The four-member Artemis II crew safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on April 10, concluding the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. NASA said mission elapsed time was 9 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 15 seconds, with the agency commonly referring to it as a 10-day mission.
Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen returned aboard the Orion capsule Integrity after a record-setting voyage that took humans further into space than ever before. During a six-hour lunar flyby the crew captured images of the moon’s far side never seen in that way before.
As Orion reentered, teams followed planned procedures: the service module separated from the crew capsule, a brief communications blackout occurred during atmospheric entry, and contact was restored after about six minutes. The capsule made what NASA described as a “textbook touchdown.”
Recovery operations proceeded in stages. The crew remained inside the capsule while Navy and NASA teams secured it and helped them exit onto a raft called the “front porch.” Naval helicopters airlifted the astronauts to the US Navy ship USS John P. Murtha, stationed off San Diego, where they underwent initial medical evaluations before returning to Houston to reunite with family.
Speaking after splashdown, NASA entry flight director Rick Henfling said the astronauts were “happy and healthy,” and that teams had seen them several times after they exited the spacecraft. Deputy Associate Administrator Lori Glaze called the mission “just the beginning,” saying NASA is “fired up” for more moon missions and welcoming a new generation to the agency’s “moonshot.”
NASA officials and engineers celebrated the mission’s technical success and its symbolic return to lunar crewed flight after more than five decades. US President Donald Trump posted congratulations on social media, calling the trip “spectacular” and expressing pride in the crew.
From launch aboard Orion on April 1 to splashdown on April 10, Artemis II demonstrated key systems and procedures for returning humans from deep space and sets the stage for future Artemis missions aimed at sustained lunar presence and eventual exploration beyond.