Philadelphia’s favorite quarterback welcomed home the four astronauts who splash landed after their historic moon mission. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts posted a video message on the team’s social media where he mentioned astronaut Christina Koch and said the Artemis II crew is an “inspir ation.” He ends the message by saying “See you soon here in Philly.” Artemis II crew returns home after historic moon mission Artemis II’s astronauts returned from the moon with a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than a half-century. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 33 — or 33 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made the plunge on automatic pilot. Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base. Artemis II didn’t land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles. Then in the mission’s most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less