraft systems ahead of future Artemis missions, including Artemis IV, that aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface near the moon's South Pole in 2028.

Mission Specialist Koch said she has taken some time to reflect, in the 20 days she and the Artemis II team returned to Earth on April 10.

“I think we've all taken most of our time to really just solidify, to process, to give back, to just feel grateful for the teams that put this together, for the people that supported us, for the people that worked so hard for so many years, to bring back benefits, and to show this beautiful world we all share,” Koch said.

Hansen, also a mission specialist and the first Canadian to go to deep space, said the view from space never failed to disappoint them.

“We saw all the things, you know, the Earth up close, and then it would get further away and get smaller, and every time we'd catch in the window, one of us would be like, ‘Oh, look at that.’ We'd all go over, over and over again,” Hansen recalled, summing it all up as, “magnificent.”

The four astronauts also had an unofficial “fifth” member of their crew when they rocketed to the moon and back -- Rise, the plush toy, who was designed by 8-year-old Lucas Ye, and which operated as a zero gravity indicator, letting the crew know that they reached weightlessness while in space.

Lucas had the opportunity to ask a question to the Artemis II crew and inquired about what Rise was made out of.

“Our Rise was, I think, sewn together at Goddard, one of the NASA centers, and it was custom-made based on Lucas's design,” commander Wiseman explained. “They put a little pocket in the bottom of it so we could take the memory card with us. But ours is actually made of a flame-retardant material, and it's stuffed with flame-retardant stuffing, because we have to worry about fire in space. We want to be safe at all costs. And so our Rise became our mascot. We love that little guy.”

Now that the astronauts have returned to Earth, they say they want to continue processing their historic mission.

“I have a lot to process from those 10 days still, so I'm gonna focus on doing a little bit of that,” Glover, who is a father to four daughters, said. “I turned 50 today. I'm saying that because it also puts a lot of things in perspective, and I want to spend time with my family and my friends, my loved ones, you know? So that's really gonna be a big focus.”