Artemis II astronauts splash down, concluding historic 10-day moon mission

After nearly 10 days in space, the Artemis II capsule carrying a four-astronaut crew tore back through Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, bringing to a close humanity’s first journey to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years.

NASA’s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, named Integrity, drifted under parachutes into waters off the Southern California coast shortly after 5pm PT (1am Irish time), ending a mission that carried its crew farther into space than any humans had travelled before.

The Artemis II flight covered 1,117,515km, completing two Earth orbits before a dramatic lunar flyby some 252,000 miles away. It marked the first crewed test mission in NASA’s Artemis programme, a series of flights intended to begin returning astronauts to the lunar surface from 2028.

Watch: Artemis II splashes down after historic moon mission

‘Perfect bullseye’

The splashdown unfolded under partly cloudy skies about two hours before sunset and was broadcast live on a NASA webcast.

“A perfect bull’s eye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts,” NASA commentator Rob Navias said moments after the landing.

“We are stable one – four green crew members,” mission commander Reid Wiseman radioed just after splashdown, indicating the capsule was secure in the water and all four astronauts were in good condition.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described the voyage as “a perfect mission”.

NASA and US Navy recovery teams took less than two hours to secure the floating capsule and retrieve the crew: US astronauts Wiseman, 50, Victor Glover, 49, and Christina Koch, 47, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, 50.

NASA said a navy medical officer who briefly examined the astronauts inside the capsule found all four to be healthy.

The crew’s return cleared a crucial final test for the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft, demonstrating that it could endure the punishing forces of re-entry from a trajectory returning from the moon.

That test came during a tense 13-minute descent through Earth’s atmosphere, when friction heated the capsule’s exterior to about 2,760 degrees Celsius.

At the height of re-entry, exactly as anticipated, extreme heat and compressed air created a red-hot layer of ionised gas, or plasma, around the capsule, severing radio contact with the crew for several minutes.

Celebrations at the San Diego Air and Space Museum as the Artemis II capsule returned to Earth

Relief came when communications resumed and two sets of parachutes blossomed from the nose of the falling capsule, slowing Orion to roughly 25km/h before it settled gently into the ocean.

After Navy divers attached a flotation collar to steady the capsule, the four astronauts, still dressed in their orange flight suits, climbed onto an inflatable raft. They were then lifted one at a time into hovering helicopters and flown a short distance to the nearby Navy amphibious transport vessel John P. Murtha for further medical checks.

Mr Glover and Ms Koch smiled and waved at cameras while seated at the edge of a helicopter doorway on the flight deck.

NASA said the crew was expected to spend the night aboard the ship before being flown to Houston, where they will be reunited with their families.

NASA and US Navy teams spent about an hour securing the capsule in the water, helping the astronauts out of the spacecraft and transporting them to a nearby recovery ship for an initial medical examination.

Stepping stone to Mars

The four astronauts launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 1 April, riding NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket into an initial Earth orbit before heading out on a rare voyage around the far side of the moon.

In doing so, they became the first astronauts to fly near Earth’s only natural satellite since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr Glover, Ms Koch and Mr Hansen also entered the history books as the first black astronaut, the first woman and the first non-US citizen, respectively, to take part in a lunar mission.

At the mission’s most distant point, the Artemis astronauts reached 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous record of about 248,000 miles set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13.

The voyage followed the uncrewed Artemis I Orion test flight around the moon in 2022 and served as a pivotal rehearsal for a planned mission later this decade to put astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in late 1972.

The mission took the Artemis II further than any humans in history

The Artemis programme’s long-term objective is to build a sustained human presence on the moon, laying the groundwork for eventual crewed missions to Mars.

In an echo of the Apollo era during the Cold War, Artemis II unfolded against a period of political and social unrest, including a US military conflict that has drawn little support at home.

But unlike Apollo, when the United States was competing with the Soviet Union to reach the moon first, the Artemis programme is now focused on staying ahead of China.

For many people watching around the world, the latest lunar mission served as a reminder of what science and technology can achieve at a moment when big tech is often viewed with distrust, and sometimes fear.

Opinion polls showed widespread public backing for the mission’s goals.

The spacecraft’s return to Earth also subjected Orion’s heat shield to a defining test after the shield experienced more scorching and strain than expected during the 2022 mission.

In response, NASA engineers adjusted the Artemis II descent profile to cut heat buildup and reduce the danger of the capsule burning up during re-entry.

Last week’s successful launch also marked a major breakthrough for the SLS rocket, giving its main contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, long-awaited proof that the launch system, after more than a decade of development, was ready to carry humans safely into space.