On April 10, 2026, NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed its Artemis II mission with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, marking the end of a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth. The spacecraft, carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, landed at 8:07 p.m. EDT after a high-speed re-entry that subjected the capsule to extreme temperatures and velocities.
During re-entry, Orion reached speeds of approximately 40,200 kilometers per hour—over 30 times the speed of sound—and experienced external temperatures of up to 2,700 degrees Celsius. The descent phase, described by some media outlets as the “14 minutos gloriosos” (14 glorious minutes), involved a critical maneuver where the spacecraft skipped off the upper atmosphere like a stone on water before final parachute deployment and ocean impact.
The splashdown occurred at 02:07 UTC (8:07 p.m. EDT on April 9, which corresponds to the early morning of April 10 in Pacific Time), with the Orion capsule securing aboard the USS John P. Murtha shortly after. Recovery teams from NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force worked to bring the crew and spacecraft aboard the ship for post-mission evaluations.
Following splashdown, the Artemis II crew underwent medical assessments in the ship’s medical bay before being transported to shore for a NASA aircraft flight to Johnson Space Center in Houston. A post-splashdown news conference was held at 10:35 p.m. EDT from Johnson Space Center, where agency officials confirmed the mission’s success and praised the crew’s performance.
The Artemis II mission traveled more than a million kilometers in total, taking humans farther into space than any mission since the Apollo era. It marked the first time in over fifty years that astronauts have flown to lunar orbit, with the Orion spacecraft performing a close flyby of the Moon before beginning its return trajectory.
Reid Wiseman served as mission commander, Victor Glover as pilot, and Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen as mission specialists. Hansen’s participation represented the first time a Canadian Space Agency astronaut flew aboard a NASA deep space mission.
Throughout the mission, the crew conducted various systems tests aboard Orion, validating life support, navigation, and communication systems critical for future lunar landing missions under the Artemis program. The data collected will inform the development of Artemis III, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface.
After recovery, the Orion spacecraft was transported back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-flight analysis, including heat shield inspection and avionics refurbishment for potential reuse in future missions.
The successful conclusion of Artemis II represents a major milestone in NASA’s efforts to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon and prepare for eventual crewed missions to Mars. As the agency continues to analyze flight data, preparations are underway for the next phases of the Artemis program, including hardware development for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and lunar lander systems.
For ongoing updates on NASA’s Artemis missions and deep space exploration efforts, readers can follow official channels including the NASA website and social media platforms.