NASA’s Artemis II astronauts safely returned to Earth early Saturday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, after completing a historic lunar flyby mission.
The Orion spacecraft, carrying the four-member crew, executed a successful reentry and splashdown, where a joint NASA and US military recovery team was already in position to assist the astronauts and conduct initial medical checks.
Launched on April 1, the 10-day mission sent the crew on a journey around the Moon without landing, testing critical systems such as life support, navigation, and propulsion in deep space. The mission is a key step toward a planned crewed Moon landing later this decade.
Artemis II set a new milestone by carrying humans to a record distance of 406,771 kilometres from Earth on the Moon’s far side, surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
During the flyby, astronauts spent several hours observing and photographing the lunar surface before beginning their return journey. The crew—Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—reentered Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 33, comparable to velocities seen during the Apollo era.
The Orion capsule, named Integrity, operated largely in autonomous mode, with manual control reserved only for emergencies.
Mission officials noted that the most intense phase of reentry included a brief communication blackout lasting about six minutes before parachute deployment—a standard but tense moment in space missions.
The recovery operation was led by the USS John P. Murtha, supported by aircraft and helicopters. This marked the first joint NASA–US Defense Department recovery of a lunar crew since Apollo 17 in 1972, underscoring the mission’s historic significance.
