NASA releases Orion hatch-opening video after Artemis II Moon mission splashdown

The newly released hatch-opening video turns Artemis II’s splashdown into more than a homecoming. It shows NASA and the U.S. military executing the final, highly visible part of a mission that had to work flawlessly if the agency is to build public trust and political momentum for the next phase of the Moon program.

After Orion dropped into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 5:07 p.m. PDT on April 10, 2026, recovery teams moved quickly to secure the capsule and its four astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The footage shows a Navy dive medical team unlocking the hatch of Orion, named Integrity, then entering to conduct initial medical checks before the crew was transferred out for further evaluation.

Wiseman later thanked the Navy team members who opened the hatch, identifying them as Lt. Cmdr. Jesse Wang, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Laddy Aldridge, Chief Hospital Corpsman Vlad Link and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Steve Kapala. The tone of the exchange mattered. After nearly 10 days in space and nearly 700,000 miles traveled, the first human return to deep space in more than five decades ended with a controlled, medically monitored handoff rather than drama.

NASA said Artemis II covered 694,481 miles and carried the crew 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any humans have ever traveled. The mission launched from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, 2026, and it was designed to validate Orion, the Space Launch System and the broader deep-space human exploration architecture ahead of Artemis III and later Moon landings.

The recovery sequence also underscored how much of a lunar program now depends on visible competence on Earth. NASA, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force worked together to bring the astronauts and Orion aboard the USS John P. Murtha, where the crew underwent post-mission medical evaluations before being flown by military helicopters back to shore.

Lockheed Martin said the flight was the first crewed deep-space mission in 53 years, and the company noted that Orion’s heat shield endured temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry. That kind of performance is the real political dividend of Artemis II: a demonstration that the spacecraft can survive the return from deep space, protect its crew and give NASA a credible runway to the harder missions still ahead.