The crew of the Artemis II >completed their highly successful mission around the moon on Friday, April 10. The entire mission was such an incredible morale booster for Americans at a time when we desperately needed one. More than 27 million people watched their landing live. My family and I saw it and found it incredibly moving. Throughout the entire mission, the crew understood their assignments. The first one was to break the record for how far human beings have traveled from Earth. The second was to send back pictures of what they were seeing. The third was to create content that engaged the public. Check, check, double check.
Although the mission is over, the four astronauts, Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, NASA specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency specialist Jeremy Hansen, have continued to share their post-mission experiences. (For example, shortly after they landed, Wiseman revealed that he made a game-time decision to keep their plushie mascot, Rise!) Koch recently did a video educating people on her efforts assimilating back to Earth’s gravitational force.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch opened up about the surprising challenge while adjusting to Earth’s gravity following the historic Artemis II mission.
Koch, who became the first woman to journey around the moon, shared a video Friday that showed her struggling to perform a tandem walk with her eyes closed. The video comes nearly a week after Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen successfully splashdown on Earth after their lunar trip.
“Guess I’ll be waiting a minute to surf again,” Koch said on Instagram.
She also went on to explain why the lunar trip messed with her balance and the science behind it all.
“When people live in microgravity, the systems in our body that have evolved to tell our brains how we’re moving, the vestibular organs, don’t work correctly. Our brains learn to ignore those signals, and so when we first get back to gravity, we are heavily reliant on our eyes to orient ourselves visually,” she said. “A tandem walk with eyes closed can be quite the challenge! Learning about this can help inform how we treat vertigo, concussions and other neuro-vestibular conditions on Earth.”
“Luckily we’re already adapting back to gravity at 7 days post-splashdown,” she said.
Since their return, the four astronauts have endured rounds of medical testing to check their balance, vision, muscle strength and coordination, and overall health.
They even put on spacewalking suits for exercises under conditions simulating the moon’s one-sixth gravity of Earth to see how much endurance and dexterity future moonwalkers might have upon lunar touchdown.
I knew astronauts went through rigorous training to learn how to adapt to the lack of gravity, but I had no idea that it took so much work to readapt after just 10 days in space. Christina did a great job explaining it in non-rocket scientist terms. I really appreciate that she’s continuing to share videos about it. She’s also been vocal about her hesitation to step into the spotlight and confirmed that while in space, the crew had no idea that they were becoming celebrities, saying, “What we were told through talking with our families was that there was a positive impact that was superseding any lines, any identities people had. [W]hen my husband said, ‘No really, you’ve made a difference,’ it brought tears to my eyes and I said, ‘That’s all we ever wanted.'” *Sob.* She also posted a video reuniting with her dog after her journey.
I love how much Artemis II’s mission has sparked the general public’s enthusiasm for NASA. Space exploration is cool! It was such a massive win for NASA to continually keep the public updated on what the crew was seeing, where they were, and how they were passing the time. It was truly one big step for science. I am crossing my fingers and toes that this mission reminds people that we don’t need Twitter’s current owner to do cool things in space.
Artemis II Christina Koch rehabilitating after 10 days in space. Imagine how hard it’s gonna be after 300+ days on long durations space missions. pic.twitter.com/NGxyurDFYd
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 18, 2026
christina explaining sleep in space 😭 the way she got into the sleeping bag PLSSKFKDJS pic.twitter.com/KScWRVxokB
— ash (@paulson4ever) April 19, 2026
Photos credit: Atlas Photo Archive/NASA/Avalon, Atlas Photo Archive/NASA/Bill In/Avalon, Best Image/Backgrid
I really appreciate that video of her walking. We live in such a “health as morality” culture where unwellness is penalized, looked down on or completely ignored. Seeing her PT session after doing something most of humanity will never do is such a reminder of the simultaneous fragility and resilience of the human body. I’ve loved hearing about the advancements that have come from Nasa’s explorations (and the work to make them happen) and how research in one arena is being applied to benefit others.
Fascinating! As a person with a progressive peripheral sensory-motor neuropathy, I was told by a Mayo Clinic neurologist that we all walk based on a tripod of three things: our neuromuscular system, our eyesight, our inner ear. If one of those three is comprised, we can still walk, but likely with assistance. I use a cane & I have a hard time at night or low-light level conditions, so I tend to stay in in the evening. If I lose my eyesight or have an inner ear infection, I’m up the proverbial creek.
My guess why this therapy is crucial to her recovery is both her inner ear & her neuromuscular system were severely challenged by ten days in zero gravity.
Love this article! Please cover more like this
I second this!
This entire crew was just such a warm cup of sunshine. I love how she explains everything in terms we can understand. Love her!
I’m glad to see you talk about it here! It was so much work and dedication across the agency to get here. The science and technology created only helps to improve lives. NASA is the reason you have the tiny processors that make laptops and smart phones possible. Kevlar and so many inventions from NASA scientists that NASA cannot make money off of, but corporations that work with NASA can. We used to joke that if NASA was allowed to licenses our inventions, we could fund ourselves.
Don’t forget Tang! They gave us Tang!
I saw somewhere that this shows we weren’t sick of space, we’re sick of bezos and musk doing space cosplay.
I am here for any and all coverage of these wonderful people (including the huge team behind the flight). I also agree with the other comments about how great it is to have space exploration for the sake of humanity and knowledge not rich guys posturing.
Same. Yet as awesome as the technology and the engineering undoubtedly are, what’s struck me the most has been the kindness, the curiosity, and the humor displayed by the astronauts, especially with each other. The teams supporting the astronauts seem both proud of their accomplishments and protective of them. I’ve teared up more than once while looking at some of these pictures.
Amidst the greed and the grifts and the aggressive focus on the appearance of “winning” — as opposed to positive and meaningful accomplishments — that characterizes so much in public life at the moment, I’ve been holding in my heart these posts on the Artemis ll crew and their mission as reminders of what humanity is actually capable of being and becoming.🫶🏽
I love that a woman is telling us all about going to space in layman’s terms. And not being afraid to show herself in PT …she’s my hero!
Sleep-floating is my fantasy.