NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully concluded with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego at 5:07 p.m. PDT, bringing four brave astronauts from the U.S. and Canada back home after a nine-day journey around the Moon. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen made their lunar flyby on April 6, where they took a visual geologic survey of the Moon’s far side, becoming the farthest from Earth that any living organisms have ever been at 252,756 miles. It is the first crewed voyage to our closest neighbor since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Coming home is never easy after a long trip, but it’s a lot harder when you’re traveling around Mach 35. Slamming back into the atmosphere at that speed causes friction burns of up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The only thing between the astronauts and that temperature was the Orion capsule’s heat shield, which famously failed its test during the uncrewed Artemis I mission back in 2022. Fortunately, engineers were able to recreate the failure conditions on the ground afterward, which allowed them to solve the problem by simply changing the entry angle for Artemis II. It’s a small change, but it sure worked for the crew today. NASA also had chase planes taking readings of the reentry to better understand how the shield held up.
This great news is hitting home for everyone today, but if you’re in Southern California, it might have hit you physically too. The force of the capsule’s return was enough to cause a sonic boom that could be felt through the whole region. If you did, the U.S. Geological Survey would like you to fill out a, well, survey about it.
After the astronauts pushed through 3.9 Gs of deceleration, a series of parachutes brought the capsule’s speed down to just 20 mph for splashdown. Now floating in the Pacific, the crew’s part in all this is done; now it’s up to the USS John P. Murtha, an amphibious transport dock ship, to do the rest. This ship is designed to launch waves of Marines in smaller boats to storm beaches, but its large onboard docks, helipads, and medical facilities make it ideal for recovering travelers from deep space. A team of Navy divers will open up the capsule’s hatch for the astronauts, help them out onto the capsule’s inflatable platform, and then evac them out by Seahawk helicopter. Now that is chauffeur service! Not to be forgotten, the Orion capsule itself, named Integrity, will be towed back to the Murtha.
Once on board, the outer spacers will be given a full medical examination. Then it’s a quick sail back to San Diego and then, finally, after nine days, back on solid ground once again. What to do after you’ve just landed after the longest, most cramped flight ever? Why, immediately get back on another flight, of course! This one on a plane back to Houston and the astronauts’ families.
In all, these four traveled nearly 700,000 miles and took the first serious step towards sending human beings back onto the lunar surface. The mission went as planned, excepting a few smaller hiccups such as a helium leak in the service module built by the European Space Agency and, best of all, a space toilet that kept breaking.
After 50 years, the Moon is in our future again, not just our past. Next up will be the Artemis III mission in Earth orbit to test the lander vehicles in 2027. After that, should things go well, Artemis IV will attempt to set down on white soil in 2028.