The four astronauts aboard the Artemis II moon mission returned safely to Earth on Friday after completing the first crewed mission to travel around the Moon in more than 50 years. The crew of Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at 20:07 Eastern Time, bringing an end to their 10-day journey.
NASA said the capsule touched down at 17:07 local time (01:07 BST), having travelled approximately 694,481 miles (1.1 million kilometres) during its journey. The crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are now among a small group of just 24 people to have travelled to the Moon and returned safely.
It is the first such mission since Apollo 17 in December 1970.
During the mission, the astronauts travelled farther from Earth than any humans before them, reaching a distance of 252,756 miles (406,000km) — more than 4,000 miles beyond the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Comes Home https://t.co/ZOLmyaqTY9
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The mission also marked several milestones: Glover became the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American to complete the journey. As the Orion capsule descended towards Earth, Wiseman described the view of the planet. “There’s a great blue hue to it. It’s beautiful,” he said.
Following splashdown, recovery crews from the USS John P Murtha moved to retrieve the astronauts using small boats and an inflatable platform attached to the capsule. The crew are due to be transferred to the naval vessel by helicopter.
NASA said the mission demonstrated its ability to send humans safely to and from cislunar space — the region between Earth and the Moon — as part of its Artemis programme, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028.
The mission also provided striking images of the Moon and Earth, as well as personal reflections from the crew. “I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the moon,” Koch said, describing her first close view of the lunar surface.
“It lasted just a second or two and I actually couldn’t even make it happen again, but something just threw me in suddenly to the lunar landscape and it became real.
“The moon really is its own unique body in the universe. When we have that perspective and we compare it to our home of the Earth, it just reminds us how much we have in common. Everything we need, the Earth provides, and that, in and of itself, is somewhat of a miracle.”
