Artemis II astronaut breaks radio silence with historic four-word remark

There have been several historic phrases uttered in space: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", and "Houston, we've had a problem" to name a few, and now another can be added to the list.

The Artemis II mission has made contact with Mission Control in Houston, Texas, following a nerve-wracking 40 minutes of silence as they travelled around the far side of the moon.

Artemis pilot Victor Glover said beforehand that the team would spend that time praying that they would 'get back in contact with the crew'.

The technology used to communicate with the team was blocked by the moon itself, leading to the tense blackout.

Fortunately, it all went to plan and mission specialist Christina Koch's words came through loud and clear after the computers on board Orion fired at exactly the right time and on schedule, bringing them back from around the moon.

The crew has broken records (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The first four words she uttered were: "Houston, Integrity, comm check," followed by "It is so great to hear from Earth again."

She continued with an inspirational speech: "To Asia, Africa and Oceana, we are looking back at you, we hear you can look up and see the moon right now. We see you too.

"When we burned this bird towards the moon, I said that we do not leave Earth, but we choose it and that is true.

"We will explore, we will build, we will build ships, we will visit again.

"We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers, we will do radio astronomy, we will found companies, we will bolster industry.

"We will inspire but ultimately we will always choose Earth.

"We will always choose each other," she finished.

The record breaking mission has been a roaring success so far, and the crew are now returning to earth.

The team of four astronauts broke the record of Apollo 13 set in 1970, and they are now the furthest-flying people of all time, having travelled 252,757 miles from Earth.

Christina Koch, pictured peering out of the window back to Earth, was the first to break the silence (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

According to the BBC, Orion stored a queue of information during the blackout, ready to be transmitted back to Earth when the connection was restored.

This includes things like sensor readings, flight data, as well as never-seen-before imagery.

The mission is said to have captured the sharpest photographs ever taken of the far side of the moon.

Following the return from the control blackout, Mission Control told the astronauts: "We got a sneak peek at your imagery. It is absolutely stunning, we are all completely in awe of the work you did today.

"Thank you so much for bringing us on this journey with you. We hope you have sweet dreams of Moon joy."

The crew replied: "We're glad they're appreciated. We certainly appreciate it up here."

When they first took off on April 1, Glover said: "Trust us, you look amazing, you look beautiful, and from up here you look like one thing,"

"Homosapiens are all of us; no matter where you're from or what you look like, we're all one people.

"This shows what we can do not just when we put our differences aside but when we put our differences together."

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen added: “Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon.”

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