'A perfect mission': Artemis II astronauts return to Earth

 

People hug as they watch a live broadcast of the return of the Artemis II crew members to Earth at the San Diego Air and Space Museum during a watch party for the crew's splash down in the Pacific Ocean, in San Diego, California, on April 10, 2026. [AFP]

The NASA spacecraft carrying four astronauts splashed down as planned Friday off the California coast, capping the US space agency's successful crewed test mission around the Moon, the first such flyby in more than 50 years.

Mission commander Reid Wiseman reported that the crewmembers -- himself along with Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen -- were "stable" and "green."

"They're in great condition, that's what that means," said Rob Navias, the NASA public affairs official who narrated their return on the agency's livestream.

Following a brief but nerve-wracking communications blackout during their high-stakes re-entry, Wiseman's voice triggered relief that the astronauts were well on their way back home.

"We have you loud and clear," he said following a voice check from mission control in Houston.

NASA personnel and the US military helped extract the astronauts from the bobbing capsule -- to the applause of those watching from mission control. They will then be flown to a recovery ship off the Pacific coast near San Diego.

As the astronauts returned to Earth, their spacecraft reached maximum speeds more than 30 times the speed of sound, and faced searing temperatures around half as hot as the surface of the Sun. It was a key test of their heat shield, which in an earlier trial, an uncrewed mission had faced complications.

But the Artemis II re-entry went off without a hitch.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman called the voyage "a perfect mission."

"We're back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon," he said, and "this is just the beginning."

"We are going to get back into doing this with frequency, sending missions to the Moon until we land on it in 2028 and start building our base."

Historic journey

From liftoff to splashdown, the trip clocked in at nine days, one hour, 31 minutes and 35 seconds -- though NASA rounds up and calls it a 10-day mission.

This screengrab from a NASA livestream shows the Orion spacecraft on its way back to the Earth on April 10, 2026. [AFP]

It began with a dramatic launch from Florida on April 1, and was studded with firsts, records and extraordinary moments.

It was the inaugural crewed mission of NASA's program aiming to install a sustained presence on the Moon, including, as administrator Isaacman emphasised, the eventual construction of a base.

US President Donald Trump praised the astronauts for their "spectacular" trip and said he "could not be more proud" -- while wasting no time in looking ahead to the eventual goal of sending missions to Mars.

"I look forward to seeing you all at the White House soon. We'll be doing it again and then, next step, Mars!" he wrote on social media.

The second phase of the Artemis program was a test mission to verify the reliability of the Orion capsule, which, before now, had not carried humans.

The voyage also broke a record: the four astronauts became the first humans to travel furthest away from the Earth, at 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometres).

While hurtling through deep space and zipping around the Moon, the astronauts took thousands of photographs, amassing a stunning portfolio of images that captivated people on Earth.

They also witnessed a solar eclipse along with extraordinary meteorite strikes on the lunar surface, which left NASA scientists awe-struck.

Several achievements added to the voyage's historic nature: Glover was the first person of colour to fly around the Moon, Koch was the first woman, and Canadian Hansen the first non-American.

Vital heat shield

The Orion capsule passed a key test: the re-entry stakes were particularly high given concerns that arose during Artemis I, when an uncrewed 2022 test flight to the Moon and back saw a crucial heat shield erode in unexpected ways.

To minimise risks this time around, NASA shifted the re-entry path they had used in the test mission after determining it had played a role in the complications.

The astronauts returned at a steeper and thus shorter trajectory, which, NASA officials in discussion with the astronauts, concluded would reduce risk to an acceptable degree.

Still, the heat shield situation prompted uneasy comparisons to the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters of 1986 and 2003, respectively, when astronauts died after warning signs were set aside.

The Orion capsule will now be painstakingly examined to assess how it fared.

But to the relief of NASA, the astronauts and their families, along with the public at large, Artemis II completed a successful trip home, returning four still-healthy astronauts.

Loved ones were watching the descent from mission control in Houston, where the astronauts are due to reunite with their families, likely this weekend.