After orbiting around the Moon, the four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission are returning to Earth.
The Artemis II mission has completed the lunar fly-by and the Orion capsule has initiated the return trajectory to our planet. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, launched last April 1st for a 1 million km, 10-day journey, marking a step forward toward the U.S. space agency’s plans to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface, kicking off the first crewed mission around the Earth’s satellite in over 50 years.
The mission is expected to conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California in the early hours of Saturday, Italian time. During Artemis II, the crew set a new record for the farthest distance from Earth ever reached by humans, surpassing the Apollo 13 record, and observed new features of the Moon’s far side for the first time.
All the details.
THE RETURN OF ARTEMIS II
The six-hour flyover, which brought the probe to just 6,550 kilometers from the lunar surface, took place six days after the start of a space mission that marked the first astronaut journey near the Moon since NASA’s Apollo missions.
With the completion of the lunar flyover, the Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin and renamed “Integrity” by the crew, entered the final phase of the Artemis II mission, heading back to Earth for the planned splashdown in the Pacific. The flight represents the second stage of the Artemis program, paving “the way for future moon landings, as well as the next big step: astronauts on Mars,” according to the American space agency.
RECORD DISTANCE FROM EARTH SURPASSED
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen reached an apogee of 406,771 kilometers from Earth, setting the new record for the farthest distance ever reached by humans in space. The previous record was held by the Apollo 13 crew.
To celebrate the milestone, a prerecorded message from Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 commander who passed away last year, was broadcast: “Welcome to my old neighborhood… I’m proud to pass the baton to you as you orbit the Moon: it’s a historic day and I know you’ll be busy, but don’t forget to enjoy the view.”
OBSERVATIONS OF THE MOON’S FAR SIDE
After the communication blackout during the passage behind the Moon, mission commander Reid Wiseman commented: “We have seen things no human has ever seen before.”
The Artemis II crew captured incredible images, such as a total solar eclipse, with the Moon obscuring the Sun’s disk, visible from the Orion spacecraft but not from Earth. “There are no adjectives. I’ll have to invent new ones to describe what we’re looking at from this window,” Wiseman added.
NAMES PROPOSED FOR TWO LUNAR CRATERS
During the journey to the Moon’s dark side, the Artemis astronauts took time to assign new provisional names to lunar formations that previously had no official designation. In particular, the crew proposed naming two lunar craters after the spacecraft, “Integrity,” and Carroll, the wife of commander Reid Wiseman who passed away in 2020. “Several years ago we started this journey, we, our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” explained Canadian astronaut Hansen, his voice breaking with emotion as he described the location of the crater dedicated to her. “It’s a bright spot on the Moon, and we would like to call it Carroll.” Hansen then added that the crew had observed several lunar formations that “no human had ever seen before, not even during the Apollo missions.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CONGRATULATIONS
The lunar eclipse is “a spectacle that few in the history of humanity have ever been able to admire,” according to a White House post on X. The crew received a congratulatory phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump. “Humans have never seen anything like what you are doing,” he told them. “It’s really special.” President Trump assured that NASA will establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and continue toward Mars. The second mission of the Artemis program will serve as a crucial springboard for a crewed moon landing, currently planned for 2028. An ambitious goal to beat China, which in recent years has accelerated its space program, sending robots and rovers to the lunar surface and declaring the goal of sending astronauts by 2030.
