Historic Artemis II Lunar Mission Concludes With Safe Splashdown of Orion Crew

After a 10-day journey around the Moon, the four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft have safely returned to Earth, bringing their groundbreaking lunar mission to a successful close.

Per official NASA statements, Integrity — the Orion capsule assigned to the Artemis II mission — splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time. All four crew members: three Americans and one Canadian, were confirmed to be in “green” condition, meaning fully safe and healthy, following what agency leaders called a “perfect” landing.

The Artemis II crew consists of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Measured from liftoff to splashdown, the team spent just over nine days in space, a total that NASA rounds up to brand the effort a 10-day mission.

Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission to lunar orbit in more than 50 years. The crew traveled farther from Earth than any humans in recorded history, reaching an estimated maximum distance of 252,760 miles from our planet. During their journey, they orbited the Moon, captured high-resolution photos of never-before-seen regions of the lunar surface during their flyby, and even witnessed a total solar eclipse from their unique space vantage point. The team also identified several new lunar craters, naming one in honor of Wiseman’s wife Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

“These were the ambassadors to the stars that we sent out there,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said shortly after the landing. “I can’t imagine a better crew. It was a perfect mission.”

Isaacman, a commercial astronaut who has completed two private orbital missions, also marked the milestone on social media platform X, where he celebrated the success and signaled that more deep space missions are on the horizon, emphasizing that U.S. human lunar exploration is officially back on track.

“America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon and bringing them home safely,” he wrote on X, later extending full credit to the entire global NASA workforce that made the mission possible. “This was a test mission, the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, pushing farther into the unforgiving environment of space than ever before, and it carried real risk. They accepted that risk for all we stood to learn and for the exciting missions that follow, as we return to the lunar surface, build a Moon base, and prepare for what comes next.”