Artemis II astronauts splash down safely, crew exits ORION capsule after historic moon mission

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KESQ) The four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday evening, completing the first crewed journey to the moon in more than half a century.

The Orion capsule, named Integrity by its crew, touched down at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time after a 10-day, nearly 700,000-mile journey around the moon and back to Earth. Commander Reid Wiseman reported all four crew members were in excellent shape.

NASA called it a textbook splashdown.

Recovery teams aboard the USS John P. Murtha moved toward the capsule shortly after it hit the water. The crew will undergo medical evaluations aboard the ship before returning to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The mission launched April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and sent astronauts Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency on a flyby of the moon the first time humans have made the trip since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

The crew set several records during the flight. Glover became the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon. Koch became the first woman. Hansen became the first Canadian. Together, the crew traveled farther from Earth than any human beings in history.

While the astronauts did not land on the lunar surface, the mission was a critical test of the Orion capsule's life support systems and heat shield ahead of future landing missions. NASA is targeting as early as 2028 for Artemis III, which aims to put astronauts on the moon's surface for the first time since 1972.

The heat shield performed as expected during re-entry, when the capsule reached speeds exceeding 24,000 mph. NASA had adjusted the re-entry profile after heat shield erosion was observed during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022.