NASA’s Artemis II mission is nearing its conclusion. After orbiting the Moon for 10 days and venturing further into space than any humans before, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen are making their journey back to Earth aboard their spacecraft, Orion, named ‘Integrity’.
Return to Earth Today:
The crew capsule will detach from its service module before plunging into Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 25,000 mph. The heat shield will endure temperatures nearing 2,760°C (5,000°F). A six-minute radio blackout will follow, after which 11 parachutes will deploy in stages to slow the capsule to a gentle 17 mph for its splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California.
This mission, marking the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in December 1972, has been filled with historic firsts. Koch became the first woman to travel to lunar proximity, Glover the first person of color, and Hansen the first non-American citizen to do so. The crew also broke the record for the furthest distance traveled by a human from Earth, surpassing the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Recovery teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and NASA are already positioned in a 550-mile landing zone off San Diego. Once safely aboard the recovery ship, each astronaut will undergo medical checks before being airlifted to a military base in San Diego and then to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the last place the crew saw on March 27th.
This successful mission paves the way for NASA’s next objective: a crewed lunar landing, currently slated for 2028, 56 years after humans last set foot on the Moon.
Schedule and How to Watch Live:
NASA is broadcasting every moment of this mission, from pre-launch fueling to splashdown, across multiple free platforms. For your convenience, here is the video stream for the splashdown and the corresponding times:
- Pacific (PT): 5:07 PM (Today, April 10)
- Eastern (ET): 8:07 PM (Today, April 10)
- London (BST): 1:07 AM (Saturday, April 11)
- Madrid (CEST): 2:07 AM (Saturday, April 11)
- UTC / GMT: 00:07 (Saturday, April 11)
You can watch the live stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfhDuOHMp0A