Artemis II returns safely

NASA’s Artemis II crew is back on Earth after Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off California on April 10. (nasa.gov) NASA said Orion hit the water at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time, or 8:07 p.m. Eastern, near San Diego after a 10-day mission around the Moon. The crew was Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (nasa.gov) The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on April 1 aboard the Space Launch System rocket. NASA described Artemis II as the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years. (nasa.gov) Artemis II was a test flight, not a landing mission. NASA used it to fly astronauts around the Moon and back while checking Orion’s life-support systems, navigation, communications, and re-entry hardware before later Artemis missions. (nasa.gov) During the flight, NASA said the crew passed Apollo 13’s 1970 mark for the farthest distance humans had traveled from Earth. The agency said that happened on April 6, six days into the mission. (nasa.gov) NASA has tied Artemis II to its plan to return astronauts to the lunar surface and build up missions that could support later trips to Mars. The agency says this flight was the first crewed test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft together in deep space. (nasa.gov) The return drew a wave of celebration online as recovery teams moved toward Orion in the Pacific. Sesame Street posted a welcome-home message to the astronauts on X after splashdown. (x.com) By April 12, NASA had already published photos of the parachute descent, splashdown, and the crew’s return to Houston. The mission that left Earth on April 1 ended where it was designed to end: four astronauts home, and Orion recovered from the sea. (nasa.gov)