Artemis II’s astronauts completed the first lunar voyage in more than half a century, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.
With their flight now complete, the four astronauts have set NASA up for a moon landing by another crew in just two years and a future permanent moon base within the decade.
Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Astronaut Jeremy Hansen emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight off the coast of San Diego in the early hours of Friday night into Monday morning.
Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made the entire plunge on autopilot. The lunar cruiser hit the atmosphere travelling at 33 times the speed of sound.
As the capsule approached Earth, it became engulfed in red-hot plasma during peak heating and entered a planned communication blackout.
NASA's Mission Control erupted in celebration, with hundreds pouring in from the back support rooms. Watching the drama unfold nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) away, the astronauts’ families huddled in Mission Control's viewing room, cheering when the capsule emerged from its six-minute blackout and again at splashdown.
The last time NASA and the Defence Department teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972.
Koch became the first woman to fly to the moon, Glover the first Black astronaut, and Hansen the first non-US citizen.
Pictures provided by NASA.
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