Artemis II Astronauts Safely Return After Historic Lunar Mission

NASA's Artemis II mission concluded successfully with the Orion spacecraft's splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, 2026. The crew—Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—completed a 10-day journey that took them 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the distance achieved by Apollo 13.

Upon re-entry, the Orion capsule endured extreme temperatures as it entered Earth's atmosphere at speeds exceeding 24,000 mph. The successful splashdown was described by Mission Control's Rob Navias as "a perfect bullseye splashdown."

Following their return, the astronauts were extracted from the spacecraft and transported to the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluations. They then returned to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they reunited with their families and began post-mission debriefings.

The Artemis II mission marks the first crewed lunar voyage since the Apollo program ended in 1972. This mission serves as a critical step toward NASA's goal of returning humans to the Moon and establishing a sustained presence there by 2028.