Artemis II: From blast off to splashdown on NASA's Moon mission

Four astronauts on Artemis II travelled to the vicinity of the Moon and returned after a 10-day test mission that concluded with a Pacific Ocean splashdown.

For the past 10 days I followed the Artemis II mission as four astronauts travelled further from Earth than humans have before and then returned home. The flight was a crewed test of both a new rocket and a spacecraft, and it produced striking launch and re-entry moments observed by teams at Kennedy Space Center and Mission Control in Houston. The crew lived and worked in a compact spacecraft, sent live video and images, and named a visible lunar crater in a personal tribute. The mission included technical issues such as plumbing problems with the capsule toilet and a temporary loss of communications during re-entry. Known details: - The crew were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. - The mission lasted about 10 days and reached roughly 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 distance record. - The rocket used for launch was about 98 metres tall, and this was the first time humans had flown on both this rocket and this spacecraft together as part of a test flight. - The Universal Waste Management System experienced plumbing problems; contingency collapsible urine devices were deployed and the system’s development cost was reported at $23 million. - During re-entry there was a six-minute communications outage, the capsule endured very high temperatures, and it descended under parachutes to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. - The crew named a bright lunar crater "Carroll" in honour of Reid Wiseman’s late wife, and the moment prompted visible emotion among the astronauts and the teams on the ground. Summary: The mission delivered close-up views of the Moon, hands-on experience of operating the new systems, and a safe return that was celebrated by mission teams. NASA officials described plans to build on Apollo-era work with a planned crewed lunar landing in 2028 and ambitions for a Moon base and future human missions to Mars.