Artemis II Crew Splashes Down After Moon Flyby
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- Artemis II's Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday night with all four astronauts reported in good health.
- NASA's Reid Wiseman commanded the mission, joined by pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch, with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen completing the four-person crew.
- The crew became the first humans to travel to the Moon and return to Earth safely since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, ending a gap of more than five decades in crewed lunar travel.
- The mission is described as a "record-breaking moon flyby" in The Guardian's coverage, though the source does not specify which record was set.
- Related Guardian framing calls the splashdown "'Just the beginning'," signaling the flight is positioned as a precursor in NASA's Artemis program rather than a standalone achievement.
Why it matters: This ends the longest gap in crewed lunar travel in history — more than 53 years between Apollo 17 in December 1972 and the Artemis II return in April 2026 — and restores human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit, a prerequisite for any future crewed lunar landing under NASA's Artemis program.
