Artemis II Crew Completes Successful Moon Flyby

NASA's Artemis II mission concluded successfully on April 10, 2026, when the Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, marking the first crewed voyage around the Moon in more than 50 years.

The crew, consisting of NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, had launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1 aboard the Space Launch System rocket. Over the 10-day journey, they traveled approximately 694,000 miles, including two orbits of Earth and a flyby of the Moon's far side about 4,000 miles from its surface. The mission reached a peak distance of 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Reentry presented the final challenge, with the capsule descending at speeds exceeding 24,000 miles per hour. Its heat shield endured temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, creating a sheath of plasma that caused a planned communications blackout lasting more than six minutes. NASA officials described the landing as a "perfect bullseye," with the spacecraft deploying parachutes and...