The crew of Artemis 2 are set to splash down tonight after their record breaking Moon mission, during which they travelled farther than any human before them
Four astronauts’ record-breaking Moon journey comes to a dramatic end tonight with all eyes keen to watch as Artemis 2 returns back to Earth and lands in the sea.
Artemis 2 didn’t land on the Moon or even orbit it but it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, meaning Reid Wiseman and his crew have travelled farther than any other humans from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles.
And now the dramatic grand finale is fast approaching with Artemis 2’s astronauts aiming for a splashdown on Friday night (Saturday morning UK time) to close out humanity’s first voyage to the Moon in more than half a century.
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The tension in Mission Control has been mounting as the miles disappear between the four returning astronauts and Earth.
Scientists will be keeping a close eye on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that has to withstand thousands of degrees during re-entry. On the only other test flight of the spacecraft — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the Moon.
Commander Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen are on track to hit the atmosphere travelling Mach 32 — or 32 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s.
The rocket left Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1 and the astronauts’ Orion capsule is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego, California at around 8.07pm local time time or 1.07am in the UK.
That means it won’t be visible for British space fans with the naked eye – but you can watch it live here.
NASA explains: “Slowing to 20 mph, Orion will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, completing the Artemis II crew’s return to Earth and a 694,481-mile journey.
“From there, teams from NASA and the U.S. military will extract the crew from Orion and fly them via helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha.
“Within two hours after splashdown, the crew will be extracted from Orion and flown to the USS Murtha. Recovery teams will retrieve the crew, assist them onto an inflatable raft, and then use helicopters to deliver them to the ship.
“Once aboard, the astronauts will undergo post‑mission medical evaluations before returning to shore where awaiting aircraft will take them to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.”
