San Diego, CA — Concluding a historic 10-day journey around the moon, NASA’s Artemis II crew safely returned to Earth on Friday, capping off a monumental milestone in human space exploration.
The Orion capsule, named Integrity, executed what NASA officials described as a “bullseye landing,” splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, 2026.
Mission Commander Reid Wiseman quickly confirmed that all four astronauts—which also included Victor Glover, Jeremy Hanson, and Christina Koch—were in good health following their incredible 695,000-mile round trip. Following the splashdown, U.S. Navy recovery teams hoisted the crew into helicopters and transported them to the medical bay of the recovery ship, the USS John P. Murtha, for preliminary evaluations.
The return to Earth was the final and most perilous test for the Artemis II mission. As the Orion capsule pierced Earth’s atmosphere, it had to endure extreme compressive heating, reaching scorching temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius)—about half as hot as the surface of the sun. The spacecraft’s advanced heat shield performed flawlessly, protecting the crew before a series of parachutes deployed to slow the capsule to a gentle 19 mph just before hitting the water.
The successful completion of the Artemis II flyby mission paves the way for the next giant leap in space exploration. With this crucial test flight in the books, NASA is now setting its sights on Artemis III, which is currently scheduled for 2027. That mission will aim to do what hasn’t been done in over half a century: return humans to the lunar surface.
Looking even further ahead, the space agency plans to launch the Artemis IV and V missions as soon as 2028, laying the groundwork for a $20 billion permanent lunar base and establishing a sustained human presence on the moon.
For now, however, the world celebrates the safe return of the Artemis II crew—the first humans to travel to lunar distances in the 21st century.
