NASA announced on Apr. 10 that the Artemis II mission ended successfully with the Orion capsule landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, United States, after a 10-day journey around the Moon.
The flight marked the first crewed trip to lunar orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972 and represents a significant step for NASA as it works toward returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen were aboard Orion. Their main task was to test all systems of the capsule before future missions under NASA’s Artemis program. During their journey, they performed a flyby around the Moon and returned to Earth using a free-return trajectory designed for mission safety.
Artemis II also set a new distance record for crewed missions, surpassing those achieved during previous Apollo flights. After splashdown, recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. Navy began extracting Orion from the water and assisting its crew members with routine medical checks.
The successful completion of Artemis II is expected to pave the way for subsequent expeditions aiming to land astronauts on the lunar surface again.
