On Flight Day 8 of the Artemis 2 mission, the crew of the Orion spacecraft officially shifted their focus toward Friday’s planned Pacific Ocean splashdown. With the Moon well behind them, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen spent the day reconfiguring the cabin, managing stowage, and completing critical hardware tests.
The crew successfully wrapped up a major environmental control test, returning the cabin to a standard 14.7 psi after operating at a reduced 10.2 psi to simulate future lunar lander conditions. Flight controllers also instructed the crew to perform a brief 25-degree roll maneuver to clear a solar array blockage that was interfering with the spacecraft’s optical communications system.
Additionally, the astronauts completed their final physical training sessions of the mission. Pilot Victor Glover praised the spacecraft’s compact exercise hardware, noting, “The flywheel team… this is a great device. We really enjoyed it in this small cabin. It gave us a lot of good opportunity to get our heart rate up and also get some great resistance exercise.”
As the mission timeline transitions from deep space exploration to reentry preparation, the reality of the impending return set in. While putting away science equipment and preparing the cabin for seat installation, Commander Reid Wiseman relayed the mood to CAPCOM Stan Love: “We all just had that weird vibe of packing up that we were getting sad.”
Despite the busy stowage schedule, the crew continued their public outreach. During the day, they participated in a live deep-space connection organized by the Canadian Space Agency, speaking directly with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canadian students about international collaboration and the mission’s broader impacts.
In a deeply symbolic moment toward the end of the day, the crew unpacked a piece of spaceflight history: the American flag originally slated to fly to the lunar surface on the canceled Apollo 18 mission. Carried aboard Orion, the flag finally completed its long-awaited journey around the Moon.
“We are honored that it is in our presence,” Wiseman shared while holding the flag up to the cabin camera. “We are honored to carry the torch from Apollo, through Skylab, through the space Shuttle, through our beloved International Space Station. And now back further than humans have ever gone around the far side of the moon and safely home back to Houston.”