What do you do after you’ve been to the Moon and back? If you are the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission, you can meet the president of the United States and the Canadian prime minister, and even talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

The Artemis II flight in April captured the world’s attention when four astronauts flew around the far side of the Moon, traveling farther from Earth than humans had gone before. On board were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, a close-knit and accomplished group of explorers. Now, back on Earth, the Artemis II astronauts are enjoying the aftermath of “lunar joy,” the feeling of euphoria from visiting another world. What could they do next?

Flying in space is a tough act to follow. But many astronauts have forged prosperous post-space careers by redirecting their immense talent and drive toward new projects.

“The ones who really succeed in a post-flight career are the ones where being an astronaut didn’t define them,” says Susan Kilrain, a former astronaut who is one of the only women, and the youngest person, at 35, to fly a space shuttle. In 1997, he piloted NASA missions STS-83 and STS-94. Since leaving NASA in 2002, Kilrain has worked for the U.S. Navy, raised a family, served on the board of directors of fitness equipment company TRX Training, worked at venture capital firm New North Ventures, and written two books, including his just-published memoir. Kill snakes in the cabin (2026).

I was with the Artemis II scientists during the Moon flyby. This is what I saw

More than 780 people have gone to space. Some were space tourists, but most were professionals who had trained for years. It’s been more than half a century since the Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the Moon, so today’s astronauts are more familiar with the modern era than the space age: closer to Chappell Roan than to Yuri Gagarin.

Since Koch returned from space, for example, his two million Instagram followers have heard about his adventures surfing the waves off the coast of Southern California and playing pickleball in North Carolina. Hansen threw out the first pitch at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, and Wiseman and Glover delivered the game ball at a World Cup soccer game in Houston, Texas. Astronauts simply can’t escape their role as public inspiration, says Libby Jackson, space director at London’s Science Museum. “Astronauts are human and we can identify with them,” he says. “Every sector has its celebrities.”

As a result, many astronauts move into public-facing roles after leaving missions. For example, Liu Yang, China’s first female astronaut, occasionally makes high-profile appearances, such as speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council on gender equality. Others become educators at universities, often in programs focused on the aerospace sector. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, known for playing guitar in space, is an advisor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Some former astronauts work in the commercial space industry, joining companies like Axiom Space, which runs private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, or organizations that contract with NASA to build hardware for future missions to the Moon.