The Artemis II mission has successfully concluded, marking a historic journey that took its crew farther from Earth than any humans before. After a nearly 10-day voyage around the moon, the astronauts have returned to Earth, landing in the Pacific Ocean.
The Artemis II astronauts share a group hug aboard the Orion capsule.
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The crew, comprised of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, landed in the Orion space capsule near San Diego at 8:07 p.m. on Friday. The USS John P. Murtha was positioned nearby to facilitate their recovery.
The return to Earth required the space capsule to endure extreme temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It also had to decelerate from speeds approaching 25,000 miles per hour to a mere 19 mph for a safe splashdown.
“Riding a fireball through the atmosphere” is how NASA astronaut and crew member Victor Glover described the re-entry process. He emphasized the importance of this phase, noting, “We have to get back. There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us.”
During their mission, the crew circled the moon’s far side, capturing images and conducting observations of the lunar landscape. The valuable data collected during this mission will be shared with the ground team upon their return.
Nell Greenfieldboyce and Central Florida Public Media’s Brendan Byrne contributed to this report.
This article was originally written by www.npr.org
