Artemis II Crew Returns to Earth

A recent video captured the moment when a Navy medical team opened the hatch of the Orion module to welcome the Artemis II astronauts back after their successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, marking the end of their historical journey around the moon.

Artemis II Captain Reed Wiseman, along with pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, returned on Friday after a remarkable 10-day mission that took them farther from Earth than any humans have traveled before.

On Monday, Wiseman shared footage on social media showing the Navy team as they greeted the crew off the San Diego coast. He expressed gratitude, saying, “It’s an incredible feeling to have Jesse, Steve, Ladi, and Vlad… join us aboard Integrity after nearly 700,000 miles of travel. We will be forever grateful for their service to our crew and our nation.”

As the hatch opened, the cheerful Navy team could be heard welcoming the astronauts, with two members fist-pumping the crew as they entered the module.

Following their rescue from the Orion module, the astronauts were taken to the USS John P. Murtha for a medical evaluation.

The Orion spacecraft had journeyed 42,000 miles during its mission. It re-entered Earth’s atmosphere traveling at about 25,000 miles per hour, utilizing an 11-parachute sequence to slow down to roughly 20 miles per hour before landing about 90 miles off the coast at 5:07 p.m. local time. During reentry, temperatures outside the spacecraft soared to around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Looking ahead, the next mission, Artemis III, is set for launch next year. In this mission, astronauts will practice docking the Orion capsule with a commercial lunar lander, which is a crucial step before attempting to return to the moon.

Artemis IV is also in the pipeline for 2028 and might carry astronauts for what was initially intended as a lunar landing mission.