Artemis II astronauts land in Pacific Ocean to close out a record-breaking trip to the moon

Their Orion capsule, named Integrity, took the plunge on autopilot.

Tensions rose in Mission Control when the capsule was flooded with red-hot plasma during peak heating and went into a planned communications blackout.

All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield, which had to withstand thousands of degrees upon reentry.

During the spacecraft’s only other test flight in 2022, with no one aboard, the charred exterior of the shield again looked as pockmarked as the moon.

Like many others, chief flight director Jeff Radigan expected to feel some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six-minute blackout that preceded the opening of the parachutes.

The salvage ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the arrival of its crew off the coast of San Diego, along with a squadron of military aircraft and helicopters.

The astronauts’ families huddled in the Mission Control viewing room, where cheers erupted as the capsule emerged from the communications jam and again upon splashdown.

The last time NASA and the Department of Defense worked together for the return of a lunar crew was Apollo 17 in 1972.

The Artemis II was expected to return at a speed of 11,025 meters per second at 39,668 km/h, just shy of the record, before slowing to a speed of 30 km/h.

“A perfect bull’s-eye splashdown,” reported Rob Navias of Mission Control.

Artemis II’s record flight and moon views

Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts scored one victory after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.

Artemis II did not land on the moon or even orbit it.

But it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the furthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, at 256,771 miles.

Then, in the mission’s most heartbreaking scene, the tearful astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moon ship and Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.

During the record-breaking flight, they documented scenes of the far side of the moon never before seen with the naked eye and enjoyed a total solar eclipse thanks to the cosmos thanks to their launch date.

The eclipse in particular “blew us all away,” Glover said.

Their sense of wonder and love impressed everyone, as did their breathtaking images of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled the first lunar explorers from Apollo 8 with Earthset, showing our blue marble environment behind the gray moon.

It was reminiscent of the famous 1968 Apollo 8 Earthrise shot.

“It just makes you want to keep going back,” Radigan said on the eve of the splashdown.

“It’s the first of many journeys, and we just have to keep going because there is so much more to learn about the moon.”

Artemis II was a test flight for future lunar missions

Despite the rich scientific yield, the almost ten-day flight was not without technical problems.

Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were affected by valve problems.

In perhaps the most high-profile situation, toilet problems left the crew unable to use them for most of the journey, forcing them to resort to old-fashioned bags and funnels.

The astronauts shrugged it all off.

“We can’t explore deeper unless we do a few things that are uncomfortable,” Koch said, “unless we make a few sacrifices, unless we take a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”

Hansen added: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware into space, and it’s a doozy.”

Under the revamped Artemis program, astronauts will practice docking their capsule with one or two lunar landers in orbit around Earth during next year’s Artemis III. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.

The Artemis II crew’s allegiance was with subsequent Artemis crews, Wiseman said.

“But we hoped in our souls that we could make the world pause for a moment and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and that we should all cherish what we have been given,” he said.

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