NASA's Artemis II Crew Prepares to Splash Down Off California Coast Friday After Successful Lunar Mission
The four-person crew of Artemis II is slated to splash down off the coast of San Diego on Friday night after a 10-day voyage that took them farther into space than anyone has ever traveled before.
NASA said in a news release that the crew’s Orion capsule will hit the waters of the Pacific Ocean around 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time.
People can watch the splashdown on NASA’s YouTube livestream, and it will also be streaming on platforms like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, HBO Max, and Roku, among others. No doubt, the major news networks like Fox News and CNN will be covering it live, too.
.@POTUS asks the Artemis II crew, “What is the most unforgettable part of this really historic day?”
Commander Reid Wiseman: “We saw sights… that no human has ever seen before — not even in Apollo.” pic.twitter.com/f3ThoGm91e
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 7, 2026
Within two hours of splashdown, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander of the mission), Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be extracted from the Orion capsule and flown to the USS John P. Murtha, which is an amphibious transport dock ship.
USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations supporting NASA’s Artemis II mission, standing ready to retrieve the crew and Orion spacecraft following splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. 🚀🌕
Artemis II marks the first crewed mission around the… pic.twitter.com/fVNjMh1F98
— U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) April 9, 2026
“Recovery teams will retrieve the crew using helicopters, and once aboard the ship, the astronauts will undergo post‑mission medical evaluations before returning to shore to board an aircraft bound for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston,” NASA said.
Artemis II astronauts have traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, flown around the Moon, and observed the lunar surface like never before. Now, they’re coming home. 🌎
Watch the crew splash down on Friday, April 10, around 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11). https://t.co/Ccsk5Z3HFS pic.twitter.com/QoJW2oYVFG
— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026
In their mission to the Moon and back, the Artemis II crew eclipsed the record for the farthest any human has traveled from the Earth, going 248,655 miles or about 4,070 miles more than the Apollo 13 flight did in 1970.
Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back.
Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: https://t.co/rzM1P0QbOl pic.twitter.com/6jWINHkDLh
— NASA (@NASA) April 7, 2026
The exact sequence of events during reentry, NASA said, will start with the service module separating from the Orion capsule at 7:33 p.m. The capsule will then reach the upper atmosphere southeast of Hawaii at 7:37 p.m. and will be in a six-minute communications blackout at 7:53 as plasma forms around the capsule during peak heating.
The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs pressing against them during reentry, i.e., around four times their body weight.
Artemis II faces its biggest test yet before returning home later today
From re-entry to splash down (7:54pm – 8:07pm ET):
• 400,000 ft. descent
• Max Temps: +5,000°F
• Top Speed: 23,864 mph
• 6-minute comms blackoutOrion essentially becomes a meteor for 13 minutes pic.twitter.com/bNeTbdjBgI
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) April 10, 2026
NASA explained, “After emerging from blackout, Orion will jettison its forward bay cover, deploy its drogue parachutes near 22,000 feet at 8:03 p.m., and then unfurl its three main parachutes around 6,000 feet at 8:04 p.m. to slow the capsule for splashdown off the coast of San Diego.”
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