Aviation News – The first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years has successfully concluded as NASA’s Artemis II astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, marking a major milestone in human space exploration.
The crew Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, returned to Earth after nearly 10 days in space, reaching a maximum distance of 252,756 miles from Earth during the mission. The splashdown occurred at 5:07 p.m. PDT off the coast of San Diego.
The Artemis II mission, led by NASA, represents the first crewed lunar flyby since the Apollo era. Selected as part of NASA’s renewed lunar exploration program, the astronauts were tasked with testing critical systems aboard the Orion spacecraft in deep space. Following splashdown, recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. military assisted the crew and transported them by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluations before their scheduled return to Johnson Space Center in Houston on April 11.
Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
