The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission are now on their way back to Earth after completing a historic journey around the Moon that set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.
If all goes as planned, the Orion capsule carrying Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time on April 10.
NASA said helicopters will be used to reach the capsule after landing in the water, and the astronauts will then be transferred to a nearby U.S. Navy ship. Medical teams will conduct health checks onboard before the crew is brought back to land.
The four astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 aboard Orion, beginning the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon. On Monday, the spacecraft passed behind the far side of the Moon and reached a distance of about 406,788 kilometers from Earth, surpassing the previous human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.
The mission marks a major milestone for NASA’s Artemis program and a significant step toward future human exploration beyond the Moon.