Artemis II Crew Splashes Down Off San Diego Coast

The crew of Artemis II has safely splashed down after their historic 10-day trip around the moon.

Shortly after 5pm PT, the Orion spacecraft, dubbed Integrity by its four-person crew, made re-entry and splashdown off the coast of San Diego.

Following what was described as a “textbook entry,” crewmembers Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen and Reid Wiseman were all in “excellent shape,” according to NASA‘s livestream.

During re-entry, the capsule shed its service module and dived toward Earth at 24,000 miles per hour. Starting at 12,000 feet, a series of 11 parachutes unfurled to slow the capsule from several hundred miles-per-hour to a gradual 17–20 mph for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Launching on April 1, the Artemis II mission broke Apollo 13’s record for human distance from Earth, traveling 252,756 miles.