Overview
- The Orion capsule carrying four astronauts splashed down Friday near San Diego, completing a roughly 10‑day lunar flyby.
- NASA confirmed a helium leak in the service module’s oxidizer pressure‑supply valve that stayed contained and prompted the team to cancel a planned manual piloting demo to run propulsion checks.
- The service module was jettisoned before reentry and burned up, so engineers cannot recover the valve for inspection, and NASA plans to install new helium valves on later vehicles after it reviews Artemis II data.
- The mission exercised deep‑space systems such as life support, radiation sensors, new spacesuits and laser communications, and reentry tested heat‑shield updates made after Artemis I’s unexpected ablation.
- China’s Chang’e‑7 probe arrived at the Wenchang launch site for pre‑launch testing ahead of a planned late‑2026 south‑pole survey, pointing to quickening global activity in lunar exploration.