Artemis II Crew Prepares for Pacific Splashdown After Historic Lunar Mission

NASA's Artemis II mission is approaching its conclusion, with the Orion spacecraft scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 10. The mission, which launched on April 1, marks the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The four-member crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—achieved a record distance of 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. During their journey, they conducted scientific observations of the Moon, including the Orientale Basin, and witnessed a total solar eclipse from space.

As the Orion capsule re-enters Earth's atmosphere, it will experience temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The spacecraft will deploy a series of parachutes to slow its descent from approximately 25,000 miles per hour to a splashdown speed of 20 miles per hour. The USS John P. Murtha is stationed near the splashdown zone to assist in the crew's recovery.

The Artemis II mission serves as a critical test flight for NASA's Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System, paving the way for future missions aimed at establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon. The crew's successful completion of this mission brings NASA one step closer to its goal of returning humans to the lunar surface.