On the home stretch of their nine-day mission aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the four astronauts flying beyond the Moon are just beginning to reflect on their experience. Commander Reid Wiseman said, “I’m actually getting chills right now just thinking about it. My palms are sweating,” reflecting on the incredible sight of watching Earth disappear behind the Moon.

Flying more than a quarter-million miles from home, farther than any humans in history, the astronauts flew into a radio blackout for 40 minutes, out of contact with Earth. During this time, they continued snapping pictures and shared some maple cookies supplied by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is the first person not from the United States to ever travel to deep space.

“We took about three or four minutes as a crew to really reflect on where we were,” Wiseman told reporters during a long-distance press conference. “And there’s a lot that our brains have to process.”

Soon after reaching their closest point to the Moon, some 4,000 miles away, the astronauts flew into the shadow of the Moon. For Victor Glover, pilot of Artemis II, this was one of the ‘greatest gifts’ of the mission.