First crewed moon mission in 50 years ends with successful splashdown

Artemis II has successfully brought its crew back to Earth, wrapping up a groundbreaking 10-day expedition that marked the first human journey around the Moon in over 50 years.

The mission concluded on Friday evening when NASA’s Orion spacecraft, Integrity, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and made a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Southern California. The descent, aided by parachutes, followed a high-speed return through extreme atmospheric conditions.

Onboard were astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, who collectively traveled more than 1.1 million kilometers. Their route included multiple Earth orbits and a close lunar flyby, taking them farther into deep space than any previous crewed mission.

The return journey tested the spacecraft under intense heat and pressure, with outer temperatures soaring to nearly 2,760°C. As anticipated, communication with the crew was briefly lost due to plasma buildup around the capsule during re-entry, before being restored as the parachutes deployed.

Rescue and recovery teams were already positioned in the Pacific to secure the spacecraft and assist the astronauts. Following retrieval, the crew will undergo routine health assessments before being flown to Johnson Space Center.

The mission, which launched on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center, represents a major step forward in NASA’s Artemis program. It is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972 and serves as a key precursor to planned Moon landings later this decade.

Artemis II also carried historic significance, as Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to orbit the Moon, Christina Koch the first woman, and Jeremy Hansen the first non-American to take part in such a mission.

With its successful completion, the mission strengthens global ambitions for long-term lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars.