The Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — splashed down in an Orion capsule after a nine-day mission around the moon and back. Their return marked humans venturing deeper into space than in decades.
To come home safely the crew and capsule endured near-record reentry speeds and temperatures up to about 5,000°F. The Orion spacecraft spent 13½ minutes in the atmosphere, reaching more than 30 times the speed of sound. Orion’s heat shield protected the crew, and a sequence of parachutes slowed the capsule for a gentle splashdown in the Pacific off San Diego. The mission logged more than 700,237 statute miles, Artemis II entry flight director Rick Henfling said.
A U.S. Navy dive team pulled the crew from the capsule; helicopters lifted them from a raft on the capsule’s “porch.” Within 24 hours of splashdown they were to arrive at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We did it. We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years,” said NASA’s Lori Glaze, who leads the Artemis programs. “To the generation that now knows what we’re capable of: Welcome to our moonshot.”
The flight passed over the moon’s far side at roughly 4,000 miles above the surface. The crew made geological observations and took thousands of photographs to help scientists better understand lunar composition and origin. Looking back at Earth provided a powerful perspective: “Trust me, you are special, in all of this emptiness,” Glover said. “You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”
Artemis II served as a critical test of the Orion spacecraft, which will carry future Artemis crews and astronauts destined for the lunar surface. The crew evaluated key systems — life support, maneuvering, the heat shield and even the toilet. Findings from this flight will guide later missions. “Part of our ethos as a crew…was that this is a relay race,” Koch said. “We have batons that we bought to symbolize…that we plan to hand them to the next crew.”
NASA’s leadership accelerated the Artemis cadence, aiming for an Artemis mission each year. Preparations for the next flight began even before Artemis II landed. At Kennedy Space Center, teams are readying the mobile launch platform and SLS rocket for Artemis III, moving the platform back into the Vehicle Assembly Building to begin assembly. John Giles, who oversees the Crawler-Transporter, said there’s “no rest for the weary.”
Key components are arriving: the Artemis III SLS core stage fuel tank will reach Kennedy later this month, and parts of the solid rocket motors are already onsite. Artemis III is targeted for next year and will remain in Earth orbit while testing spacecraft meant to land humans on the moon. Artemis IV could follow, potentially returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.