NASA and politicians are amping up excitement for the Artemis III mission which is planned for mid-2027 and will see Americans once again walking on the Moon.

"This is only the beginning of our journey," said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Tx) at the press event Saturday.

"America is going back to the Moon and this time we're going to stay," Babin stated to rousing applause.

Later in the event, Commander Reid Wiseman also boosted the future Moon mission.

"It is time to go, and be ready," Wiseman said while addressing Artemis III crew members who were apparently in attendance at Johnson Space Center on Saturday.

"It takes courage, it takes determination and you all are freakin' goin' and we're going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way," Wiseman concluded.

Artemis III will become the first crewed mission to land on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Mission Specialist Christina Koch revealed the small, touching moment after landing when the Moon mission felt completed.

"Ten days ago, this journey started with our mission manager Sean Duvall knocking on my door in crew quarters 'Christina, we're go for launch. Get up!," she said to adoring fans at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"And it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, 'Ma'am, can I get a hug,'" Koch revealed to applause.

She emphasized the importance for her that the start and the end of the record-setting trip were "human moments here on Earth."

Artemis II pilot Victor Glover thanked God in his first remarks since the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific off the coast of California on Friday.

"I want to thank God," Glover said at the NASA press event on Saturday. "Because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through — the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with. Its too big to be in just one body,"

Glover went on to thank the families, including the five "coco skinned ladies" from his own clan.

He added that he is still in shock at what the crew had accomplished.

"I have not processed what we just did and I'm afraid to start even trying," Glover said.

The Artemis II crew returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Saturday where they shared personal perspective and standout details from the 1.4 million mile trip around the Moon.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were met with raucous welcome-home applause when they came out on stage where the leader of the group gave a touching speech.

"Before launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on Earth. And when you're out there, you just want to get back to your families and friends," Wiseman said.

"Its a special thing to be a human and special its a special thing to be on planet Earth," he said through tears.

"Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, we are bonded forever and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through and it was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life," Wiseman said.

Wiseman also pointed out the shocking change of scenery the crew experienced in the last day.

"Twenty-four hours ago the Earth was that-big out the window and we were doing Mach 39 and here we are back at Ellington at home," Wiseman said to a laugh and applause from the crowd.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman teased that preparation for the Artemis III mission is already underway.

Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman shared his new perspective on the Earth with the crew’s first words since splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

“On the helicopter leaving the ship right now. This planet is impossibly beautiful from every altitude I’ve seen it … surface to 250,000 miles,” Wiseman wrote on X.

The post included a breathtaking photo that showed a cloud-capped sky punctured by rays of sunlight over the Pacific Ocean.

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Professionals from an elite New York college specially trained the Artemis II astronauts to take the out-of-this-world photographs that captivated and educated the globe. 

Rochester Institute of Technology alums Katrina Willoughby and Paul Reichart were the flight operations imagery instructors for the round-the-moon mission, teaching two of the four Artemis II passengers how to snap critically important pics in the challenging, off-planet landscape. 

“Most people can use a camera and get a photo that is good enough, but good enough isn’t what we’re after scientifically,” Willoughby, a 2004 graduate, told RIT’s newspaper.

“There are pictures we want to get, and then there are pictures that the team is depending on. The imagery is their data,” she added.

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They were feeling a bit spacey.

The Artemis II astronauts were filmed struggling to walk after experiencing Earth’s gravity again following their historic mission to the moon.

The intrepid quartet — comprised of astronauts comprised of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch ⁠and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — had reentered Earth’s atmosphere at a peak velocity of nearly 25,000 miles per hour.

The capsule then splashed down at a gentle 19mph in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego precisely at 8:07 p.m. ET.

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Following their historic 10-day mission around the moon, the Artemis II astronauts will give their first remarks at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas — since successfully splashing down off the coast of California on April 10.

Artemis II's Entry Flight Director Rick Henfling said his team 'breathed a sigh of relief' once the side hatch opened on the Orion Integrity after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

"We all breathed a sigh of relief once the hatch opened up, that's when we brought the team in," he said at a media briefing Friday night.

"We said a few words at the flight controllers, and then we turned around to the families and waved and gave them a thumbs up, and we all watches as each of their four astronauts got out of the spaceship and were hoisted up on to the helicopters. It was a great day."

Henfling said his team felt "anxiety" as the four astronauts re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, but felt confident in all their training leading up the history-making lunar mission.

NASA said the Artemis III mission is "right around the corner" following its history-making journey around the moon.

"The next mission is right around the corner, and you know, we'll take the lessons learned from Artemis II," Entry Flight Director Rick Henfling said.

"We learned a bunch on how to fly people in space, both from vehicle operations, but also from how to run a control room with a deep space mission. And when the time is right, we'll get back into specific training, and we've got a core group of about 30 flight directors, and they're all extremely capable.

"I think anybody who's assigned to that next mission is going to be as successful as us."

NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya praised the team behind the historic Artemis II mission -- highlighting its impressively small margin of error.

"Yesterday, flight director Jeff Radigan said we had less than a degree of an angle to hit after a quarter of a million miles to the moon," he said at an post-splashdown press conference.

"And their team hit it. This is not luck; that is 1,000 people doing their job."

Rick Henfling — Artemis II’s Entry Flight Director — said the capsule landed within less than a mile of their target.

NASA revealed how close Artemis II hit its predicted landing point when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean Friday night.

Rick Henfling -- Artemis II's Entry Flight Director -- said the capsule landed within less than a mile of their target.

"What a tremendous day," he said at a NASA press conference.

He noted the historic crew flew 700,237 miles during their 10-day lunar journey and reached a peak velocity of 24,664 mph.

The four brave astronauts landed off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. ET.