NASA's Artemis II crew returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego after a 10-day journey that circled the moon. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen emerged healthy from the Orion capsule named Integrity. The mission marked several historic firsts and set a new record for human distance from Earth.
The Orion capsule, Integrity, hit peak reentry speeds of around 24,661 miles per hour before deploying parachutes and splashing down at 5:07 p.m. PT (8:07 p.m. ET). Navy divers assisted the crew onto an inflatable 'front porch' raft, from which helicopters airlifted them one by one—Koch first, followed by Glover, Hansen and Wiseman last—to the USS John P. Murtha for medical checks. Wiseman reported 'four green crew members' post-splashdown, confirming all were in good health and spirits despite a six-minute communications blackout and up to 3.9 Gs of force during descent. Temperatures outside the capsule reached 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the heat shield performed as designed after trajectory adjustments from lessons learned on Artemis I. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the crew from the recovery ship, calling them 'ambassadors from humanity to the stars' who completed a 'perfect mission.' Launched on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center, the astronauts flew NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for the first time with humans aboard. They surpassed Apollo 13's 1970 record, traveling 252,756 miles from Earth during a lunar flyby on Monday, when they came within 4,067 miles of the moon's surface and captured images of its far side. Glover became the first Black astronaut to venture toward the moon, Hansen the first Canadian and Koch the first woman on such a mission. The crew tested life support systems and proposed naming two lunar craters: one 'Integrity' and another 'Carroll' after Wiseman's late wife. Artemis II paves the way for future landings, with Artemis IV eyed for 2028 near the moon's south pole.
