The Artemis II mission successfully returned the astronauts to Earth after a historic flight to the Moon
A historic milestone in space exploration has been reached—the Orion spacecraft capsule, with four astronauts on board, successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, concluding the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years.
The spacecraft withstood extreme temperatures during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, after which it deployed its parachutes and made a soft splashdown.
“The Orion capsule with four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at around 3:00 a.m. Kyiv time. All crew members were subsequently successfully evacuated by rescue teams,” the mission report states.
The U.S.-Canadian crew spent nearly 10 days in space. The main achievement of the Artemis II mission was setting a new record for the farthest distance a human has traveled from Earth—406,770 km. This figure surpassed the achievements of the Apollo missions, making the crew members the farthest humans from our planet in history.
The crew consisted of:
- Reid Wiseman — mission commander (NASA);
- Victor Glover — pilot, the first African American to fly to the Moon (NASA);
- Christina Cook — mission specialist, the first woman on a lunar expedition (NASA);
- Jeremy Hansen — mission specialist, the first Canadian to reach the vicinity of the Moon (CSA).
It was previously reported that during the lunar flyby, the crew traveled 400,000 kilometers from Earth, using the Moon’s gravity as a “space slingshot” to return without additional fuel consumption.
This flight served as the final test before the next phase of the program—landing humans on the Moon’s surface, scheduled for 2028.
As a reminder, the Orion spacecraft, with four astronauts on board, officially crossed the boundary of the Moon’s gravitational sphere.
The Artemis II mission crew has traveled halfway to the Moon and sent back the first photos of Earth from deep space. This is the first human flight beyond Earth’s orbit since 1972.
Additionally, the astronauts of the Artemis II mission aboard the Orion spacecraft temporarily lost contact with Earth while flying near the far side of the Moon, but before that, they sent an emotional message to humanity.
