Sunday April 5, 2026 | OFF-PLANET [12:32 pm PT | Updated 12:56 & 1:11 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This is Day 5 of the Artemis II mission aboard Integrity, an Orion capsule that is now more than half way from Earth to the Moon.
For many on Earth this is Easter Sunday.
And for the Artemis II crew this is another full day of work on their 10-day mission.
Easter messages from the crew:
“Good morning and Happy Easter to everyone down on Earth,” was one message coming from the Artemis II crew from up in space as they hurtle toward the moon.
“To commemorate the holiday this time of year — something that many religions and many cultures hold dear,” said Mission Specialist Astronaut Christina Koch. “It’s a time of many emotions such as joy as well as solemness honouring what’s going on both in our world and in our religious beliefs,” she said.
“Another aspect of that is our family traditions,” said Koch, reminiscing about Easter egg hunts with her children in the backyard. To mark the Easter egg hunt tradition, a few eggs have been hidden around the Orion cabin — the dehydrated scrambled egg variety.
Koch talked about emotions of joy and solemness today in “honouring what’s going on in the world and our religious beliefs”.
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover wished his father a happy birthday and happy Easter.
Gold wings for Hansen:
Jeremy Hansen was unceremoniously awarded his gold astronaut wings today on board Integrity, bestowed on him by Commander Reid Wiseman.
Simple truth:
Canadian astronaut Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen wished everyone a Happy Easter.
“No matter your faith or religion, for me the teachings of Jesus were always a very simple truth of love, universal love,” said Hansen in his easy-going conversational communications style.
“Love yourself and love others,” said Hansen, put simply.
“And something for us — being up here and looking back at all of you through one tiny window, His message resonates 100 percent true. Our goal of humanity should be to just follow in that example,” said Hansen.
“We should all follow in those footsteps and that should serve us well,” he concluded.
Tech stuff:
“We are eager and ready to start our exciting day,” said Mission Specialist Astronaut Christina Koch.
- At 10:40 am PT NASA’s mission control in Houston told the on board crew that they were rolling Orion by 20 degrees “to improve optical com”.
- At 10:50 am PT, mission control said they were “still updating Outlook so everything except email is go”.
- At 10:57 am PT there were some minor technical things including where certain things should be stored.
- Around 11:35 am PT the crew was advised about their option to have nutrition intake before they get involved with their emergency suit test exercise, or wait until afterward.
Slow is smooth:
“Today let’s take our time,” said mission control in beginning to organize the crew for their space suit test operation.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” was the initial reminder from mission control to the astronauts.
Caution and warning signals will be silenced from the ground.
Once the astronauts are suited up, all four members will be connected to cooling. They were just about ready to go off-line to do the test around 12:56 pm PT. Suits were being put on starting around 1:11 pm PT.
===== RELATED:
- Hansen chats with Canadian youth in Sunday morning livestream (April 5, 2026)
- Artemis II from Earth to Moon and back: Day 4 update (April 4, 2026)
- Artemis II crew: burning smell so far not of concern (April 4, 2026)
- Artemis II: Day 3 meals & tech work (April 3, 2026)
- Artemis II: Col Jeremy Hansen says “It was a great burn!” (April 2, 2026)
- Day 2 technology details for Artemis II crew (April 2, 2026)
- Artemis II: troubleshooting some technical things (April 2, 2026)
- Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen heads to the moon (April 1, 2026)
- Artemis Mission Updates (NASA)
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