Artemis II splashdown details
NASA confirmed the Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific near San Diego at 5:07 a.m. PDT on April 10 after a 10-day mission that marked the first human trip to the Moon in more than 50 years (nasa.gov). NASA’s gallery and tweets note Orion’s service-module separation, recovery work by U.S. military, NASA, and Lockheed Martin, and identify the crew as Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and CSA Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen ( ).
NASA’s Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific off San Diego at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on April 10, ending the first human trip to the Moon in more than 50 years. (nasa.gov) Orion carried Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch for NASA, plus Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day lunar flyby that launched April 1 and ended April 10. (nasa.gov) NASA said the capsule returned under parachutes after re-entry, then recovery teams from the United States military, NASA, and Lockheed Martin moved in by inflatable boats and helicopters. The crew later transferred to the amphibious transport dock USS John P. Murtha. (nasa.gov) A lunar flyby sends astronauts around the Moon without landing, using the Moon’s gravity to bend the spacecraft back toward Earth. Artemis II was NASA’s first crewed test of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and deep-space operations with astronauts aboard. (nasa.gov) NASA said the mission went farther from Earth than any human spaceflight since Apollo and broke the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The agency said Orion reached 248,655 miles from Earth on April 6. (nasa.gov) The flight also resumed crewed lunar travel for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. NASA has positioned Artemis II as the test run before later missions attempt landings near the Moon’s south pole. (nasa.gov) Images from NASA’s splashdown gallery show Orion’s European-built service module separating before re-entry, a standard step because the crew capsule alone is designed to survive the plunge through Earth’s atmosphere. The same gallery shows Navy and recovery crews securing the spacecraft in the water. (nasa.gov) NASA said Orion will return to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-flight analysis, while the astronauts have already flown back to Houston to reunite with their families. The mission closed with the same basic scene that ended Apollo flights: a charred capsule, parachutes in the water, and sailors moving in for pickup. (nasa.gov)
