According to NASA, the Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean under parachutes at 17:07 local time on Friday. Recovery teams were stationed off the coast of California to promptly retrieve the crew and bring them back to shore. Upon return, the astronauts will undergo medical evaluations before heading back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The 10-day mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, marks a major milestone in the Artemis program. It is the first crewed mission to travel toward the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and has set a new record for the farthest distance humans have traveled in space.
During the mission, astronauts documented and described the Moon’s surface features in detail, while also observing solar eclipses and meteoroid impacts in deep space. The data collected—particularly on Orion’s heat shield, navigation systems and life-support technologies—will play a crucial role in future missions.
