The four crew of Artemis II returned to Earth on Friday with a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean to compete their 10-day mission that launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1.
The Orion capsule Integrity splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday, April 10, 2026, completing the Artemis II mission. (Courtesy/NASA) NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Bill Ingalls/NASA) The three main parachutes of the Orion spacecraft deploy over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego ahead of the splashdown landing of the capsule to conclude the Artemis II moon mission on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Courtesy/NASA) NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Bill Ingalls/NASA) NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Joel Kowsky/NASA) NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Joel Kowsky/NASA) Recovery vessels surround the Orion spacecraft while a helicopter flies nearby in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego after the splashdown landing of the capsule to conclude the Artemis II moon mission on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Courtesy/NASA) A recovery boat pulls alongside the Orion capsule Integrity after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday, April 10, 2026, completing the Artemis II mission. (Courtesy/NASA) The Orion crew module separates from the service module less than an hour before the planned splashdown return of the four crew of Artemis II on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Courtesy/NASA) The Orion spacecraft on the Artemis II mission approaches Earth on its final day of a 10-day mission, April 10, 2026. (Courtesy/NASA) Show Caption1 of 11NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Bill Ingalls/NASA)Expand
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Glover became the first crew to fly in Orion on a mission that flew around the moon and set the record for farthest distance from Earth ever flown by humans.
The mission’s main goal was to prove out Orion’s life support systems and set up future Artemis crewed missions on Orion as part of NASA’s goal to return humans to the surface of the moon and build out a lunar base.
Glover became the first Black man to venture into deep space while Koch became the first woman and Hansen the first non-American.
The quartet became the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th humans to ever fly out of low-Earth orbit, and the fist since Apollo 17 returned from its lunar landing mission in December 1972.
