The four Artemis II astronauts splashed down off the coast of San Diego Friday evening following a 10-day mission that marked the first manned moon mission in more than 50 years at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time.
The crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center April 1 and traveled around the moon, 252,000 miles from Earth, flying farther from Earth than any previous mission.
After NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman landed on the USS John P. Murtha ahead of the splashdown, he shared a massage for those helping with the recovery of the astronauts.
“I have no doubt that you’re all going to execute this flawlessly as we get these astronauts who will just complete an absolute historic mission, traveling further into space than any humans have gone before,” he said.
ARTEMIS II NEARS END OF HISTORIC MISSION WITH SPLASHDOWN OFF CALIFORNIA COAST
“For the first time, we’ve gone into the lunar environment in more than half a century,” he added. “We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon again.”
Isaacman added that once Artemis III launches in 2028 for the first moon landing in decades, NASA plans to stay and build a moon base.
ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS SHOW OFF APOLLO 18 FLAG FROM SPACE
After being helped out of the Orion crew module, the four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen were taken aboard the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluation after the mission.
The Orion spacecraft reentered the Earth’s atmosphere Friday at around 25,000 mph, slowing to about 20 mph using an 11-parachute sequence before landing in the ocean about 60 miles off the coast at 5:07 p.m. local time.
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During its reentry, the temperatures outside the spacecraft got as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Astronauts last went to the moon in December 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission, three years after humans first landed on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
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