Four astronauts are back home after a daring ride around the Moon

• 01NASA's Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday, carrying four astronauts: commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
• 02The spacecraft reached speeds of more than 30 times the speed of sound and experienced external temperatures of approximately 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during atmospheric reentry.
• 03Radio communications with Orion were blocked for six minutes during reentry due to plasma enveloping the spacecraft.
• 04Splashdown occurred at 8:07 pm EDT Friday in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego, with the spacecraft decelerating from approximately 25,000 mph to splashdown speed in 14 minutes.
• 05Artemis II astronauts reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles from Earth on Monday, making them the most distant human travelers to date.
• 06This was the first human spaceflight mission to the Moon since Apollo 12 returned in December 1972, and the first crewed flight of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.
• 07The Orion heat shield experienced cracking and chipping during the unpiloted Artemis I mission in 2022; for Artemis II, NASA adjusted the reentry angle to a steeper trajectory to reduce heat shield exposure time.
• 08NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated the crew were 'absolutely professional astronauts and wonderful communicators' and called the mission 'perfect.'
• 09Future Artemis missions will include lunar landings near the Moon's south pole using landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

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NASA's Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts safely returned to Earth on Friday after a nine-day mission that included the first crewed flight to the Moon in over five decades. The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—reached a record distance of 252,756 miles from Earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego. While Artemis II did not include a lunar landing, the mission validated NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft for future crewed lunar missions, including planned landings near the Moon's south pole.