Artemis II Crew Splashes Down After Historic Moon Journey

The Orion capsule carrying NASA's four Artemis II astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT Friday, completing a 10-day journey around the Moon and back that shattered a human spaceflight distance record that had stood since 1970.

Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen made their final descent after Orion pierced the atmosphere at 7:53 p.m. ET southeast of Hawaii, touching down roughly 13 minutes later. A U.S. Navy recovery vessel was waiting. The mission had launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the crew arrived on March 27 to begin pre-flight preparations.

The record fell on Monday, April 6, at 1:56 p.m. EDT, when the crew reached 248,655 miles from Earth, surpassing the farthest distance ever traveled by humans. That benchmark had belonged to the Apollo 13 crew since 1970, a record set under crisis conditions and now eclipsed by deliberate lunar exploration. In addition to the distance milestone, the crew tested a deep-space toilet, observed an eclipse, and completed critical systems evaluations aboard Orion, all of which will inform the path toward a crewed lunar landing.

Artemis II lead flight director Jeff Radigan said Thursday that the four astronauts are expected to fly to Houston on Saturday to reunite with their families. NASA plans to hold a post-mission press conference within one to two weeks, with the full press tour set to begin no earlier than 30 days after splashdown.

The crew's first request after 10 days off the planet required no deliberation: Smucker's Uncrustable sandwiches. The recovery vessel had an abundant supply aboard. Smucker's responded by offering all four astronauts a lifetime supply of the sealed peanut butter and jelly pouches, though whether federal ethics rules will allow them to accept remains unresolved.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission in NASA's broader effort to establish a long-term human presence at the Moon, and with Friday's splashdown, that program has cleared its most consequential flight test yet.