NASA's Artemis II Moon Mission Successfully Returns to Earth

NASA's Artemis II spacecraft Orion successfully returned to Earth on Saturday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 2:07 AM local time on April 11. The four-crew mission completed a successful flyby of the Moon after launching on April 2 at 12:35 AM. "This was a textbook entry [into the atmosphere] and a textbook splashdown," said Rob Navias, NASA's broadcast commentator. The Artemis II mission marks a significant milestone in NASA's program to return humans to the Moon, demonstrating the spacecraft's ability to safely transport astronauts on lunar missions. The successful completion of this crewed lunar flyby brings NASA closer to its goal of landing astronauts on the Moon's surface in future Artemis missions.