The Artemis II mission is set to come to a close on Friday night with a Pacific Ocean splashdown off the coast of San Diego, ending a 10-day journey that carried four astronauts around the Moon and back to Earth.
Nasa’s Orion capsule, carrying three Americans and one Canadian, is scheduled to descend beneath three giant parachutes before touching down at 5.07pm PT, which is 1.07am BST on Saturday. If the landing goes ahead as planned, the number of human beings who have travelled to the Moon and returned safely to Earth will rise to 28.
The mission marks a significant milestone for human spaceflight. The four Artemis II astronauts became the first people to travel beyond low Earth orbit since the final Apollo mission in December 1972. Their flight included a lunar flyby, placing them among a very small group of astronauts to have made the journey to the Moon and returned home.
For Nasa, the splashdown will represent the end of a closely watched test of the Orion spacecraft and the Artemis programme’s crewed exploration ambitions. The mission has already achieved its central goal by demonstrating that astronauts can travel to lunar distance and return safely to Earth aboard the capsule.
The return to Earth is expected to bring the historic mission to a gentle close after days spent in deep space. The planned landing site in the Pacific Ocean reflects the procedure chosen for Orion’s recovery, with the capsule slowing under parachutes before entering the water.
With the splashdown, Artemis II will be recorded as a major step in the return of human crews to deep-space flight. It also stands as the latest chapter in a programme intended to extend human exploration beyond Earth orbit for the first time in more than five decades.
