SAN DIEGO — Touchdown. Humanity has officially returned from the lunar frontier.

The Artemis II splashdown occurred just after 8 p.m. ET on April 10, as the Orion spacecraft descended gently via parachute into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

This event marks the conclusion of a harrowing and triumphant 10-day test flight, representing the first time humans have ventured toward the moon in more than half a century.

Aboard the spacecraft, aptly named Integrity, were NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, joined by Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

For 13 intense minutes of re-entry, the crew experienced what Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan once described as “what it’s like to be that comet.”

A Fiery Descent: 25,000 MPH to 20 MPH

The journey home began at 7:53 p.m. as Integrity struck the atmosphere 400,000 feet up, more than 1,700 miles from its intended landing site.

Twenty minutes prior, the capsule had separated from its European-made service module, which had provided the vital power, propulsion, and life support for the voyage.

Inside, the crew donned their iconic orange pressure suits, strapped in and positioned upside down to ensure the heat shield faced the brunt of the friction.

The spacecraft became a ball of plasma, screaming through the atmosphere at 24,661 miles per hour—narrowly missing the 1969 Apollo 10 speed record by just 130 mph.

Temperatures on the heat shield peaked at a staggering 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. To protect the hardware, NASA engineers designed a shorter entry path than the one used by the uncrewed Artemis I.

The crew endured 3.9 Gs of force—nearly four times the gravity felt on Earth—while the onboard computer executed precise roll reversals to bleed off energy and slow the descent.

Do you believe the Moon will become a permanent human outpost within our lifetime?

Once communication was restored at 150,000 feet, the world held its breath. A sequence of drogue and pilot chutes deployed, followed by three massive main parachutes that slowed the moonship from hypersonic speeds to a gentle 20 mph splashdown.

The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha was waiting on site to retrieve the crew and their priceless cargo of scientific data.

This cargo includes biological experiments on deep-space radiation and a new library of lunar photography that will prove essential for the upcoming Artemis III and IV missions.

The road to the stars is rarely a straight line. While SpaceX says no one was injured after a Starship explosion in Texas, these volatile trials are the necessary precursors to success.

Similarly, NASA’s reliance on private sector innovation is evident as the agency looks toward future landings, particularly after SpaceX catches giant Starship booster with mechanical arms, a feat of engineering that mirrors the precision of the Orion re-entry.

Throughout the mission, the crew remained focused on the larger goal. This philosophy was evident earlier in the flight when the Artemis II crew said success means being ‘forgotten’, suggesting that a flawless, uneventful mission is the greatest achievement of all.

Which member of this historic crew’s journey inspires you the most?