NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, alongside CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean Friday evening, completing the first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century. The Artemis II crew traveled farther from Earth than any humans since Apollo 17, reaching a maximum distance of 252,756 miles during their nearly 10-day journey.
The crew splashed down at 5:07 p.m. PDT off the coast of San Diego, where a combined NASA and U.S. military recovery team assisted them from the Orion spacecraft in open water. The astronauts were transported via helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for initial medical checkouts before returning to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, welcome home, and congratulations on a truly historic achievement," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in NASA's official statement. "Artemis II demonstrated extraordinary skill, courage, and dedication as the crew pushed Orion, SLS, and human exploration farther than ever before."
In space exploration, as across technological frontiers, engineering constraints meet human ambition—and occasionally, we achieve the impossible. Artemis II wasn't just a symbolic victory lap around the Moon. This mission validated critical systems that will enable humanity's return to the lunar surface on Artemis III and beyond.
The crew tested life support systems for extended deep space operations, validated Orion's navigation and guidance systems beyond low Earth orbit, and proved the spacecraft's heat shield could withstand the 5,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures of lunar return reentry—traveling at 24,500 miles per hour, faster than any crewed spacecraft in five decades. Every sensor reading, every system check, every procedure executed during this mission feeds directly into preparations for the lunar landing mission.
