Artemis II Splashdown

NASA’s Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, ending the first crewed trip beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. (nasa.gov) The Orion capsule came down under three red-and-white parachutes and hit the water at about 8:07 p.m. Eastern time off the coast of San Diego, according to NASA’s live coverage and mission page. (nasa.gov) Artemis II launched on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. NASA lists the mission duration as 9 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes. (nasa.gov) A lunar flyby is a loop around the Moon without landing, like using the Moon’s gravity to swing a spacecraft back toward Earth. NASA said Artemis II used the flight to test Orion’s life-support, navigation, communications, and reentry systems with astronauts aboard. (nasa.gov) The return mattered because Orion had to survive the hardest part of the mission at the very end: slamming into Earth’s atmosphere from lunar speed behind a heat shield. Coverage of the reentry described a brief communications blackout as superheated plasma built up around the capsule. (cnbc.com) NASA said the crew also surpassed the Apollo 13 record for the farthest crewed spaceflight and captured views of the Moon’s far side during the mission. The agency published a splashdown image on April 11 showing Orion seconds before hitting the Pacific. (nasa.gov) The flight was also a first for the crew roster. Glover became the first Black astronaut to travel beyond low Earth orbit, and Koch became the first woman to fly to the Moon’s vicinity. (forbes.com) Artemis II was a test flight, not a landing mission. NASA says the next step is Artemis III, which is planned to use lessons from this flight to prepare for astronauts to return to the lunar surface. (nasa.gov) Less than a day after splashdown, NASA brought the crew back to Houston for a homecoming event and post-mission press appearances. The closing images were simpler than the engineering: four astronauts waving on Earth after a trip around the Moon. (abcnews.go.com)