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Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II<\/a> astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday from hundreds who took part in setting a record for deep space travel during the US space agency Nasa\u2019s lunar comeback.<\/p>\n The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa\u2019s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control in Houston, flying in from San Diego, where they splashed down just offshore the evening before<\/a>.<\/p>\n After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other invited guests.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not easy,\u201d an emotional Wiseman said. \u201cBefore you launch, it feels like it\u2019s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you\u2019re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends. It\u2019s a special thing to be a human, and it\u2019s a special thing to be on planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n Added Glover: \u201cI have not processed what we just did and I\u2019m afraid to start even trying.\u201d<\/p>\n Hansen said the four of them embodied love \u201cand extracting joy out of that\u201d as the four joined together to stand in a row, embracing one another. \u201cWhen you look up here, you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles (406,771km) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo\u2019s 13 distance record.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, what struck me wasn\u2019t necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe,\u201d Koch said. \u201cPlanet Earth you are a crew.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to their remarks, the crew was introduced by Nasa<\/a> administrator Jared Isaacman, among the first to greet them aboard the recovery ship on Friday.<\/p>\n