The Artemis II commander, who says he is ‘not religious’, was reflecting on his mammoth mission to space during a press conference yesterday.
One reporter asked the crew whether they had experienced any shift in consciousness following their 10–day journey to the dark side of the lunar surface.
Wiseman confirmed he had, referencing a moment that occurred after the team were picked up by the US Navy following their splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
‘I’m not really a religious person but there was no other avenue for me to explain anything or experience anything,’ he said.
‘So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute. When that man walked in – I’d never met him before in my life – but I saw the cross on his collar and I just broke down in tears.’
Wiseman said it’s ‘very hard to fully grasp what we just went through’ and in the week since the astronauts came back, they have not had time to process their experience.
‘It was other–worldly and it was amazing,’ he said.