Artemis II astronauts return home, ending NASA moon mission

The four Artemis II astronauts are back safely on Earth after flying around the moon on NASA’s first lunar mission in more than 50 years

The four Artemis II astronauts are back safely on Earth after flying around the moon on NASA’s first lunar mission in more than 50 years.

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After a fiery trip through Earth’s atmosphere that lasted nearly 15 minutes, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in their Orion capsule at 8:07 p.m. ET.

“Y’all, we did it,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said Friday in a post-landing news briefing. “We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years.”