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Artemis II Crew Splashes Down Safely, Completing First Lunar Flyby Mission Since Apollo

The 10-day flight proved Orion’s critical systems for a planned lunar landing.

Overview

  • NASA said the Orion capsule landed in the Pacific near San Diego after high-speed reentry, ending the crew’s test flight.
  • Recovery teams brought Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen aboard the USS John P. Murtha for medical checks.
  • The crew looped around the Moon to trial deep-space navigation, life support, and communications, and they captured new high-resolution images.
  • Reentry validated the heat shield through peak heating and a planned communications blackout before parachutes slowed the descent.
  • The mission, launched April 1 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, sets up a crewed lunar landing attempt later this decade under the Artemis program.