Start of a new space age

AS the Artemis II crew made a “perfect bullseye splashdown” in the Pacific, their historic Moon mission heralded a brave new era of space exploration.

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The quartet of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were said to be “happy and healthy” after returning home from their voyage that paves the way for Nasa's ambitious quest to build a permanent lunar base by the end of the decade.

By testing space hardware and life-support systems, their work will be crucial to American plans for the next Moon landing in 2028.

And an announcement about Artemis III is expected soon, according to entry flight director Rick Henfling. He had just helped orchestrate the crew's return to Earth after they had travelled deeper into space than any humans before them.

Their first words after checking in with mission control after a reentry at more than 24,000mph, or 32 times faster than the speed of sound, were: “What a journey.”