Artemis II concluded: the Orion crew returned home after the lunar expedition

The Orion spacecraft completed a successful lunar flyby

NASA’s shuttle *Orion*, which participated in the crewed Artemis II mission, returned to Earth more than nine days after launch. The capsule with four astronauts landed in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 at 20:07 Eastern Time (April 11, 03:07 Moscow time). Arrival occurred near San Diego, California.

- Module separation

Half an hour before return, the service module detached from the ship.

- Communication problems

About fifteen minutes before landing, the capsule entered dense atmospheric layers where plasma formed around *Orion*. As a result, contact with the crew was lost for several minutes.

- Crew status

After successful splashdown, the lead broadcaster reported: “All four crew members are in excellent condition.”

- Transfer to shore

The transfer of astronauts and the ship to land was carried out by the naval vessel USS John P. Murtha.

Mission chronology
Date Event
1 April, 18:35 (local time) Launch of the SLS carrier rocket with *Orion* from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
2 April, 01:35 Moscow time Same launch in international format.
10 April, 20:07 (Eastern Time) Splashdown of the capsule in the Pacific Ocean.

Mission crew
- Reed Wiseman – commander (NASA)
- Victor Glover – pilot (NASA)
- Christina Koch – specialist (NASA)
- Jeremy Hansen – Canadian astronaut

Achievements
*Artemis II* became the first crewed mission to fly around the Moon since *Apollo‑17* in December 1972. The astronauts set a new record for maximum distance of a human from Earth.