The Artemis II mission has ended with a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, NASA confirmed on Friday.
The Orion spacecraft, carrying four astronauts, touched down at 5.07pm local time, which was 1.07am BST, after completing a 10-day journey around the moon and back.
The return marks the conclusion of a record-breaking flight for the mission, which covered 694,481 miles, or 1,117,659km, according to NASA.
The spacecraft’s landing off the California coast brought the historic mission to a close after days of travel in deep space. Artemis II was designed as a key step in NASA’s broader lunar exploration programme, and the successful return of Orion will be seen as an important milestone in that effort.
NASA said the four astronauts aboard the capsule were brought safely back to Earth following the moon flyby. The splashdown in the Pacific Ocean completed the mission as planned, ending the flight that had carried the crew farther from Earth than any human mission in recent memory.
The final phase of the journey took the spacecraft from lunar distance back through Earth’s atmosphere before the controlled ocean landing. With the capsule recovered off the coast of San Diego, the mission has now formally reached its finish after 10 days in space.
