Artemis II crew ends six-month tour with NASA medal ceremony in Houston

NASA's Artemis II crew ended its six-month post-mission publicity tour with a celebration at the University of Houston's Fertitta Center on Sept. 30, 2026. Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen walked out to loud applause and cheers from the audience.

The four astronauts launched on a mission around the moon and back six months ago Thursday. Since returning, they traveled across the country to discuss the mission's success. Houston was their first public event in the city since the flight and the final stop on the tour.

"We've been back for six months," Wiseman said, "but today, we are home."

Wiseman called the celebration "bittersweet" because it marked the end of the publicity tour.

Koch said the crew repeatedly called out "Houston" over radio communications during the mission. She said returning to the city felt like completing the journey.

"All the travel that we've been doing for outreach, the most important of it has been meeting with our teams [that worked on Artemis II]," Koch said before the event. "I've been calling it the 'congratulations and gratitude tour' because when we can finally say those two things to the people that were also fulfilling their roles on the mission, just like we were, that's when it feels like we're back."

During the ceremony, NASA awarded each crew member a Distinguished Service Medal and a Space Exploration Medal. Lead flight directors and mission managers also received medals of recognition for their work on Artemis II.

The National Aeronautic Association recognized the crew for breaking the record for the farthest distance ever traveled by humans. The crew surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Wiseman said he hopes the next generation of explorers breaks that record quickly.

"First, break that record," Wiseman told students and future astronauts when asked for advice. "That's step one. And step two is, I think, if you're going to be a space explorer and you're going to get on that rocket and you are going to ride that thing, and you are going to get on a [lunar] lander ... you have to demand excellence every single day. You've got to ask questions, and they can be silly questions, but you've got to get questions going, get the team talking."

NASA said the celebration carried a sense of finality for the Artemis II crew as the agency shifts its focus to the Artemis III mission scheduled for next year. Three of the four crew members have announced plans to retire from spaceflight.