The Artemis II Lunar Mission Concludes: Astronauts Splash Down in the Pacific Ocean

The launch on April 2 (Italian time) was just the beginning of a grand adventure preparing humanity to return to the Moon to stay (both with the U.S.-led space program and also with the Chinese program and those of other nations and agencies). After just under 10 days in space, the Orion Integrity capsule of the Artemis II mission successfully completed its journey around the Moon, splashing down at 02:07 today (Italian time) in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, California. The crew consisting of astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (from NASA), and Jeremy Hansen (from CSA) has thus completed their mission, sending humans beyond low Earth orbit and close to our natural satellite for the first time in over fifty years since the end of the Apollo program.

Artemis II: The Orion Integrity Capsule Returns with Astronauts

The return trajectory of the spacecraft was modified compared to what was done with Artemis I, in order to reduce problems with the thermal shield made of AVCOAT, where some of the material was abnormally removed due to gas bubble formation. The re-entry operations began around 1:33, when the separation occurred between the European Service Module (ESM), which provided propulsion and power during the Artemis II mission, and the crew capsule. This maneuver allowed exposure of Orion's thermal shield, designed to withstand temperatures of around 1650°C.

Artemis II doesn’t reverse direction. Far out, its motion is mostly radial (toward Earth), so its small eastward speed is slower than Earth’s rotation, so it appears to drift west. Closer in, tangential speed grows and overtakes Earth’s rotation, so it moves east.

The U.S. astronaut (mission commander) Reid Wiseman stated shortly before, "We want to sincerely thank the Airbus team at ESA, our friends in the Netherlands and Germany, and the Glenn Research Center. This vehicle [the ESM] provided us with the necessary energy to go from Earth to the Moon and back with extreme precision, and we are thrilled to be part of your team.” The launch precision with NASA SLS and the engine firings of the service module allowed for avoiding some trajectory corrections, performing better than expected.

Hello, Earth.

A few minutes later (around 1:37), the Orion Integrity spacecraft performed a maneuver (lasting 18 seconds) that raised the trajectory to have a correct entry angle. Just before 2:00 am (Italian time), the spacecraft reached an altitude of 121 km, traveling at about 12,000 m/s. The entry into the upper layers of the atmosphere generated an intense plasma layer around the capsule, causing a six-minute radio blackout (as expected). The complete video of the re-entry phase, including the minutes without connection, should be made public in a few days, as happened for the previous mission.

Orion’s crew and service module have separated. The crew module continues on its path towards Earth while the service module will harmlessly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

At 2:00, NASA re-established radio contact with the crew. Around 02:03, when the Artemis II mission spacecraft was at an altitude of about 6.7 km, the drogues opened, slowing and stabilizing the capsule. One minute later, when the altitude had already decreased to 1800 m, the drogues were released, and the three main parachutes deployed, reducing the speed to less than 60 m/s. The final phase of the splashdown occurred at 2:07, when the Orion Integrity capsule of the Artemis II mission hit the ocean water at about 9 m/s, bringing the astronauts home.

As per NASA protocol, within two hours of the splashdown, the agency's recovery teams, along with those from the U.S. Navy, must reach the capsule, with divers stabilizing Orion and allowing the crew to exit the hatch, transferring them to a raft. The astronauts will then be taken by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for initial medical evaluations before being transferred to the mainland. At that point, a NASA airplane will transport them to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for further check-ups.

Thus concludes the Artemis II mission, the first with a human crew onboard the new space program. As we know, NASA has decided to modify subsequent missions, and it will no longer be with Artemis III that there will be a lunar landing, but starting with Artemis IV (at the beginning of 2028). The third mission will involve the use of Orion in low Earth orbit to perform docking operations with one or two lunar landers (one from SpaceX and the other from Blue Origin) and a possible test of the AxEMU space suits with an extravehicular activity, a test that might take place aboard the ISS. It has been rumored recently that NASA is starting to select the crew for the next mission, and the names will be announced in the coming months.