Artemis II returns safely
NASA’s Orion capsule returned the four Artemis II astronauts to Earth in a textbook splashdown after a precision re‑entry sequence — a nine‑second return‑correction burn at 10:53 p.m. EDT added 5.3 feet/second to Orion’s velocity to set up entry. (nasa.gov). The crew landed “right on schedule” in the Pacific at about 8:07 p.m. ET, with parachutes slowing the capsule from roughly 300 mph to under 20 mph in what observers called a “bullseye” recovery. ( )
A moon mission can still be won or lost in the last few minutes, and Artemis II’s last big move was a 9-second engine firing on April 9 at 10:53 p.m. Eastern time that changed Orion’s speed by just 5.3 feet per second. That tiny nudge was enough to line up the corridor for reentry a day later. (nasa.gov) Coming home from the Moon is not like falling straight down. Orion had to hit Earth’s atmosphere at the right angle, because too steep means brutal heating and too shallow means the capsule can skip away like a flat stone on water. (nasa.gov) That is why NASA treated Artemis II as a test flight, not just a sightseeing loop. This was the first time people rode the Orion spacecraft in deep space, and the mission’s job was to prove the capsule, life-support hardware, navigation, and heat shield all worked with a crew on board. (nasa.gov) The four people inside were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. NASA says Artemis II was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. (nasa.gov, nasa.gov) The mission launched on April 1, 2026, and lasted 9 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes. On April 6, the crew reached 248,655 miles from Earth, which NASA says is farther than any humans had traveled before, breaking the Apollo 13 distance mark from 1970. (nasa.gov, nasa.gov) NASA added one more small burn on April 10 at 2:53 p.m. Eastern time, this time for 8 seconds and 4.2 feet per second, to keep tightening the return path. In deep space, that is the same basic idea as tapping a steering wheel early instead of yanking it at the exit ramp. (nasa.gov) Orion hit the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time, which is 8:07 p.m. Eastern time, on Friday, April 10. NASA and CBS both reported the splashdown happened on schedule after the capsule tore through the atmosphere and deployed its parachutes. (nasa.gov, cbsnews.com) Those parachutes did the last piece of the work. Live coverage said Orion slowed from about 300 miles per hour to under 20 miles per hour before hitting the water, which is the difference between a cannonball and a hard boat landing. (livescience.com, cbsnews.com) Recovery crews then moved in with the Navy ship USS Somerset waiting offshore, and NASA’s live updates showed the astronauts floating beside the capsule on an inflatable platform nicknamed the “front porch” before extraction. By the time the hatch opened, the mission had done the one thing every future Moon flight depends on: leave Earth fast, come back hotter than a meteor, and bring the crew home exactly where the map said. (abc.com, nasa.gov)
