NASA’s Artemis II astronauts back home with ‘picture perfect’ re-entry to Earth, but the moon mission is not over yet; here’s why

NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission: NASA’s Artemis II crew returned safely to Earth on Friday as the Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts completed a planned parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT). The landing marked the successful end of the US space agency’s crewed test mission around the Moon, the first lunar flyby with astronauts in more than 50 years.

Mission commander Reid Wiseman reported that the crewmembers, himself along with Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen, were "stable" and "green." "They're in great condition; that's what that means," said Rob Navias, the NASA public affairs official who narrated their return on the agency's livestream.





Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said that the re-entry of the Orion capsule was “picture perfect.”

"Certainly, the sight of those parachutes coming out, that beautiful blue sky, and the amazing ocean beneath. I mean, it just, it literally looked like you put a cup of tea down on a table,” she told CNN.

What’s next now?

The splashdown was successful, and all the astronauts returned home successfully, but Fox said that the mission is not over yet. Scientists of the American space agency will now be looking through a host of data related to the capsule, the astronauts, and their historic lunar flyby, she said. These studies include measuring the effects of deep-space radiation and microgravity on the crew.

The astronauts just got home, but Fox believes they will likely be “raising their hands to go on another moon mission.” “I am sure inside that capsule right now, there’s very mixed emotions with the astronauts either, you know, being really happy to be home and relieved, but also, I know Christina (Koch) said she wasn’t ready to come home. She wanted to stay up longer,” Fox was quoted by CNN as saying.

The second phase of the Artemis program was a test mission to verify the reliability of the Orion capsule, which before now had not carried humans. The voyage also broke a record: the four astronauts became the humans to travel furthest away from the Earth, at 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers).

While hurtling through deep space and zipping around the Moon, the astronauts took thousands of photographs, amassing a stunning portfolio of images that captivated people on Earth. They also witnessed a solar eclipse along with extraordinary meteorite strikes on the lunar surface, which left NASA scientists awe-struck.

NASA-US military in action mode

NASA and the US military will now help them leave the bobbing capsule, after which they will be flown to a recovery ship off the Pacific coast near San Diego.

The Orion spacecraft reached Earth’s atmosphere 400,000 feet above the planet’s surface, traveling 35 times the speed of sound and about 1,956 statute miles from the splashdown site, according to NASA. This is where the spacecraft first encounters the upper atmosphere and begins its guided descent.

Shortly after, Orion was in a planned communications blackout expected to last about six minutes as plasma built around the crew capsule during heating. The mission also served as a crucial test of the spacecraft’s heat shield, which had encountered issues during an earlier trial flight.