Artemis II astronauts splashdown after first moon mission in more than 50 years

The 4 Artemis II astronauts splashed down disconnected the seashore of San Diego Friday evening pursuing a 10-day ngo that marked the archetypal manned satellite ngo successful much than 50 years astatine 5:07 Pacific Time.

The unit launched from the Kennedy Space Center connected April 1 and traveled astir the moon, 252,000 miles from Earth, flying farther from Earth than immoderate erstwhile mission.

After NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman landed connected the USS John P. Murtha up of the splashdown, helium shared a massage for those helping with the betterment of the astronauts.

"I person nary uncertainty that you're each going to execute this flawlessly arsenic we get these astronauts who volition conscionable implicit an implicit historical mission, traveling further into abstraction than immoderate humans person gone before," helium said.

ARTEMIS II NEARS END OF HISTORIC MISSION WITH SPLASHDOWN OFF CALIFORNIA COAST

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is greeted by Capt. Erik Kenny, commanding serviceman of USS John P. Murtha, arsenic NASA and U.S. subject teams hole for the Artemis II crew's instrumentality to Earth successful the Pacific Ocean disconnected California connected April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA)

"For the archetypal time, we've gone into the lunar situation successful much than fractional a century," helium added. "We are backmost successful the concern of sending astronauts to the satellite again."

Isaacman added that erstwhile Artemis III launches successful 2028 for the archetypal satellite landing successful decades, NASA plans to enactment and physique a satellite base.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS SHOW OFF APOLLO 18 FLAG FROM SPACE

After being helped retired the Orion unit module, the 4 astronauts: Commander Reid Weisman, aviator Victor Glover, ngo specializer Christina Koch and ngo specializer Jeremy Hansen were taken aboard the USS John P. Murtha for aesculapian valuation pursuing the mission.

U.S. Navy divers hole to deploy from USS John P. Murtha to retrieve Artemis II crewmembers and NASA's Orion spacecraft successful the Pacific Ocean disconnected the seashore of California connected April 10, 2026. (Bill Ingalls/NASA)

The Orion spacecraft reentered the Earth’s ambiance Friday astatine astir 25,000 mph, slowing to astir 20 mph utilizing an 11-parachute series earlier landing successful the water astir 60 miles disconnected the seashore astatine 5:07 p.m. section time.

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Earth sets astatine 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, implicit the Moon’s curved limb successful this photograph captured by the Artemis II unit during their travel astir the acold broadside of the Moon. (NASA)

During its reentry, the temperatures extracurricular of the spacecraft got arsenic precocious arsenic 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Astronauts past went to the satellite successful December 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission, 3 years aft humans archetypal landed connected the satellite successful the Apollo 11 ngo successful 1969.