Nasa’s Artemis Ii Moon Mission Splashes Down

NASA’s Artemis II moon ngo splashes down

NASA’s Orion capsule and nan 4 astronauts connected committee person made it backmost to Earth aft 10 days successful abstraction and a record-breaking ngo astir nan satellite and back

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner

NASA

NASA launched 4 astronauts connected a pioneering travel astir nan moon—the Artemis II mission. Read our sum here.

NASA’s Artemis II capsule splashed down successful nan Pacific Ocean disconnected nan seashore of San Diego, Calif., astatine 8:07 P.M. EDT connected April 10, bringing an extremity to a historical 10-day travel astir nan satellite and back.

The astronauts’ return marks nan culmination of nan first crewed trial formation of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule; nan accomplishment will undoubtedly fortify nan abstraction agency’s plans for upcoming Artemis missions successful nan adjacent fewer years and its eventual satellite guidelines ambitions.

"We are 4 greenish crewmembers," Reid Wiseman, nan capsule's commandant said aft splashdown—green intends that nan unit are each well.

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First, nan abstraction agency’s attraction is focused firmly connected nan Artemis II crew. The 4 astronauts wrong nan Orion capsule, named Integrity, person endured a 13-minute ride successful which they plummeted 400,000 feet done Earth’s atmosphere, pinch temperatures extracurricular nan capsule nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius), to scope nan h2o below.

During this descent, their assemblage would person felt absurdly dense because of gravity—as a personification accelerates downward astatine velocity and past abruptly stops aliases slows down, nan assemblage experiences a higher g-force, which creates immense unit connected it. But now that nan unit members are successful nan water, commandant Wiseman, aviator Victor Glover and ngo specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will person immoderate clip to retrieve their senses and get fresh to time off nan capsule they person called location passim their almost 700,000-mile journey.

Waiting for them is nan USS John P. Murtha, a Navy ship, and smaller vessels pinch divers onboard who will soon retrieve nan unit from their capsule. The betterment teams can’t spell successful correct distant because they request to beryllium judge that location is nary consequence of debris interfering pinch their operation. But erstwhile they are clear, nan divers will thief nan astronauts unfastened nan capsule and exit to waiting helicopters, which will return them to nan larger Navy ship.

Then nan unit will beryllium transferred backmost to statement successful San Diego and committee a level for NASA’s Johnson Space Center successful Houston, wherever their families await them.

Artemis II has been a ngo of superlatives: The 4 astronauts clasp nan grounds for nan farthest immoderate quality has ever been from Earth—252,756 miles—and they person seen areas of nan acold broadside of nan satellite that nary 1 has ever viewed straight before. Just arsenic nan Apollo missions did much than 50 years ago, NASA hopes their achievements and nan subject observations they collected, including of a full star eclipse, will substance lunar investigation and our knowing of nan satellite for decades to come.

Editor’s Note (4/10/26): This is simply a breaking news communicative and will beryllium updated.