NASA’s Artemis II crew, made up of four astronauts from the United States and Canada, will return to Earth on Friday after their historic trip to the far side of the Moon.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft. They are expected to begin reentry at 7:33 p.m. ET with a splashdown at 8:07 p.m.
NASA has a live stream of when the crew lands in the Pacific Ocean later today. The Orion spacecraft is expected to land off the coast of San Diego, California.
The Artemis II mission marks the first time humans have ventured into the Moon’s orbit in more than 50 years. The crew traveled further from Earth than any other human being before, reaching an estimated distance of 400,000 kilometers from our planet. That’s the same distance as traveling between New York City and Los Angeles about 100 times, only the astronauts are inside a capsule with 330 cubic feet of living space, which is about the size of two minivans.
The goal of the Artemis II mission is to collect data and ideas that will help NASA prepare for future lunar missions and landings: the astronauts launched the Orion spacecraft. planned tests to evaluate its performance with a crew in deep space. This involves testing communication systems with colleagues on Earth, making trajectory adjustments, and conducting safe re-entry and splashdown.
Landing could be one of the most dangerous moments of the entire mission. On the uncrewed 2022 Artemis I mission, Orion’s protective heat shield was unexpectedly damaged upon his return to Earth. The heat shield is made of AVCOAT, a material designed to slowly dissipate and protect the crew from temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees as it penetrates Earth’s atmosphere, but the shield was charred and cracked in places, which was not supposed to happen.
If humans had been aboard Artemis I, they would still have returned safelyNASA said. The agency has also conducted an extensive investigation into how the heat shield was damaged in the first place. Even so, the heat shield remains the most important thing as people around the world wait to see these four astronauts return safely.
Technology event
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
The crew left Earth on April 1, and the astronauts quickly ran into some mundane setbacks, including problems with microsoft office and his bathroom. But these first moments were easily overshadowed by the wonder of the images and information the crew sent back from the moon. you can see now new photos from the lunar flyby on the dark side of the moon.
astronauts too new craters namedincluding one named after Carroll, the late wife of mission commander Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 46.
The crew was also able to witness a total solar eclipse Just a few thousand kilometers from the Moon, a unique point of view that no astronaut had experienced before.
“It wasn’t just an eclipse with the Sun hiding behind the Moon,” said Koch, the crew’s mission specialist. explained. “We could also see Earthshine, the light of the Sun reflecting off the Earth, enveloping the Moon in a soft, rendered glow.”
The rest of the livestream is streamed here.
