Reid Wiseman led the first crewed mission to enterprise moonward in 54 years. The spacecraft commander headed a group of 4 on the Artemis II shakedown cruise of the new Orion spacecraft, flying a trajectory that took them to the moon after which 4,700 miles beyond the lunar far side—farther from Earth than any human beings have ever ventured.
There is threat coming, going, and in between. The mission that started atop the strongest rocket that has ever carried a crew ended with the Orion spacecraft crashing into Earth’s ambiance at a velocity exceeding 25,000 m.p.h. But Wiseman, a veteran of a number of fight deployments in the Middle East, is accustomed to hazard—and he’s used to dealing with it in pursuit of a bigger objective. Artemis II is simply the first step in America’s return to the moon, with Artemis IV set to land there someday in 2028.
“We look at Artemis II as the precursor to humans living and working on the lunar surface,” Wiseman says. “The important thing about being first is that there’s a second, a third, and a fourth.”
Kluger is a TIME editor-at-large
