Artemis II Returns

After spending close to ten days in space, the Artemis II crew returned to Earth by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on April 10th at 8:07 p.m. EDT, exactly as planned. The Orion spacecraft went through the atmosphere at a speed of 35 times the speed of sound and suffered a six-minute communications blackout as the plasma formed around the capsule during re-entry. As soon as the signal was restored, the parachutes deployed according to plan, and Mission Control declared it a perfect bullseye splashdown. Crew recovery teams picked the astronauts from the water and brought them to the USS John P. Murtha, where Commander Reid Wiseman reported that all four crew members were well. They were even taking selfies by the time they got out of the capsule, it seems.

The mission clocked a total of 694,481 miles and set a new record for the greatest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth, Apollo 13 being beaten by more than 4,000 miles. Besides the figures, it was a big step in history: Victor Glover was the first person of color to travel around the Moon, Christina Koch the first woman, and Jeremy Hansen the first non-American. NASA will now use the mission's data for studies, especially examining the Orion heat shield and life support systems, pieces that will be the bedrock of Artemis IV when astronauts will be landed on the Moon. What began merely as a flight test has now become one of the most remarkable human spaceflight missions over the past several decades.

(Image Credit: NASA)