NASA has completed initial evaluations of the Artemis II mission systems following the crew's safe return from a lunar flyby earlier this month. The Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket performed as expected, setting a new record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth. Minor issues arose with the toilet system, but the crew resolved them successfully.
The Artemis II mission, which sent four astronauts—commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, and two others—on a 10-day circumlunar flight, concluded with a successful splashdown earlier this month. NASA reported that the Orion crew capsule's heat shield performed as expected, showing less char loss than during the uncrewed Artemis I test in 2023. Splashdown occurred just 2.9 miles from the target site in the Pacific Ocean, with entry velocity within one mile per hour of predictions, as Navy divers confirmed with underwater photos of the heat shield. The SLS rocket also met performance goals, achieving over 18,000 miles per hour at main engine cutoff for precise orbital insertion, NASA stated in a blog post. Artemis II marked the first crewed flight of Orion and SLS, serving as a test for upcoming missions targeted for 2027 and 2028, including a lunar landing. The crew flew 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 record of 248,655 miles set by Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in 1970. Fred Haise, 92 and the sole surviving Apollo 13 astronaut, downplayed the record in an interview, calling it incidental due to the Moon's elliptical orbit at apogee. He emphasized the mission's value as a test flight: 'This was a great test pilot mission.' A urine vent line issue in the toilet system emerged shortly after launch, which Koch troubleshot with ground support. Post-mission, Wiseman shared a video of Earthset from Orion on April 19, the first firsthand view in over 50 years. Koch described readjusting to gravity, noting how microgravity affects vestibular organs, forcing reliance on vision upon return.
