WATCH: Dramatic explosion as Artemis II astronauts return to Earth after historic trip around the Moon
The Artemis II crew has returned safely to Earth after a nearly 10-day mission around the moon, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego early Saturday. NASA.Commander Reed Wiseman, pilots Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of Canada re-entered the atmosphere traveling on Mach 33. His Orion spacecraft, integrityJumped onto automatic pilot, completing landing with the aid of a parachute. This mission marked the first crewed lunar flight in more than half a century.
The space agency also shared splashdown footage on the X, announcing the completion of the historic lunar mission and the successful discovery of “our celestial neighbors.”The capsule re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at Mach 33, or 33 times the speed of sound, engulfed in red-hot plasma during extreme heat. Mission Control also recorded a planned communications blackout during this phase.NASA confirmed that communication with Orion was reestablished as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. At 8:03 p.m., the drogue parachutes deployed at 23,400 feet, reducing the velocity to 479 feet per second and stabilizing the spacecraft about 0.8 miles from splashdown. At 8.04 pm, the drogue chute was cut off and the three main parachutes deployed at 5,400 feet, slowing the Orion to below 200 feet per second for its final descent.After splashdown, NASA confirmed that the spacecraft remained stable in the water while engineers conducted post-landing checks and operated non-essential systems in preparation for recovery operations.The recovery director authorized NASA and US Army teams to access the capsule using inflatable boats. Engineers began initial post-splashdown procedures while awaiting crew extraction.The astronauts were safely evacuated from Orion on inflatable rafts, known as “front porches”, before being transferred to US military inflatable boats.The crew were hoisted into US Navy helicopters and taken to the recovery ship USS John P. Murtha. NASA confirmed that all four astronauts were safely aboard the ship, where they began post-mission medical evaluation.NASA said the crew would later be brought back to shore and flown by plane to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for further evaluation.Recovery operations will continue to secure the Orion spacecraft for transport. Teams from NASA, the US Navy and the US Air Force are coordinating to land the capsule on the USS John P. Murtha It will be returned to Naval Base San Diego and then to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for detailed inspection, data retrieval and post-flight analysis.