Artemis II Crew Returns Home After Historic Moon Mission

Four astronauts are racing back to Earth right now after completing humanity's first trip around the Moon in more than half a century, and the whole world is watching.

The Artemis II crew will splash down Friday evening off the coast of San Diego, ending their historic 10-day lunar flyby mission. Their Orion capsule will be screaming through the atmosphere at nearly 24,000 miles per hour before parachutes slow them down for a gentle ocean landing.

NASA's lead flight director Jeff Radigan says his team has rehearsed every second of the return. The spacecraft needs to hit its entry angle within less than a single degree, or the whole mission could fail. "Let's not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly," Radigan told reporters Thursday.

The timeline is precise down to the minute. At 4:33pm Pacific time, the service module will separate and burn up in the atmosphere. Four minutes later, the crew module begins its final approach. At 5:07pm, they touch down in the Pacific Ocean.

Pilot Victor Glover made history as the first Black person to travel beyond low Earth orbit. He's eager to share what the crew brought back. "There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us," he said Wednesday. "Riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound."

Commander Reid Wiseman reflected on the 40-minute communication blackout the crew experienced while flying behind the Moon's far side. He called it "surreal" and said the entire experience has been "a true gift." Wiseman honored his late wife Carroll, who died of brain cancer in 2020, by naming a lunar crater after her during the mission.

Recovery teams aboard the USS John P Murtha will spend about 90 minutes extracting the crew from the capsule. First, they have to wait for debris to clear the area. Then they'll attach flotation devices and help the astronauts onto a platform before flying them to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for medical checkups.

Why This Inspires

This mission proves we're going back to the Moon, and this time we're building a path for everyone to follow. The diverse crew, the international partnerships, and the sheer ambition of the Artemis program show what humans can accomplish when we aim high together.

NASA's Amit Kshatriya summed it up perfectly Thursday: "To every engineer, every technician that's touched this machine, tomorrow belongs to you."

The crew did their part circling the Moon. Now it's time to bring them home safe.