Artemis II returns to Earth

NASA’s Artemis II crew is back on Earth after circling the Moon, ending the first crewed lunar flyby mission in more than 50 years. (nasa.gov) NASA said Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off California at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, April 10, 2026, after a mission lasting 9 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes. The crew was commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (nasa.gov) The spacecraft launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time on April 1 aboard the Space Launch System rocket, then left Earth orbit on April 2 after a translunar injection burn that sent Orion toward the Moon. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) A lunar flyby is a loop around the Moon without landing. NASA used Artemis II to test Orion with astronauts on board in deep space before later Artemis missions aim for lunar surface operations. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) The mission set a new distance record for human spaceflight on April 6, when the crew passed 248,655 miles from Earth, breaking the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970. NASA later said Orion reached 252,756 miles from Earth at its farthest point. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) Artemis II was also the first time humans had traveled beyond Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. NASA has described the flight as the first crewed test mission of the Orion spacecraft and the Artemis campaign’s step before future Moon landing missions. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) The four astronauts flew around the Moon’s far side on April 6 after entering the region where the Moon’s gravity pulled harder on Orion than Earth’s gravity did. NASA scheduled the mission to gather data on spacecraft systems, crew operations, and the deep-space environment during the round trip. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) The crew carried several firsts into the flight. Glover became the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon, Koch became the first woman assigned to a lunar mission, and Hansen became the first Canadian to venture to the Moon. (nasa.gov; asc-csa.gc.ca) After splashdown, recovery teams brought the astronauts out of Orion and onto the USS John P. Murtha, and NASA said the crew returned to Johnson Space Center in Houston on April 11 to reunite with their families. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov) NASA says Artemis is built as a series of increasingly difficult Moon missions, with Artemis II serving as the crewed shakedown flight before later attempts to send astronauts to the lunar surface. Artemis II ended with the same basic task it started with: proving the spacecraft could take people to deep space and bring them home safely. (nasa.gov; nasa.gov)