NASA welcomes Artemis II Moonfarers back to Earth

NASA’s historic Artemis II mission has successfully returned its astronauts to Earth, marking the first human journey to the Moon in more than half a century.

The Orion spacecraft carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen splashed down at 5:07 p.m. PDT Friday off the coast of San Diego, California, concluding a nearly 10-day mission that pushed humanity farther from Earth than ever before.

The crew traveled a total of 694,481 miles, with a closest lunar approach of 4,067 miles above the Moon’s surface, surpassing the distance record previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Their journey included a lunar flyby and a solar eclipse observation, capturing over 7,000 images of the Moon’s surface and the Earth from deep space.

“Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, welcome home, and congratulations on a truly historic achievement,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Artemis II demonstrated extraordinary skill and courage, setting the stage for a sustainable human return to the Moon.”

Following their splashdown, the astronauts were assisted by a combined NASA and U.S. military team and transported by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for initial medical checks. They are expected to return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on April 11.

During the mission, the crew rigorously tested Orion’s life support and piloting systems, confirming that it can sustain humans in deep space. Experiments conducted aboard included the AVATAR investigation, which studies how human tissue responds to microgravity and deep space radiation, alongside other human performance research critical for long-duration lunar missions and future Mars expeditions.

The Artemis II mission also provided unique scientific observations of the Moon’s topography, including areas along the terminator where long shadows mimic illumination conditions at the lunar South Pole, the target landing site for Artemis III in 2028. The crew proposed potential names for lunar craters and reported meteoroid impact flashes on the Moon’s night side, adding valuable data for exploration planning.