Artemis II Mission Ends with Successful Pacific Splashdown

NASA's Artemis II mission concluded successfully on Friday when the Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time. The crew, consisting of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, all from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency, had completed a 10-day journey that marked the first crewed flight around the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Launched on April 1 from Florida aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket, the mission tested the Orion capsule's ability to carry humans beyond low-Earth orbit. The spacecraft flew by the Moon's far side, reaching a record distance of approximately 406,771 kilometers from Earth, surpassing the previous mark set by Apollo 13. During the voyage, the astronauts traveled at peak speeds of over 24,000 miles per hour and endured a reentry at up to 33 times the speed of sound, generating temperatures nearly half as hot as the Sun's surface. The heat shield performed as designed, and parachutes deployed for a precise landing within one mile of the target.

Mission commander Wiseman reported from inside the capsule...