The Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on Saturday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean around 8:07 p.m. EDT, according to official sources. The crew, consisting of NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record. Their return followed a historic lunar flyby mission that pushed human exploration further than ever before.
This mission represents the first crewed test flight under NASA's Artemis program, an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon including launch, a lunar flyby, and a safe splashdown off the coast of San Diego. Four Artemis II astronauts flew aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back, testing how the spacecraft's systems operate in a deep space environment. The crew is expected to travel a total of 695,081 miles from launch to splashdown, according to official sources. Artemis II astronauts put the Orion spacecraft through a series of planned tests to evaluate systems, procedures, and performance in deep space, conducting manual spacecraft operations and monitoring automated activities while evaluating Orion's life-support, propulsion, and other systems.
The mission performed a lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, according to official sources. During this flyby, the Moon and Earth aligned in the same frame, each partially illuminated by the Sun. The spacecraft passed within 4,066 miles of the lunar surface during its closest approach, according to official sources. Soon afterward, the spacecraft dipped to within a few thousand miles of the lunar surface, according to research sources. The crew witnessed a total eclipse of the Sun as the Moon blocked out its light, according to research sources. The spacecraft was not planning to land on the Moon but fly around its far side, the side which is never visible from Earth, according to research sources. Satellites have photographed the far side before, but the astronauts were the first human eyes to see some parts of the far side's surface and its vast craters and lava plains, according to research sources.
As the spacecraft approached and the Moon swelled in its windows, the astronauts began working through a checklist of things to record on its surface, according to research sources. The astronauts took images with an array of digital cameras and, as NASA had briefed, made sketches and recorded their own audio descriptions of what they saw, according to research sources. The crew named a crater after Commander Reid Wiseman's late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, according to major media reports. Fellow astronaut Jeremy Hansen made a request to NASA mission control to name two craters they observed on the Moon both with their naked eye and with their long lens, according to research sources. One crater they asked to be called Integrity - the name the astronauts gave to the Orion capsule they are traveling in, while the other request was to commemorate Wiseman's late wife Carroll, who died in 2020 of cancer, according to research sources. The four astronauts were seen hugging on the live feed from their capsule after the request, according to research sources.
Officials were anxious about the re-entry process, according to officials. The crew prepared for re-entry by configuring the Orion capsule, stowing equipment, and reviewing procedures, according to major media reports. Orion's thrusters ignited for trajectory correction burns, according to major media reports. The re-entry involved three trajectory correction burns, according to major media reports. The service module separated from the crew module and burned up in the atmosphere, according to major media reports. Temperatures during re-entry can reach up to 1600 degrees Celsius, according to major media reports, though other reports indicate temperatures can reach about 2,760°C or 3,000°F, creating uncertainty about the extreme conditions endured. A heat shield protected the crew from these high temperatures, according to major media reports.
We saw sights that no human has ever seen, not even Apollo, and that was amazing for us.
The critical re-entry phase required hitting a precise angle of less than a degree, according to Jeff Radigan. Communications were blocked by plasma during re-entry, according to major media reports. The descent trajectory was altered from a previous test flight to reduce burn-up risk, according to major media reports. The crew experienced up to 3.9 Gs during re-entry, according to major media reports. Drogue parachutes deployed at around 22,000 feet, and main parachutes at around 6,000 feet, according to major media reports. Parachutes slowed the capsule to 17 mph before hitting the water, according to major media reports.
The splashdown occurred far off the southern California coast and was not visible from California, according to Jeff Radigan. Debris fell into a keep-out zone during splashdown, and the public had to stay away, according to Jeff Radigan and Branelle Rodriguez. The USS John P Murtha assisted with recovery operations, according to major media reports. Following splashdown, recovery teams retrieved the crew using helicopters and delivered them to the USS John P. Murtha, according to official sources. Recovery operations took between an hour and an hour and a half, according to Jeff Radigan. Once aboard, the astronauts 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, according to official sources.
The crew landed safely and were healthy after splashdown, according to NASA. Mission Control described the splashdown as a perfect bullseye, according to Rob Navias. The crew lifted off at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1 from launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to official sources. The mission included a 40-minute communication blackout around the far side of the Moon.
NASA maintained extensive communication and public engagement throughout the mission. Real-time coverage continued throughout the mission on NASA's YouTube channel, according to official sources. NASA provided a separate live stream of views from the Orion spacecraft as bandwidth allowed, as well as inside the capsule, according to official sources. The agency provided the latest mission imagery online, according to official sources. Daily mission status briefings were held live from Johnson Space Center in Houston through splashdown, except for Monday, April 6, due to lunar flyby activities, according to official sources. A list of activities was regularly updated online, according to official sources. The crew participated in live conversations throughout the mission, which were scheduled prior to their departure from Earth, according to official sources. NASA provided the exact times of downlink events and the latest mission coverage on the Artemis blog, according to official sources.
International audiences followed the mission with the splashdown scheduled for late Friday or early Saturday Swedish time, according to major media reports. The crew's kit included two professional digital SLR cameras – one fitted with a wide‑angle lens, according to research sources. President Trump asked the four astronauts what the most unforgettable part of their day had been, according to research sources. According to major media reports, President Trump described the crew as having made history and made all America really proud.
This successful test flight has significant implications for future Artemis missions and lunar exploration. NASA aims to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China in about 2030, according to major media reports. The exact technical issues or anomalies that occurred during the re-entry and splashdown phases have not been detailed publicly. Similarly, the specific medical conditions of the crew immediately after splashdown and during post-mission evaluations remain part of ongoing assessments. Detailed findings or data from the mission's tests on Orion's systems in deep space have not yet been fully released, and the official confirmation or status of the crater naming requests made by the crew is pending. The next immediate steps for the Artemis program following the success of Artemis II will be determined as NASA analyzes mission data.