HOUSTON — Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home Saturday from hundreds who took part in NASA’s lunar comeback that set a record for deep space travel.

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, flying in from San Diego where they splashed down just offshore the evening before.

After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other invited guests. The crowd included NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, members of Congress, the space agency’s entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones, and more.

“The long wait is over. After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on,” Isaacman said. “Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis II crew,” he added, as the crowd stood, applauded and cheered

Commander Reid Wiseman, who is a Baltimore County native, and his crew’s homecoming was poignant: They returned to their Houston home base on the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, whose “Houston, we’ve had a problem” refrain turned a near-disaster into triumph.

Wiseman told his crewmates: “We are bonded forever.”

“This was not easy.” Wiseman said. “Before you launch, it feels like it’s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you’re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends. It’s a special thing to be a human and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth.”

Wiseman’s historic journey around the moon was marked by deeply personal loss and tribute. During the mission, the crew proposed naming a lunar crater “Carroll” in honor of his wife, who died in 2020 after a five-year battle with cancer.

Crew members cried as they embraced inside the spacecraft, turning a milestone in space exploration into a remembrance of a woman who, by all accounts, dedicated her life to caring for others as a nurse. Wiseman’s daughters and his 83-year-old father were among those following the mission closely — which is particularly poignant, given his father’s wish to see his son make the journey.

Wiseman was quick to post a photo to social media with his daughters after his return to Earth.

Referring to his wife and four daughters, pilot Victor Glover said: “I love you but not just those five beautiful cocoa skinned ladies there, but all of you.”

Christina Koch said she was struck by her view of Earth from space.

“Honestly, what struck me wasn’t just Earth, it was all of the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe. Planet Earth you are a crew,” she said.

Before Koch made history as the first woman to venture into deep space, she spent formative years in Maryland, building her career and community ties along the Chesapeake Bay. In the early 2000s, she lived in Eastport while working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and later at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where she contributed to space missions including Juno.

Outside of work, Koch was a competitive sailor with local associations, racing on the Severn River and becoming a familiar face in Annapolis’ tight-knit maritime community.

Fellow astronaut Canada’s Jeremy Hansen thanked the bravery of the launch teams to be “no-go” all the times they were, referring to the months of delay.

Hansen said the crew embodied love “and extracting joy out of that” as the four joined together to stand in a row, embracing one another. “When you look up here, you’re not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see then just look a little deeper This is you.”

Canadian Space Agency President Lisa Campbell called the mission “a powerful moment.” She told Hansen he represents “the best of what it means to be Canadian.”

During Artemis II’s nearly 10-day mission, they voyaged deeper into space than the moon explorers of decades past and captured views of the lunar far side never witnessed before by human eyes. A total solar eclipse added to the cosmic wonder.

On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo’s 13 distance record.

The mission also revealed a new side of our planet with an Earthset photo, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world’s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8.

Despite the accomplishments, Artemis II astronauts had to contend with a more mundane problem — a malfunctioning space toilet. NASA promised a design fix before longer moon-landing missions.

Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were the first humans to fly to the moon since Apollo 17 closed out NASA’s first exploration era in 1972. Twenty-four astronauts flew to the moon during Apollo, including 12 moonwalkers.

Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell — who also flew on Apollo 8 — cheered the Artemis II crew on in a wake-up message recorded before he died last summer.

It was crucial for NASA that Artemis II go well. The space agency is already preparing for next year’s Artemis III, which will see a new crew practice docking its capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028, when two astronauts attempt a touchdown near the lunar south pole.