Kaya, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff here.

And they made it!

There had been some concerns about the Orion spacecraft's heat shield heading into the Artemis II mission.

But the spacecraft — and the four astronauts inside — made it safely back to Earth after a 10-day trip around our celestial neighbour. So Moon joy all round.

I do have one little gripe…

A glaring omission from the playlist of wake-up songs that NASA blasted to the crew each day.

I know it only reached number 24 on the US charts in 1996, but the lack of airplay of Savage Garden's "To the Moon and Back" was unforgivable!

Hopefully Australia's first qualified astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg will be able to get it pumping on a spacecraft's speakers one day.

While this mission is over, there's still plenty to talk about.

The Artemis Explained team has received so many questions, they've put out a new episode to answer them.

Questions like what is the Moon made of, and how did the Artemis astronauts experience time compared to people on Earth?

Science editor Jonathan Webb also pondered his own questions about humanity and its relationship with the Moon in a hard-hitting analysis looking at what we've learnt since Apollo 8's 1968 lunar fly-by — a year that has a scary number of parallels with 2026.

Another point he touched on is a proposed 27 per cent NASA budget cut, which is yet another sign of a funding decline for science.

Speaking of cuts, at the same time Artemis II was launched, Australia stepped away from a partnership with the European Southern Observatory.

The decision has been criticised by Australian scientists, who are concerned we'll lose some of our best minds and stifle innovation.

That's all for this week and Artemis II. But now the countdown begins for Artemis III in mid-2027!

Got thoughts on this week's newsletter? If you want to get in touch, send in an email.

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