Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA / Getty Images News / Getty Images
The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission returned to Earth with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on Friday evening (April 10). The Orion spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, re-entered the atmosphere at 7:53 p.m. ET, and splashdowned at 8:07 p.m. ET.
All four astronauts were reported in good condition, with Wiseman announcing, "We are stable. Four green crew members."
Upon landing, recovery divers used an inflatable raft called the "front porch" to assist the astronauts as they exited the capsule and began readjusting to Earth's gravity. The crew was then lifted by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha, where medical personnel awaited to conduct routine evaluations. NASA officials said the extraction and transfer process could take up to two hours, depending on conditions at sea.
Re-entry is always a high-risk part of any space mission, but Artemis II presents unique concerns due to known issues with the Orion capsule’s heat shield. During the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022, NASA discovered unexpected cracks and charring on the heat shield, raising questions about its ability to protect astronauts from the roughly 5,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures encountered during descent. A later investigation found that gases trapped in the heat shield material caused pressure to build up, damaging the shield as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Because the Artemis II capsule was already built when these flaws were found, NASA opted not to redesign the heat shield for this mission. Instead, the agency modified the spacecraft’s re-entry path to minimize the time exposed to peak heat, using a steeper and faster descent rather than the originally planned “skip” maneuver. NASA’s associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said, “Every system we’ve demonstrated over the past nine days, life support, navigation, propulsion, communications, all of it depends on the final minutes of flight.”
During the re-entry, the Orion capsule reached speeds up to 24,000 mph and experienced forces nearly four times Earth’s gravity.
NASA’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The outcome of today’s landing will influence preparations for Artemis III, which is set to use an upgraded heat shield.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, speaking from the recovery ship, praised the Artemis II team, saying, "This is just the beginning. We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon and bringing them back safely." Isaacman also emphasized that the mission sets the stage for NASA's goal to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028 and eventually establish a base on the moon."