Four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Friday evening, ending a 10-day lunar flyby mission that sent humans farther into deep space than anyone has ever traveled. NASA's Orion spacecraft, named "Integrity," hit the water at 8:07 p.m. ET, timed, by all accounts, to the second.
The Artemis II crew, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, covered 694,481 miles on their round trip to the moon and back. They became the first astronauts to reach the moon in more than 50 years and the first humans ever to travel that far into deep space.
That last fact bears repeating. More than half a century after Apollo, the United States finally put a crew back in lunar space. And it worked.
The mission launched April 1 from Kennedy Space Center, as NASA had cleared Artemis II for its historic flight after years of delays and testing. In the hours after liftoff, the crew completed engine burns to enter high-earth orbit, while Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston ran tests on the Orion spacecraft and, in a less glamorous moment, troubleshot a toilet issue.
On April 2, Orion fired its translunar injection burn, committing the crew to a trajectory toward the moon. That same day, the astronauts used their flywheel exercise device for the first time, a necessity because the zero-gravity environment can cause muscle and bone loss.
Flight days three through five were spent preparing the cabin for the lunar flyby and conducting science activities. Koch and Hansen performed a manual piloting demonstration of Orion during that stretch. NASA said the exercise was designed "to provide engineers with more data about the spacecraft's piloting capabilities." The crew also tested their Orion Crew Survival System Suits, running through a full sequence of operations including pressurization, leak checks, simulated seat entry, and assessments of their ability to eat and drink while suited up.
At 12:37 a.m. EDT on April 6, Orion and its four-person crew entered the lunar sphere of influence. The flyby itself brought a 40-minute communications blackout as the spacecraft passed behind the far side of the moon, the longest stretch the crew spent out of contact with Houston.
During the flyby, Hansen captured images through the camera shroud covering window 2 of Orion. At 6:41 p.m. EDT, an earthset was photographed through the spacecraft window. The crew also witnessed a solar eclipse from lunar orbit, becoming, as FOX Weather reported, the first people ever to wear solar eclipse glasses at the moon. NASA produced the viewers, identical to those distributed for the 2023 annular eclipse and the 2024 total solar eclipse.
The first photos from the far side of the moon captivated audiences back on Earth, a reminder that some achievements still unite a fractured country.
On Day 7, the Artemis II crew held a 15-minute call with NASA's Expedition 74 aboard the International Space Station. A group photo that day showed the crew with their zero-gravity indicator, "Rise," floating alongside them on the way home.
At 8:33 a.m. ET on April 7, a camera mounted on Orion's solar array wings captured the spacecraft while the crew slept. The mission had already shattered Apollo 13's distance record, sending these four farther from Earth than any humans in history.
Flight Day 8 brought more manual piloting demonstrations, this time with Glover and Wiseman at the controls. The crew also conducted media availability and tested orthostatic garments designed to help their bodies readjust to gravity after more than a week in space.
By Flight Day 9, preparations for splashdown began in earnest. The crew configured the cabin and ran through final checklists.
The final day started at 11:35 a.m. ET on Friday, April 10, when the crew woke aboard Orion. In the first few hours, they readied the cabin and completed their final return trajectory correction burn. The crew module then separated from the service module right before entering Earth's atmosphere. A final raise burn locked in the splashdown trajectory.
At 7:53 p.m., Orion entered a six-minute communications blackout during atmospheric reentry. When the signal returned around 8 p.m., parachute deployment was minutes away.
At 8:07 p.m. ET, 5:07 p.m. local time off California, Orion hit the Pacific. NASA confirmed the moment in a statement: "Following a splashdown at 5:07 p.m. PDT (8:07 p.m. EDT), NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the Orion spacecraft aboard."
The recovery operation moved quickly. Orion was powered down. The crew was extracted by a Navy MH-60 Seahawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 and transferred to the USS John P. Murtha, where they received full medical exams. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was on the flight deck of the Murtha, where he was seen talking with Glover and Hansen after their arrival.
As of Saturday morning, the crew was doing well.
This mission was not a moon landing. That comes later, with Artemis III. But Artemis II answered the question that mattered most right now: can the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket safely carry a crew to the moon and bring them home? The answer, after 694,481 miles and a splashdown timed to the second, is yes.
The crew tested piloting, survival suits, exercise equipment, and communications across a range of conditions, from high-earth orbit to the far side of the moon. They endured blackout periods, adapted to zero gravity, and returned to Earth through a punishing atmospheric reentry. Every system held.
The translunar injection burn on April 2 marked the first time a crewed spacecraft committed to a lunar trajectory since 1972. That alone was a milestone. The successful splashdown ten days later confirmed the full mission architecture works with people aboard.
Open questions remain. NASA has not detailed the exact nature of the toilet issue the crew dealt with early in the mission. The specific science activities conducted during the middle flight days have not been fully disclosed. And the broader Artemis program still faces cost pressures and schedule uncertainties that will test the agency's ability to follow through on the next phase.
But those are problems for tomorrow. On Friday night, four people rode a spacecraft through the atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour, deployed parachutes over the Pacific, and landed within a second of the planned time. The U.S. Navy fished them out. They're fine.
America went back to the moon. Not with a press release. Not with a concept video. With four people in a capsule, doing the work. That's the kind of achievement worth celebrating, and the kind of national capability worth protecting, no matter what budget fights lie ahead.
