NASA Artemis II splashes down in Pacific Ocean with ‘perfect’ landing for moon mission

Ten days later, four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft returned to Earth, completing a successful mission around the moon.

Integrity, the name of the spacecraft carrying a crew as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, at 5:07 p.m. PT, according to NASA. All four crew members (three Americans and one Canadian) were in “green” (meaning safe and healthy) condition after Orion’s “perfect” landing.

The crew consisted of Commander Reed Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. From launch to splashdown, the quartet spent just over nine days in space (NASA calls it a 10-day mission).

Artemis II was NASA’s first mission to lunar orbit in more than 50 years. The crew traveled the furthest distance from Earth ever experienced by humans, reaching an estimated 352,760 miles from Earth. During the trip, the crew orbited the moon, photographed parts of the lunar surface never seen before during their flight, and even witnessed a total solar eclipse. They identified a new crater and named it after Wiseman’s wife, Carol, who died of cancer in 2020.

“They were our ambassadors to the stars,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said after landing. “I can’t imagine a better crew. It was a perfect mission.”

Isaacman, a commercial astronaut who has participated in two commercial orbital missions, also congratulated X on the mission, noting that America is back in the business and suggesting there will be more to come.

“America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon and returning them safely,” he wrote in X, later crediting all NASA personnel. “This was a test mission, the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, and it took us further into a more hostile space environment than ever before, but it involved real risk. They accepted that risk because of everything we had to learn and the exciting mission that followed, as we returned to the moon, built a lunar base, and prepared for what was coming next.”