‘Just the beginning’: Artemis II crew splashes down after record-breaking moon flyby

• 01The Orion space capsule with four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on Friday at 5:07pm, completing a journey of 694,481 miles that lasted 9 days 1 hour and 32 minutes, officially recorded as a 10-day mission.
• 02Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch (NASA), and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency) became the first humans to travel to the moon and return to Earth safely since Apollo 17 in December 1970.
• 03Christina Koch became the only woman to have traveled to the moon and back; Jeremy Hansen became the first non-American; Victor Glover became the first person of color to do so.
• 04The four astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, more than 4,000 miles farther than the previous record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.
• 05NASA administrator Jared Isaacman stated that NASA plans to send missions to the moon with frequency, with a scheduled crewed moon landing in 2028 and plans to build a moon base.
• 06Christina Koch reported her closest approach to the lunar surface was 4,067 miles above the lunar surface on Monday and described an emotional response to viewing the moon.
• 07The Orion spacecraft's heat shield was modified after anomalies in the uncrewed Artemis I mission in November 2022, designed to withstand temperatures up to 5,000°F during re-entry at 25,000mph.
• 08During the mission, astronauts evaluated Orion's life support systems, radiation detectors, next-generation spacesuits, and tested operations for future deep-space missions, with NASA planning a $20 billion moon base within a decade.

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Four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on Friday, completing a 10-day mission to the moon and back—the first crewed return from lunar space in over 50 years. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen traveled 252,756 miles, farther from Earth than any humans before them, and conducted tests of equipment and systems planned for future deep-space exploration. NASA officials stated the mission accomplished its objectives and announced plans for continued lunar missions, with a crewed landing scheduled for 2028 and a moon base to be constructed within a decade.