Artemis II Safe and Sound on Earth

After spending nine days in space, visiting the Moon for the first time in a generation, and traveling farther from home than anyone in history, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission is safe on Earth once again. The Orion spacecraft Integrity reentered the Earth’s atmosphere on Friday evening, slowing down from 25,000 miles an hour to less than 20 in just a few minutes. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen were recovered in good health and high spirits, and are now enjoying well-earned time with their families after the journey of a lifetime.

The crew spent the final day of the Artemis II mission preparing for their return to Earth, reconfiguring Integrity’s cabin with the same seats that protected them during launch. Once the crew donned their OCSS flight suits, the Orion spacecraft split in two, leaving behind the European Service Module which had provided life support, propulsion, and solar power during the mission. Cameras on the solar arrays transmitted fleeting views of Integrity, now only the capsule-shaped Crew Module, as it departed.

Small thrusters on the Crew Module aligned Integrity to its reentry profile, which was more direct than the gradual “skip” of Artemis I to prevent char loss on the heat shield. As the Moon set through Integrity’s windows, Commander Wiseman remarked that “[it] looks a little smaller than yesterday,” prompting CAPCOM to suggest, “guess we’ll have to go back.” Shortly thereafter, plasma built up around Integrity as it struck the atmosphere at over 32 times the speed of sound, beginning a six-minute planned communications blackout period.

Recovery teams and aircraft off the coast of California sighted Integrity as its fireball crossed the Pacific Ocean. At Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the press auditorium erupted into cheers as Wiseman’s voice returned, confirming a safe reentry. Applause continued as Integrity deployed several sets of parachutes in sequence: first to separate the forward bay cover, then a small set of drogues, and finally three good mains, bright red-orange against the blue ocean.

Integrity splashed down at 5:07 PM Pacific Time, bringing Artemis II to a close. Flight controllers and other NASA team members flooded Mission Control in celebration, an event which NASA commentator Rob Navias compared to the final landing of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. Meanwhile, recovery teams approached Integrity, attached a floating stabilization collar, and deployed the inflatable “front porch” raft for the crew. Within two hours of splashdown, all four astronauts were extracted from Integrity and airlifted by helicopter to the deck of the USS John P. Murtha, where NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman waited to greet them.

With their medical evaluations complete, the astronauts have since returned to Houston and reunited with their families for the first time since entering quarantine before launch. Integrity was towed into the well deck of the Murtha, which arrived in San Diego on Saturday morning. The spacecraft will soon undergo a detailed inspection to verify its performance during the mission, and some of its components are set to be reused on future Orion vehicles.

Speaking during a postflight briefing, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya praised the efforts of everyone involved in making the mission possible, concluding decisively, “their work was good.” Flight director Rick Henfling shared that Integrity entered the atmosphere within 0.4% of its target angle, and, after flying 1,750 miles over the Pacific, landed within a mile of its splashdown target. Of the spacecraft’s exceptional performance, Kshatriya stressed: “That is not luck. That is a thousand people doing their jobs.”

Artemis II will be committed to history as an overwhelmingly successful mission. Besides accomplishing all of its major objectives, Artemis II captured the attention of the world. NASA’s online coverage of the mission now includes its most-viewed videos of all time, and the worldly humanity of the astronauts resonated with millions as a social media phenomenon.

More than this, Artemis II brings NASA a hard-won victory for the SLS and Orion programs, after a decade of criticism for their delays and cost overruns. As NASA stares down the barrel of another unprecedented cut to its budget, the exceptional payoff of this mission is a testament to what the agency can accomplish when given consistency of purpose. Soon, all eyes will turn to Artemis III, a mission for which SLS and Orion are the most mature components; flight hardware has already begun to congregate at Kennedy Space Center. To be sure, launching within a yearly cadence will pose a new challenge for these programs. Nevertheless, the success of the past two weeks gives NASA much to be confident about.