NASA’s Artemis II crew splashed down at 8:07 p.m. ET in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, capping a historic 10-day mission that sent astronauts farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled.
The four-person crew, which included three NASA astronauts and a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, with the first woman and first Black astronauts assigned to a lunar mission, orbited the moon and returned to Earth safely aboard the Orion spacecraft.
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The Friday splashdown followed the most dangerous phase of the journey: reentry through Earth’s atmosphere.
Traveling at speeds approaching 25,000 miles per hour, Orion endured temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it descended and deployed parachutes, landing in the Pacific.
Upon landing, the first humans to make contact with the astronauts will be U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS John P. Murtha. The sailors include Lt. Cmdr. Jesse Wang, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Laddy Aldridge, Chief Hospital Corpsman Vlad Link, and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Steve Kapala.
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The sailors will make initial medical assessments before the astronauts head back to Houston.
President Donald Trump congratulated the crew on a “perfect” landing on Friday night and teased a forthcoming invitation to the White House.
“The entire trip was spectacular, the landing was perfect and, as President of the United States, I could not be more proud!” Trump said on Truth Social. “I look forward to seeing you all at the White House soon. We’ll be doing it again and then, next step, Mars!”
Artemis II was the first crewed mission in NASA’s Artemis program and the first time astronauts have traveled beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo era.
The mission builds on the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022, which validated the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule in a similar trajectory around the moon.
Launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis II crew spent several days traveling to the moon, performing a flyby that took them thousands of miles beyond the lunar surface before beginning their return to Earth.
Along the way, astronauts conducted system checks, tested life-support functions, and captured images of the Earth and moon.
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The successful completion of Artemis II sets the stage for Artemis III in 2027, which is slated to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
The Artemis III mission is expected to target a landing near the moon’s south pole in 2027, another stepping stone toward the greater goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon.
