Artemis II crew splashes down in Pacific Ocean, ending record-breaking moon flyby | Artemis II

NASA has confirmed that four astronauts aboard the Artemis II and Orion space capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

The spacecraft touched down at 5.07pm (1.07 BST) after a 10-day journey around the moon and back. Nasa said the Orion spacecraft traveled 694,481 miles (1,117,659 km).

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency became the first people to travel to the moon and return safely to Earth since the Apollo 17 crew in December 1970.

They join an exclusive club of 24 people who have traveled to the Moon and returned safely to Earth.

As the Orion capsule descended below 27,000 miles from the planet’s surface, Wiseman made a description of the Earth coming into view. “It has a wonderful shade of blue. It’s beautiful,” she said.

After landing in the Pacific Ocean, a rescue team from the USS John P Murtha stands ready to rescue the Artemis crew using boats that will dock on an inflatable “patio” attached to the Orion’s hatch cover. The crew will be transferred to the navy ship by helicopter.

Nasa has proven again that it can safely send humans into cislunar space, the space between Earth and the nearest celestial body, and will use the information gained to advance the Artemis program towards a planned crewed lunar landing in 2028, 56 years after the last one.

The rest of humanity, meanwhile, took in the memories of a week and a half in which the world came together for a rare moment of unity, enjoying stunning video footage and high-definition images of the lunar surface. distant earth – plus some deep and heartfelt words from usually unemotional astronauts as they describe what they see.

“When I looked at the Moon, I was very emotional,” NASA astronaut Christina Koch described her first impressions of Orion’s closest approach at 4,067 miles (6,545 km) above the lunar surface on Monday.

“It only lasted a second or two and I actually couldn’t even do it again, but something suddenly threw me into the moonscape and it became real.

“The Moon is truly its own unique object in the universe. When we take this perspective and compare it to our home, the Earth, it reminds us of how much we have in common. The Earth provides everything we need, and that is a miracle in itself.”

Koch became the only woman to go to the moon and back during a mission full of firsts. Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency became the first non-American. Artemis II pilot Victor Glover became the first black person to do so.

The four traveled en masse with mission commander Reid Wiseman. farther from Earth It reached a distance of 252,756 miles, more than 4,000 miles beyond the record set by the Apollo 13 crew in April 1970.

It wasn’t all plain sailing throughout their 695,000-mile journey. Orion’s malfunctioning toilet, in a capsule the size of a small trailer, malfunctioned more than once, requiring Koch in his alternate role as plumber to temporarily deploy urine collection bags and perform inflight repairs.

There were fun moments. The crew enjoyed a type of egg hunt On Easter Sunday, I try to find packets of dehydrated scrambled eggs hidden around the spacecraft. Designed by eight-year-old Californian sophomore Lucas Ye, the mission’s official mascot, a plush toy named Rise, regularly appeared on camera during the crew’s press conferences.

Possibly the most emotional event came Monday, when the crew proposed dedicating a previously unnamed lunar crater to Carroll Taylor Wiseman, wife of the Artemis II commander and mother of daughters Katey and Ellie, who died of cancer in 2020. Hansen struggled to get the words out, prompting tears and hugs among the foursome.

During the “business” portion of the mission, astronauts evaluated Orion’s life support systems, radiation detectors, next-generation spacesuits and tested other operations vital to future deep space missions and NASA’s long-term plans for the Artemis program, including an ambitious $20 billion moon base to be built within a decade.

The agency sees the first landing of a returning lunar crew in more than five decades as an important next step. Although not as visually stunning as the fiery April 1 launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center that sent Artemis II skyward, the landing still required a similar level of intricate planning, precision and execution.

Subsequent changes to the heat shield anomalies emerged The uncrewed Artemis I mission in November 2022 gave NASA confidence that Orion could withstand temperatures of up to 5,000F (2,760C) on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 mph; and mission managers chose a steeper, more direct reentry route to reduce heat stress.

A range of distributions Orion’s 11 parachutes At various altitudes, it was designed to slow the spacecraft to 325 mph, then to 130 mph, before three main parachutes, their canopies extending a total of 80 yards (73 meters), were released for further deceleration to a 17 mph jump.

Coast Guard and NASA recovery teams were positioned to cover a landing zone approximately 550 miles in diameter. Following hatch opening medical checks and a brief stop at the San Diego military base, the crew’s next destination is the Houston Johnson Space Center, where they were last seen on March 27, and to be reunited with their families.

The four are a group of 24 astronauts, all American men, who flew to and from the moon during the nine-personnel Apollo mission between December 1968 and December 1972.

Nicky Fox, deputy administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, outlined the importance and impact of the mission in a briefing with reporters this week.

“Our four Artemis II astronauts, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, took humanity on an incredible journey around the moon and returned images so elegant and science-filled that they will inspire generations to come,” he said.