Artemis II astronauts return home, ending NASA moon mission
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
April 10, 2026, 10:39 PM EDT / Updated April 10, 2026, 11:05 PM EDTBy Denise Chow
The four Artemis II astronauts are back safely on Earth after flying around the moon on NASA's first lunar mission in more than 50 years.
After a fiery trip through Earth's atmosphere that lasted nearly 15 minutes, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in their Orion capsule at 8:07 p.m. ET.
"Y'all, we did it," Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said Friday in a post-landing news briefing. "We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years."
It was a picture-perfect splashdown, with the capsule landing upright under three huge parachutes as recovery teams raced to the scene.
Minutes before, a six-minute communications blackout with mission controllers made for a nail-biting finish to the mission as the capsule plunged through Earth's atmosphere.
Then, a very welcome call-out came over the airwaves.
"Houston, Integrity, we have you loud and clear," Wiseman radioed to Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, using the name "Integrity" that the crew gave to their spacecraft.
After NASA and U.S. Navy recovery teams checked the area for debris and other hazardous materials, the Artemis II crew members were helped out of the capsule one by one. Wiseman, the mission's commander, was last to exit.
The four astronauts were then flown by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha, a U.S. Navy transport dock ship. Once on board, they underwent post-mission medical evaluations. Later on Friday, the astronauts are expected to return to shore and fly to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the agency said.
The astronauts' return marks the end of the 10-day mission, during which they flew around the moon and became the first humans to see the entire lunar far side with their own eyes. The crew was also the first to launch aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.
As they swung around the moon, the astronauts set a new record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth: 252,756 miles. They surpassed the previous record of 248,655 miles set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 during their emergency return to Earth.
Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon in this first photo from the far side of the Moon captured from Orion on April 6.NASA
During their lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew members captured breathtaking photos of the moon's far side, including never-before-seen features on the lunar surface: rugged topography, countless craters, ridges, mountains and ancient lava plains. The moon's far side permanently faces away from Earth, and even most of the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s did not yield views of the far side because of the paths and timing of the flights.
The Artemis II astronauts recorded observations of impact basins that formed billions of years ago, when large objects smacked into the lunar surface, and studied jagged features along the moon's terminator, the dividing line between its illuminated side and the side cloaked in darkness.
NASA said these images will help scientists understand how the moon formed and how its landscape has changed over time.
Over the entirety of the mission, the Artemis II astronauts flew a total of 700,237 miles, according to NASA flight director Rick Henfling. He added that their return to Earth was almost right on target, with the Orion capsule landing within less than a mile of the targeted splashdown site and following a near-perfect flight path.
"What a tremendous day," Henfling said.
The successful end of the Artemis II mission is a major relief for NASA, given prior concerns about Orion capsule's heat shield, the layer of thermal protection at the bottom of the spacecraft that protects astronauts from extreme temperatures during atmospheric re-entry.
Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover with their zero gravity indicator "Rise," inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home.NASA
Re-entering Earth's atmosphere is always a dangerous and risky part of human spaceflight, because a capsule plunging through the atmosphere can be exposed to temperatures of around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But the stakes were especially high for the Artemis II mission because the Orion heat shield had a known flaw in its design.
During the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022, NASA found that part of the heat shield's material cracked during re-entry, "causing some charred material to break off in several locations." To minimize risk to the Artemis II astronauts, NASA modified the capsule's entry path so that it descended faster and at a steeper angle to shorten the amount of time it was exposed to the most extreme temperatures.
NASA said a full analysis will be done to assess the performance of the heat shield in the coming days after the Orion capsule arrives at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Amit Kshatriya, NASA's associate administrator, said the Artemis II mission was a critical stepping stone for NASA's goal to land on the moon on a future Artemis flight.
NASA aims to launch the next mission, Artemis III, in mid-2027 to conduct technology demonstrations in low-Earth orbit with one or both of the lunar landers being built by SpaceX or Blue Origin. In 2028, the agency plans to launch the Artemis IV mission to land on the moon.
"The path to the lunar surface is open, but the work ahead is greater than the work behind us," Kshatriya said. "It always will be. Fifty-three years ago, humanity left the moon. This time, we return to stay."
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Have always been a huge fan of NASA. Have toured every NASA facility over the decades. Grew up reading Heinlein and met him once. Mankind is way behind where we should be at this point in time. A moon base should have been established years ago.
I sweated and prayed for the crew before they 'stuck' the landing. . . as I feared a potential disaster with the heat shield tiles, which put me in remembrances of two shuttle craft failures that ended in disaster and the shuttle program collapsing in on itself.
I am so happy for this crew's safe return. I appreciate that the crew as honest in an onboard interview with the media on Thursday to let us, the public, in on their fear of reentry. It got the world talking about heat shield failure, and praying for them. . . hope it worked! Something did. They are home. They are home. They are home. Well done!
Oops I meant to say cool Artemis. You just did what 13 did. A a
Space will be the next frontier!
The landing itself was textbook. It came down exactly where and when expected. There was an issue with the satellite phone after splashdown, but they had other methods of communication at their disposal. This mission was partly about working out bugs for future missions, so I imagine that's one they'll need to address.
NASA and all those who participated in this mission did a great job.
A whole lot of pilots don't want to be astronauts simply because they are not allowed to fly. Space capsules are flown by mission control. Might as well be a Kardashian doing a ridealong.
How does Trump's lame NASA dare call this a "moon mission". A moon mission requires boots on the ground.
Even the failed Apollo 13 mission could fly around the moon.
Americans used to drive golf carts and hit golf balls on the moon!
How does a fly-by even compare?
Just another stunt to distract from Trump/Epstein pedophilia?
Trump will eventually be convicted for Epstein's murder.
Apollo 13 went all the way around the moon, although they did it in response to a dire emergency.
I dont begrudge the younger generations their excitement now, anyone that remembers Apollo 13 is 65 or older now.
The media is going to make this seem like the greatest thing in the world, that level of admiration is inevitable. It just isnt anything new.
Congratulations to all involved with the successful completion of this mission. Hopefully Artimis III happens before I pass
I am glad that they made it up and back safely.
We spend far too much time and effort trying to accumulate power and money for space travel to be a realistic near-term goal.
I want to know what they called the little stuffed head with the baseball cap....
Its name is Rise.
Thank you for answering my question that I should have, if compelled by curiosity enough (I guess that I was vellatious), answered for myself.
No problem. It was a sweet story, and reading it gave me some hope that we are still a decent nation.