![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UJYPN4425NABJHBV4YCPOH5AZQ.jpg\")
NASA-Artemis-Moonshot This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP) <\/p>\nThe crew members aboard lunar mission Artemis II are expected to make their return to Earth tonight.<\/p>\n
The Orion capsule is set to enter the Earth\u2019s atmosphere Friday afternoon, hurtling towards home at 40,000 km\/h as the onboard heat shield protects the crew of four from a 2,700 C fireball expected to engulf the ship.<\/p>\n
Canadian Jeremy Hansen \u2013 who has spoken to children, journalists, one prime minister and one president from the capsule \u2013 has made history with his three American colleagues. They have travelled deeper into space than anyone else before them. Hansen is the first Canadian Space Agency astronaut onboard a lunar mission.<\/p>\n
A dynamic dance of parachutes, precisely planned burns and favourable weather will carry the astronauts through the final leg of the mission.<\/p>\n
Here is the latest: <\/p>\n
Animated simulation shows what the Artemis II crew\u2019s journey back to Earth will look like An animated simulation made by NASA shows how the Artemis II\u2019s crew capsule will descend back into Earth\u2019s atmosphere. <\/p>\n
Artemis II itinerary (all times eastern):6:30 p.m.: NASA will begin streaming the crew\u2019s return. CTVNews.ca will provide updates as the capsule descends7:33 p.m.: The Orion crew module and service module, which carries the solar panels, engines, radiators, oxygen and water tanks, separate7:37 p.m.: Crew module raise burn7:53 p.m.: Orion enters Earth\u2019s atmosphere, 400,000 feet above the ground8:07 p.m.: Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. NASA and U.S. Department of War personnel are expected to assist the crew out of Orion and fly them to a waiting recovery ship10:30 p.m.: Post-splashdown news conference at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TexasWhat does re-entry feel like?<\/p>\n
Former Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield says the four crewmates will feel a range of feelings \u2013 both physical and emotional \u2013 as they return to Earth.<\/p>\n
Physically, the final 30 minutes of descent after the astronauts enter the atmosphere is filled with gravity-fuelled whiplash.<\/p>\n
The transition back from 10 days of weightlessness \u2013 the \u201cultimate laziness,\u201d as Hadfield put it \u2013 feels \u201ccrazy unfair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to hold your head up or lift a finger.\u201d But as they descend closer to Earth\u2019s surface, they\u2019ll feel themselves getting pushed into the floor of the spaceship, experiencing a gravitational pull several times greater than their bodyweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven your eyeballs feel strangely heavy,\u201d said the former astronaut, who has been to-and-from space several times during his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the parachutes start opening, it\u2019s like, crack the whip. \u2026 You get snapped around on the edge of the cables,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, once the spaceship settles into a parachute-assisted fall, \u201csuddenly, you\u2019re pristine.\u201d At least, until the vessel makes its splashdown, or \u201cbellyflop,\u201d added Hadfield. <\/p>\n
Artemis II crew could feel pressure \u2018four times their weight\u2019 entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere: Hadfield Former Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield explains what the Artemis II crew may experience when re-entering the earth\u2019s atmosphere ahead of splashdown. <\/p>\n
Key momentsImages of Earth<\/p>\n
New, stunning pictures of Earth were taken by mission commander Reid Wiseman using his Personal Computing Device \u2014 a tablet that includes a camera \u2014 three days into the mission.<\/p>\n
The first image was described by NASA mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston as a \u201creminder that no matter how far we go, we are still one world, watching, hoping and reaching higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA-Artemis-Moonshot This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP) <\/p>\n
CNN. See more images here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Organ chips\u2019 onboard<\/p>\n Before four Artemis II astronauts strapped into their Orion capsule to soar toward the moon, a tiny bit of each of them was already on board.<\/p>\n Incubated in a small triangular container stowed on the spacecraft just before launch were four USB-size \u201cavatars,\u201d which rode along with the history-making moon mission. But in many ways, their journey is just beginning.<\/p>\n Known as organ chips, the avatar crewmates are made with bone marrow tissue derived from cells donated by their full-size counterparts \u2014 Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen \u2014 and researchers believe the experiment could soon unlock unprecedented insights about the effects of space on human health.<\/p>\n CNN. Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lunar crater named \u2018Carroll\u2019<\/p>\n Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.<\/p>\n Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Hansen made the request right before Monday\u2019s lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk.<\/p>\n Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.<\/p>\n The Associated Press. Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Music in space<\/p>\n Despite being hundreds of thousands of kilometres from home, the Artemis II crew starts each day with a familiar tune.<\/p>\n Since the mission launched on Wednesday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission control has played the astronauts, among them Canadian Jeremy Hansen, a wake-up song after a period of scheduled sleep.<\/p>\n On Day 1, they heard \u201cSleepyhead\u201d by Young & Sick. See the full playlist here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jordan Fleguel<\/a>, CTVNews.ca journalist<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A special coin<\/p>\n The Royal Canadian Mint has launched a new collector coin celebrating Canada\u2019s part in NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission.<\/p>\n The coin, designed by Canadian artist Pandora Young, is a $20 fine silver coin \u2014 99.99 per cent pure silver \u2014 which illuminates with a blacklight.<\/p>\n Robin Della Corte<\/a>, CTVNews.ca journalist. Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crew members aboard lunar mission Artemis II are expected to make their return to Earth tonight. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[45,49,48,1688,47,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-595758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-manufacturing","12":"tag-national","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CYWLNQNDLFOAQKUKDUE62MKNDA.jpg\")
Product image of Emulate’s chip technology This undated product image provided by Johnson & Johnson shows Emulate’s Organ-On-Chips technology, a computer chip designed to simulate functions of human organs to predict which experimental drugs are most likely to be effective and safe in people. (Johnson & Johnson via AP) <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775862549_315_JSVPJPHQ5RFEHLUJIOHEA4YCIE.jpg\")
Artemis II coin <\/p>\n