Artemis II astronauts splash down off California’s coast after a historic journey around the moon

San Diego, California (CNN), NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen splashed down off the coast of San Diego on Friday evening.

The astronauts’ spacecraft hit the Pacific Ocean waters at 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time, 7:07 p.m. Central Time as Mission Control.

The crew’s monumental and risky 10-day journey around the moon and back took them farther from Earth than anyone in human history.

After splashing down, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman provided a good report for crew conditions inside Orion.

“What a journey. We are stable. Four green crew members,” Wiseman said, indicating all four astronauts are in good shape.

As recovery efforts get underway, Artemis mission controllers are likely celebrating that this smooth return sets up NASA’s lunar exploration program to tackle its next big steps.

Artemis II astronauts identified two new craters on the lunar surface and suggested naming one Integrity for their Orion spacecraft, and the other Carroll for Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife. Carroll Taylor Wiseman, a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit, died in 2020 following a battle with cancer. “There was not a dry eye in the control room when they did that,” NASA’s Dr. Nicola Fox told CNN later.

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