The Orion spacecraft, carrying astronauts from NASA’s Artemis II mission, has safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing a landmark lunar voyage to a successful close.
The capsule landed off the coast of California at around 00:07 GMT (5:07 p.m. local time), completing a high-speed re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. Its parachutes deployed as planned, reducing speed for a controlled descent before touching down in the ocean, where recovery teams were on standby.
The mission lasted approximately 10 days, during which four astronauts traveled nearly 695,000 miles. This journey marked the first time in over 50 years that humans have traveled around the Moon and returned to Earth, while also setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have ventured from the planet.
During re-entry, Orion withstood extreme conditions, including temperatures and speeds reaching up to 40,000 km/h, successfully testing critical systems such as its heat shield for future deep-space missions.
The achievement represents a significant step forward for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon in the coming years and pave the way for future crewed missions to Mars.
