Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Last Friday, some red and white-striped parachutes opened, and four earthlings returned safely home.

A perfect bullseye splashdown for integrity in its four astronauts.

Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and Jeremy Hansen

back on Earth after a journey around the moon. Throughout the journey, we heard the Artemis II

astronauts talk about moon joy, awe, wonder, and without exception, we heard them talk about their

families. Here's Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman in remarks after the mission.

No one knows what the families went through, man. This was not easy. Being 200,000 plus miles away from home,

like before you 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 your friends. It's a special thing to be a human and it's a special thing to be on

planet Earth. My next guest knows what it's like to be on the other side. Dr. Tracy Scott is the

child of Apollo commander David R. Scott, who went to space three times and was the seventh person

to walk on the moon. Now Tracy is a sociologist at Emory University who studies the lives

and families of moonshot-era astronauts. And she's here to give us a glimpse into astronaut life

from the perspective of the family members who orbit them and to weigh in on how this

moonshot era compares to the first. Tracy, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me,

Flora. Tracy, what has it been like for you to watch this mission? Is it like just deja vu?

In some ways it is.

In many ways, it's not, because it was so different back in the era that I grew up in.

When my dad went into space, there was no communication at all.

We could hear them, but we could not talk with them.

So it was a completely different landscape in terms of communication.

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