Artemis crew returns
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen splashed down after a deep‑space moon flyby that offered first far‑side views, and they were greeted with loud cheers on return. (x.com)
NASA’s Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific off San Diego on April 10, ending the first crewed trip around the Moon in more than 50 years. (nasa.gov) NASA said Orion hit the water at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard. The capsule launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 for a 10-day lunar flyby. (nasa.gov) A lunar flyby is a loop around the Moon without landing, using the Moon’s gravity to bend a spacecraft back toward Earth. Artemis II was NASA’s first crewed test of Orion in deep space, after the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022. (nasa.gov) The mission carried humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. On April 6, NASA said the crew passed the Apollo 13 record for the farthest distance from Earth reached by humans. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) NASA and the United States military recovered the crew at sea after splashdown, lifting the astronauts by helicopter from a raft beside Orion and taking them to a Navy ship for checks. Associated Press reported the capsule came down Friday evening after a fiery re-entry over Southern California. (nasa.gov) (apnews.com) Artemis II was built to test the hardware needed for later Moon missions, including Orion’s life-support systems, navigation, communications and heat shield during return through Earth’s atmosphere. NASA lists the mission as a crewed lunar flyby designed to prepare for lunar surface flights. (nasa.gov) The next step is Artemis III, which NASA now lists for 2027. NASA says that mission will test rendezvous and docking between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed for a later lunar landing campaign. (nasa.gov)
