On April 10, 2026 at 8:18 PM EDT, the crew of four Artemis II astronauts completed a nearly 10-day journey that included orbits around the moon, views of an eclipse, and venturing farther from Earth than any humans before them. The astronauts, including NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, safely splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. Friday. The USS John P. Murtha is in place to assist with their recovery.
The return journey involved the Orion space capsule enduring extreme temperatures and decelerating from speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour to a gentle 19 mph before splashdown. Victor Glover described the descent as akin to “riding a fireball through the atmosphere,” emphasizing the importance of the crew safely returning with valuable data collected during the mission.
During their voyage, the crew photographed and studied the moon’s surface, gathering data to be shared with ground teams. Nell Greenfieldboyce and Brendan Byrne from Central Florida Public Media contributed to this report.
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