NASA’s Artemis II mission concluded successfully on October 15, 2026, as the Orion spacecraft “Integrity” splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time. The four-member international crew—Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—returned in good health after a 10-day journey that marked NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon’s orbit in more than half a century.
The mission tested the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft under extreme conditions, pushing the crew farther from Earth than any humans have traveled before—an estimated 252,760 miles. During their flyby, the astronauts captured images of previously unseen lunar regions and witnessed a total solar eclipse. They also identified and named a new crater in honor of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, a commercial astronaut with two private orbital missions, praised the crew’s performance. “These were the ambassadors to the stars that we sent out there,” he said. “I can’t imagine a better crew. It was a perfect mission.”
Isaacman emphasized the broader significance of the mission on social media, declaring, “America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon and bringing them home safely.” He credited the entire NASA workforce and noted that Artemis II was a test flight carrying real risk, undertaken to pave the way for future lunar exploration, including establishing a Moon base and preparing for deeper space missions.
The Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface, with Artemis II serving as a critical step toward sustainable exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars.
