The Artemis II mission, a crewed test flight around the Moon, is underway, according to official sources. The crew lifted off at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1 from launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as confirmed by officials. The Artemis II crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, making it a historic international collaboration.
The mission was an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon, including launch, a lunar flyby, and splashdown. It flew a total of 694,481 to 695,081 miles from launch to splashdown, covering vast distances in deep space. The crew traveled further from Earth than anyone ever has, breaking the distance record, with the spacecraft reaching a maximum distance of 252,757 miles from Earth, about 4,102 miles farther than Apollo 13, according to official reports.
The most critical part of the journey is when the spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere.
During its closest approach, the spacecraft passed within 4,066 miles of the lunar surface, as officials stated. The crew witnessed a total eclipse of the Sun as the Moon blocked out its light, based on research sources. The astronauts were the first human eyes to see some parts of the Moon's far side, offering unique observations from the lunar journey.
The crew lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes as they traveled behind the Moon, as expected, according to research. They named a 'bright spot' crater after Commander Reid Wiseman's late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, adding a personal touch to the mission. The crew shared maple cookies brought by Jeremy Hansen, and they get news from Earth from their family members, as multiple media reports indicate, highlighting human moments during the flight.
If they succeed in the re-entry, the entire mission is a total success.
According to Sveriges Radio Nyheter, Linn Bolt-Christmas, an astrophysicist at Uppsala University, described the most critical part of the journey as when the spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere. She also noted that if they succeed in the re-entry, the entire mission is a total success, emphasizing the phase's importance. The Orion capsule re-enters Earth's atmosphere at speeds up to 23,839 to 24,000 mph, with temperatures during re-entry reaching up to 1600 degrees Celsius to 2,760°C (5,000°F), according to multiple media reports, though discrepancies in these figures create confusion about the extreme conditions.
Communications with NASA are blocked by plasma during re-entry, with a planned blackout lasting several minutes to six minutes, as media sources report. Engineers altered the descent trajectory to reduce the risk of the module burning up, and the crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs during re-entry, according to multiple reports. Drogue parachutes deployed at around 22,000 feet, and main parachutes deployed at around 6,000 feet, reducing speed to less than 136 mph, with parachutes slowing the capsule's fall to 17 mph before hitting the water, as media sources confirm.
The crew had a lot of scientific work to do.
The Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10, descending toward Earth using three parachutes and landing as planned. Following splashdown, recovery teams retrieved the crew using helicopters and delivered them to the USS John P. Murtha, according to officials. The crew emerged from the capsule more than an hour after landing and were taken to the USS John P. Murtha, where they underwent post-mission medical evaluations in the ship's medical bay before traveling back to shore to meet with an aircraft bound for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, as officials stated.
The astronauts walked across the deck and refused wheelchairs, according to multiple media reports, demonstrating their physical condition after landing. The mission tests how the spacecraft's systems operate in a deep space environment, with the astronauts putting the Orion spacecraft through a series of planned tests to evaluate systems, procedures, and performance in deep space, as officials confirm. They conducted manual spacecraft operations and monitored automated activities, evaluating Orion's life-support, propulsion, and other systems, according to official sources.
We saw sights that no human has ever seen, not even Apollo, and that was amazing for us.
The astronauts took images with an array of digital cameras and made sketches and recorded their own audio descriptions of what they saw, based on research. Their kit included two professional digital SLR cameras – one fitted with a wide‑angle lens, as research indicates, aiding in documentation. Real-time coverage continues throughout the mission on NASA's YouTube channel, with NASA providing a separate live stream of views from the Orion spacecraft as bandwidth allows, as well as inside the capsule, according to officials.
Daily mission status briefings are held live from Johnson Space Center in Houston through splashdown, except for Monday, April 6, due to lunar flyby activities, as officials report. The astronauts are on their way back to Earth with useful experiences for future space travel, according to multiple media reports. The location and time of splashdown will continue to shift as mission milestones are reached, officials note, though specific technical issues or anomalies encountered during the mission have not been publicly disclosed, and detailed results of post-mission medical evaluations remain unknown.