NASA’s Artemis II crew of four astronauts from the United States and Canada is scheduled to return to Earth on Friday after a historic trip to the far side of the moon.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft. They are expected to begin re-entry at 7:33 PM ET, with a start time of 8:07 PM.
NASA provides a live feed of when the crew lands in the Pacific Ocean this afternoon. The Orion spacecraft is expected to crash off the coast of San Diego, California.
The Artemis II mission marked the first time humans entered lunar orbit in 50 years. The crew traveled further from Earth than any previous human, reaching approximately 252,760 miles from Earth. This is the equivalent of about 100 round trips between New York City and Los Angeles. The astronauts alone are inside the capsule, which has 330 cubic feet of living space. This is about the size of two minivans.
The purpose of the Artemis II mission is to collect data and insights that will help NASA prepare for future lunar missions and landings. Astronauts will take the Orion spacecraft through planned tests to evaluate how the crew performs in deep space. This includes testing communication systems with colleagues on Earth, adjusting trajectories, and safe re-entry and water play.
The splashdown can be one of the most dangerous moments of the entire mission. During the uncrewed 2022 Artemis 1 mission, Orion’s heat shield was unexpectedly damaged on its return to Earth. The heat sink was made of AVCOAT, a material designed to protect the crew by slowly dissipating at temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees as it penetrated Earth’s atmosphere. The heat sink was burning and cracking in places, something that didn’t seem likely to happen.
If humans had boarded Artemis I, they would still have returned safely, NASA said. The agency also conducted extensive research into how the heat sink was damaged in the first place. Nonetheless, heat shields remain a top priority as people around the world hope to see these four astronauts return safely.
Tech Crunch Event
San Francisco, California
|
October 13-15, 2026
The crew left Earth on April 1, and the astronauts soon encountered several routine mishaps, including problems with Microsoft Office and bathrooms. But these early moments were easily overshadowed by the wonder of the images and information the crew sent back from the moon. You can already see new photos taken from lunar flybys on the dark side of the moon.
The astronauts also named new craters, including one named after mission commander Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 46.
The crew was also able to witness a total solar eclipse from just a few thousand miles from the Moon, a unique vantage point no astronaut had ever experienced before.
“It wasn’t just a solar eclipse with the sun hidden behind the moon,” explained Koch, the crew’s mission specialist. “We could also see geoglow, or sunlight, reflecting off the Earth, bathing the Moon in a soft, borrowed light.”
The rest of the live broadcast will be streamed here.
