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Karl Bushby embraces emotional mother as he completes his 28-year, 31,000-mile walk around world

Bushby began his journey at 29, leaving his home, walking to a Royal Air Force base near Oxford and catching a flight to South America. He returned to Hull decades later, grayer and more weathered, after a journey that spanned much of his adult life.
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After 28 years and 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) on foot, British adventurer Karl Bushby is nearing the end of his epic journey home, which has taken him across four continents and 29 countries. (AP Video by Kwiyeon Ha)

British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother’s home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby speaks to a wellwisher outside his mother's house in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby speaks to a wellwisher outside his mother’s house in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother’s home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, back to his mother's home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Kwiyeon Ha)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, back to his mother’s home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Kwiyeon Ha)

By  BRIAN MELLEY and JON SUPER
Updated 2:00 PM EST, November 2, 2026

HULL, England (AP) — Karl Bushby embraced his weeping mother in his arms Monday as he returned to his northern England home to complete a 28-year odyssey to walk around the world.

“Where have you been?” his mother, Angela, asked as he arrived outside the home he left in 1998 that was now decked with a banner saying “Welcome Home Son.”

He didn’t need to tell her.

British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super) License this photo

Bushby set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, and walked 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) across four continents and 30 countries to get home. He navigated shifting ice over the Bering Strait and swam across the Caspian Sea and English Channel to avoid taking a boat or plane — or any transport — to propel him forward.

He vowed not to return until he could complete the journey on foot. It was an eye-opening adventure full of danger and drudgery that was interrupted for years at a time by the unexpected: the 2008 financial crash that sapped funding from sponsors, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and mountains of bureaucratic red tape to get across international borders.

A trek made possible by kind strangers

On the final day of the journey, Bushby pushed his cart toward a hero’s welcome at City Hall before setting off for the last stretch to see his mother.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he joked to the crowd of hundreds who cheered his arrival. “Is that it, is it done?”
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother’s home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super) License this photo

The ex-paratrooper said he looked like he was 10 years old when he left his mother’s row house at the age of 29. He returned at 57 — softer, grayer and weathered, but far more worldly.

“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation states to get me back here today. I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”

In 28 years of walking, Karl Bushby has overcome jungle, desert and red tape. Now he’s nearly home
2 MIN READ

Karl Bushby’s 28-year walk across the world is ending. A look at the trek, by the numbers

The idea started with a birthday card from his dad

Bushby had a thirst for adventure, but his mission only came into focus when his father, Keith, sent him a birthday card in the mid-90s. His dad, an army veteran himself, mentioned an argument two special forces troops had about the possibility of walking from London to New York over the Bering land bridge, believed by some scientists to have been used by early humans to migrate from Asia to the Americas at a time of lower sea levels.

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on a man who spent 28 years walking around the world and now he’s finally coming home.

Perilous jungles, scorching deserts and frozen tundra slowed him down, but bureaucratic holdups brought his adventure to a halt for long periods.
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, back to his mother's home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Kwiyeon Ha)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, back to his mother’s home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Kwiyeon Ha) License this photo

Bushby originally calculated the distance could be covered in about five years, but he knew that was unrealistic.

“You just dump a whole bucket full of reality on that,” he said. “We suspected that it was 12 years plus. And the plus was a big plus. But never in our wildest dreams would we ever have imagined 28 years.”

Danger on land and sea followed by border problems

He dodged Colombia’s armed conflict in the dangerous Darién Gap, the roadless and rugged jungle, rainforest and mountains between South and Central America in 2001, and was then jailed for 18 days after crossing a restricted border zone in Panama.

After being airlifted to safety during the 56-mile (90-kilometer) Bering Strait crossing in 2006 with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer, they started again and faced a standoff with a polar bear, survived near-death plunges into freezing waters and almost lost all their supplies when their sleds plunged in the sea. After managing the rare crossing, the pair were jailed and faced deportation for entering Russia illegally.

British adventurer Karl Bushby speaks to a wellwisher outside his mother's house in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)

British adventurer Karl Bushby speaks to a wellwisher outside his mother’s house in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super) License this photo

It took Bushby almost 10 years to make his way through Russia in fits and starts because of visa struggles and weather that only allowed travel a few months a year. When Russia denied him a visa in 2012, Bushby walked in protest from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to him getting the proper paperwork.

Family firsts and a long-awaited reunion

Bushby has met several times over the decades with family members who have met up with him on his journey. He was greeted on the beach in Dover by his father and brothers after crossing the channel last month.

He reunited with Adam, his 36-year-old son from an early marriage whom he had rarely seen, and he met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time, which he said was amazing.

Bushby hadn’t seen his mother in a decade, setting the stage for an emotional and somewhat awkward reunion captured amid a throng of cameras and a documentary film crew.

“Behave yourself, mother,” he joked, as his mother wrapped her arms around him and wept. “Get yourself together.”

He said he had long tried to imagine that moment he would return to find his mother at the gate where he left her so long ago. He said it was an emotional reunion that was “one great, big, blurry mess” he was trying to process.

“It was kind of almost shocking to see my mother after so long,” he said at a news conference later. “She’s changed a lot. We’ve all changed a lot in that time.”
Next steps for a man who walked millions

In the final days of his trip, Bushby spoke of his anxiety over the trip ending, not knowing what he would do next and coming to terms with having to live in his mom’s basement.

“It’s like stepping across the event horizon into a black hole,” he told The Associated Press. “I have no idea what’s about to happen in my life.”

There will be plenty to keep him busy. Six speaking engagements are scheduled in the next two months, a sequel to his memoir “Giant Steps” is due and German filmmaker Werner Herzog is making a documentary on his trek.

He expects to struggle with the ups and downs other adventurers have experienced after long journeys.

“The only way I think, you know, you get over that is just get another mission, another passion and get busy,” he said. “That’s what I intend on doing.”

Melley reported from London.

Spacecraft Z-Axis Conventions Summary

In standard spacecraft and aerospace engineering, the assignment of the Z-axis depends on whether you are using a body-fixed coordinate system (relative to the vehicle itself) or an orbital reference frame (relative to its position in space).

1. Spacecraft Body-Fixed Coordinate Systems

For attitude control, structural analysis, and moments of inertia, spacecraft generally adhere to right-handed Cartesian coordinate systems (X, Y, Z):

NASA / AIAA Standard Body Frame:

    X-axis: Typically aligned with the longitudinal axis pointing forward (toward the nose or primary direction of thrust).

    Y-axis: Points to the starboard (right) side of the vehicle.

    Z-axis: Points downward (ventral side) perpendicular to the X-Y plane, completing the right-handed triad.

Alternative Launcher / Structural Convention:

    In some launch vehicle architectures, the longitudinal axis along the height of the rocket is designated as the Z-axis, with X and Y forming the transverse cross-section plane.

3. Principal Axes of Inertia

Vertical Wind Torus for Martian Human Glider Flight

Overview and Facility Concept
To provide a psychological and recreational outlet for Martian residents, a vertical toroidal cavern habitat can be configured as a continuous closed-loop flight tunnel. Rather than body-only skydiving, this facility is scaled for full hang glider human flight.

Atmospheric Physics & Argon-Rich Habitat Mix
* Habitat Total Pressure: 0.50 Bar (50,000 Pa)
* Oxygen Partial Pressure: 0.21 Bar (~42% molar share)
* Inert Argon Partial Pressure: 0.29 Bar (~58% molar share)
* Temperature: 20 degrees C (293.15 K)

Gas Density Calculation
Using the ideal gas law:
Density = (Pressure * Molar Mass) / (Gas Constant * Temperature)

* Molar Mass of O2 = 32.00 g/mol
* Molar Mass of Ar = 39.95 g/mol
* Average Molar Mass of Mix = 36.60 g/mol (0.0366 kg/mol)

Calculated Habitat Air Density = 0.75 kg/m^3

Flight Aerodynamics Comparison

• Earth Sea Level Air Density: 1.225 kg/m^3

• Mars Habitat Air Density: 0.750 kg/m^3 (61% of Earth sea level)

• Raw Mars Outside Density: 0.020 kg/m^3 (35x thinner than habitat)

• Glider Trim Cruise Speed (Earth): 35 km/h (10.0 m/s)

• Glider Trim Cruise Speed (Mars Torus): 45 km/h (12.5 m/s)

Structural Layout

• Top Section (Flight Zone): Wide clear-span upper arc of the vertical torus designed for smooth laminar airflow, launch ramps, and glider turns.

• Bottom Section (Machinery & Circulation): Houses industrial axial blowers, flow straighteners, and heavy safety protective grates to prevent any debris from entering the fan stages.

China publicly discloses plan for a lunar landing within three years

The plan does not include a mission similar to Apollo 8 or Artemis II.

Eric Berger – Nov 2, 2026 12:09 PM | 96

A Long March-10 test vehicle blasts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site during a low-altitude flight test on February 11, 2026 in Wenchang. Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Chinese space officials confirmed this weekend that the Asian nation plans to land its astronauts on the Moon within three years.

At the Seventh Manned Spaceflight Conference in Beijing, officials, including Wang Xiang, chief designer for the lunar exploration program, laid out the country’s most publicly detailed plans yet for a series of missions leading up to a crewed lunar landing “before 2030.”

China’s lunar landings will involve a lunar-orbit rendezvous similar to what NASA did in the 1960s and early 1970s with the Apollo program. However, lacking a rocket as powerful as the Saturn V vehicle, the crew and lunar lander will launch separately to the Moon.

According to slides shared on social media, the current plan involves:

    An uncrewed test of the Long March 10A rocket (a single-stick variant, with no boosters) and the Mengzhou spacecraft to low-Earth orbit. Target: early 2027

    An uncrewed test of the larger Long March 10 rocket (a core stage with two boosters) and the Lanyue lunar lander, including descent/ascent from Moon’s surface. Target: 2028

    A concurrent launch of two Long March 10 rockets, one carrying uncrewed Mengzhou and the other the Lanyue vehicle; they will dock in lunar orbit. Target: 2029

    Dual launch of Long March 10 rockets, this time with crew on the Mengzhou spacecraft, leading to crewed landing mission. Target: “Before 2030”

The public release of this new information provides a timeline for gauging China’s technical progress in its efforts to land humans on the Moon before 2030 and beat NASA and the United States back to the lunar surface.
Slide from presentation in China outlining the country’s missions leading up to a lunar landing. Credit: @Rain_Antar1121/X

Notably, the plan (for now, at least) omits a mission similar to Apollo 8 or Artemis II, which involved a crew flying out to the Moon and either entering orbit or passing close by before returning to Earth. The Mengzhou vehicle should still get a workout closer to Earth with humans on board as part of missions carrying astronauts to Tiangong, China’s space station in low-Earth orbit.

China’s program has been largely opaque

NASA has set a target of landing humans on the Moon by 2028, a year or so ahead of China. The United States, which has been working on the Space Launch System rocket for 15 years and the Orion spacecraft even longer, has a more established rocket and crew vehicle.

But there are major questions surrounding the development of a lunar lander, for which both SpaceX and Blue Origin have multibillion-dollar development contracts. Depending on how these projects go, a US lunar landing could be delayed to 2030 or even later.

Although it is virtually impossible for outsiders to glean information about technical milestones achieved inside China’s space program, the country is clearly making credible progress toward reaching the Moon. For example, in August 2025, the China Manned Space Agency successfully tested a high-fidelity mock-up of its 26-ton Lanyue lunar lander. The test used giant tethers to simulate lunar gravity as the vehicle fired its main engines and fine-control thrusters to land on a cratered surface and take off from a location near Beijing.

Recently, the Mengzhou spacecraft for the 2027 test atop a Long March 10A rocket arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China, where the mission will launch.

US government assessments of the Chinese space program are restricted, but lawmakers are clearly taking the threat seriously. In the last 12 months, the US Congress and White House have given broad latitude to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to streamline the Artemis Program to land humans on the Moon. He has moved swiftly to cancel the Lunar Gateway space station and planned upgrades to the Space Launch System rocket. And just last week, Isaacman announced plans to help Blue Origin develop a lunar lander by finding a way to boost the Orion spacecraft into low-lunar orbit.

“We have the mandate, we have the resources, and the support from our stakeholders to be able to execute, and that’s what we intend to do,” he said at the time.

For a couple of years, it has been clear that China has made a major commitment to landing astronauts on the Moon, preferably before the United States returns to the lunar surface, to score a major geopolitical win. Beyond this near-term competition, both NASA and China’s space program are building capabilities to establish a long-term presence at the Moon’s South Pole. As part of this second phase of the contest, Isaacman committed NASA to the development of a base on the surface of the Moon over the next decade.

Photo of Eric Berger
Eric Berger Senior Space Editor

Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.