The four astronauts who recently took a nine-day trip around the moon on the Artemis 2 mission have returned with a glowing review, essentially stating that the Orion spacecraft performed as well as, or better than, expected. Commander Reid Wiseman went so far as to say they could put the Artemis 3 Orion on the Space Launch System and launch it tomorrow, and the crew would be in great shape. Pilot Victor Glover, who had the "unreal privilege" of being the first to fly Orion, noted that during a manual piloting demonstration around the SLS upper stage, "It flew better than the sim in all areas" and "flew like a dream."

Of course, no road trip is perfect, and the crew did acknowledge some minor issues. These included leaking helium valves used to pressurize the propulsion system and problems with a wastewater vent line connected to the toilet. Wiseman was adamant in his defense of the lavatory, stating, "I just want to say 100% point blank, that was a wonderful toilet. The toilet worked great." He directly addressed the engineers, telling them they should hang their heads "very high" instead of low.

Other lessons learned involved making stored food more accessible and managing the astronauts' exercise routines, but these were stressed as minor. A major pre-flight concern was the heat shield, following unexpected erosion on the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission. For Artemis 2, NASA revised the reentry profile to limit heating. Wiseman reported a "smooth ride" and said a post-recovery inspection revealed only "a little bit of char loss" on the edge where the shield met the capsule, with no other obvious damage. "For four humans just looking at a heat shield, it looked wonderful to us," he quipped.

This successful test drive has the crew confident and excited for the next phases, including lunar landings. Mission specialist Christina Koch spoke of being "lifted up" by contributing to NASA's revised Artemis plans. She revealed that within days of returning, she and other crewmembers were already in spacesuits performing simulated lunar geology tasks. Fellow specialist Jeremy Hansen noted future missions will carry new risks, requiring a willingness to "accept a little more risk than we were willing to accept in the past." Wiseman, however, was ready to go immediately, joking, "If you had given us keys to the lander, we would have taken it down and landed on the moon."