After 10 Days in Space, They Are Home Again.
The crew of the Orion spacecraft, which launched 10 days ago on a lunar orbit, has successfully returned home, and the Artemis II mission has officially ended. This was reported by Radio Lux, according to the PromPolitInform portal.
The crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego after a fiery re-entry at more than 32 times the speed of sound.
The capsule entered the atmosphere at a speed of about 25,000 miles per hour (over 40,000 km/h), and this was the moment NASA considered the most dangerous. However, it withstood the extreme temperatures and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Before landing, the parachutes opened, after which the capsule performed a so-called splashdown — a water landing that NASA uses for Orion-type capsules. Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen completed the historic mission, after which they were transported by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha warship, located approximately 2.5 kilometers from the landing site, where the astronauts underwent a medical examination.
Recall that the Artemis program, an international project led by NASA, aims to return people to the Moon and create a permanent base there, which will become a preparatory site for future missions to Mars.
