Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen marked their return from the Artemis II lunar mission by ringing the closing bell at Nasdaq on Thursday, April 30, 2026. The four astronauts, representing NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, completed the crewed circumlunar flight that took them farther from Earth than any human has traveled since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Wiseman commanded the mission while Glover piloted the crew module. Koch and Hansen served as mission specialists during the multi-day journey around the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft. Their flight validated critical systems for the Artemis program ahead of planned lunar landings.
The Nasdaq appearance underscores the mission's significance for American spaceflight capabilities. Artemis II paved the way for Artemis III, which targets a crewed landing near the lunar south pole. NASA selected the four astronauts from its astronaut corps and the Canadian Space Agency to represent the partnership driving the agency's lunar exploration objectives.
The circumlunar trajectory required precise trans-lunar injection and departure burns from Earth orbit. The mission demonstrated that Orion, the Space Launch System, and ground support infrastructure function reliably for deep-space human spaceflight.