Artemis II astronauts return to Earth after historic moon trip

Four astronauts land safely after historic lunar flyby, NASA now eyes landing on moon

- REUTERS

The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth's atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Friday after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the moon in over half'a century.

NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time (0007 GMT Saturday), concluding a mission that four days prior took the astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before.

The Artemis II flight, traveling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 4,000 miles from its surface, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2028.

'PERFECT BULL'S EYE’ SPLASHDOWN

The splashdown under partly cloudy skies was carried by live video feed in a NASA webcast. "A perfect bull's eye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts,” NASA commentator Rob Navias said moments after the landing.