Artemis II crew returned safely
NASA confirmed the Artemis II crew completed a 10‑day mission around the Moon and splashed down safely after reaching 248,655 miles from Earth. A press release from the California Manufacturers & Technology Association credited state manufacturers for hardware and parts used on the mission. (nasa.gov) (prnewswire.com)
NASA’s Artemis II astronauts are back on Earth after a 10-day flight around the Moon, ending with a Pacific splashdown on April 10. (nasa.gov) NASA said Orion splashed down at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time off the California coast with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard. Recovery teams then extracted the crew and flew them by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha. (nasa.gov) The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 and looped around the Moon without landing. On April 6, NASA said the crew reached 248,655 miles from Earth, passing the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) Artemis II was the first time astronauts traveled to the Moon in more than 50 years, and NASA described it as the first crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis program. The agency says the flight was designed to check life-support systems, navigation, communications, and re-entry hardware before later lunar landing missions. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) The larger program aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface and use those missions to prepare for eventual flights to Mars. NASA’s Artemis II mission page says this crewed lunar flyby is a key step before longer-term Moon operations. (nasa.gov) A California industry group used the safe return to spotlight the supply chain behind the spacecraft. In a press release on April 13, the California Manufacturers & Technology Association said companies in the state supplied avionics, propulsion components, thermal protection materials, precision fasteners, and composite structures used in Artemis hardware. (prnewswire.com) That claim came from the trade group, not NASA, and the release framed Artemis II as evidence that California manufacturing remains tied to national aerospace programs. The association’s statement did not provide a full audited parts list in the text shown by PR Newswire. (prnewswire.com) NASA’s own updates focused on the flight profile and the crew’s return, including a final trajectory correction burn on April 10 before re-entry. By the end, Artemis II had turned a round-the-Moon test into NASA’s clearest proof yet that Orion can carry people out to deep space and bring them home. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2)
