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Artemis II Crew Returns Safely After Lunar Flyby

The mission’s results will guide NASA’s planned crewed lunar landings.

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The Artemis II crew members Mission Specialist Christina Koch, left, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home on April 7, 2026.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard was seen as it splashed down at 5:07 p.m. PDT in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Overview

  • The Orion capsule splashed down at 8:07 p.m. ET Friday off San Diego, and Navy teams moved the four astronauts to the USS John P. Murtha for medical checks with NASA reporting they were in great condition.
  • NASA used a steeper, faster reentry to shorten extreme heating on Orion’s heat shield after Artemis I revealed cracking and char loss, and engineers will now examine the shield’s performance following the planned blackout during peak heating.
  • The flight was the first crewed journey to lunar distance since 1972 and set a new human distance record at 252,756 miles on a free‑return path that used Moon‑Earth gravity to swing Orion back to Earth with minimal fuel.
  • While behind the Moon, the crew photographed stretches of the far side that no astronaut had seen directly and witnessed a total solar eclipse, generating imagery and observations for scientists to study lunar terrain and lighting.
  • The crew included Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, marking firsts for a woman beyond low‑Earth orbit, a person of color at lunar distance and a Canadian on a lunar‑vicinity mission as Artemis shifts toward multinational exploration.