Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego and ended a nearly 10-day mission.
The Artemis II crew completed two elliptical Earth orbits and a 24-hour orbit around the Moon.
Artemis II was the first crewed flight beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis II was a nearly 10-day mission around the Moon and back to Earth.
The Artemis II lunar flyby took the crew to a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth.
NASA and U.S. military teams recovered the Artemis II astronauts from the Orion capsule at 5:07 p.m. PDT on Friday.
The Artemis II lunar flyby surpassed the distance record set by the Apollo 13 mission.
Artemis II included a full in-flight evaluation of Orion with astronauts aboard for the first time.
During the April 6 lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew captured more than 7,000 images of the lunar surface.
Artemis II took astronauts farther from Earth than any humans had previously traveled.
The new April 2026 launch date for Artemis II has zero schedule margin.
Canada has now flown 10 astronauts on 18 space missions after Artemis II.
The Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, 2026.
The Orion spacecraft traveled 1,126,922 kilometres (700,237 miles) during Artemis II.
NASA deployed four CubeSats from international partners to Earth orbit during Artemis II.
Artemis II astronauts traveled 694,481 miles during the mission.
The Artemis II crew completed a lunar flyby and observed regions of the Moon that had never before been seen by human eyes.
NASA has confirmed that Artemis II will not happen next year.
Orion’s service module fired its main engine on the second day of Artemis II to place the crew on a trajectory that brought them within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface.
NASA will use Artemis II science and operational data to inform future missions, including preparations for Artemis III.