As the Orion spacecraft returned to Earth, it faced extreme heat, entering the atmosphere at speeds of roughly 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 kilometers per hour). About 4 miles (6.7 kilometers) above the ocean, parachutes popped out to slow the spacecraft down before it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.<\/p>\n The crew \u2013 Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen \u2013 are now back on Earth, sharing experiences from their incredible trip.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the astronauts returned to NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. They were greeted by a large crowd of NASA workers and guests. The astronauts spoke about their experiences, and the feelings they had while on the mission.<\/p>\n The Artemis II mission has a large collection of \u201cfirsts\u201d. The crew included the first woman (Ms. Koch), the first person of color (Mr. Glover), and the first non-American (Mr. Hansen, a Canadian) to go on a lunar mission.<\/p>\n The astronauts were the first people to view the full far side of the moon. They got detailed views of the moon, and noticed craters and colors that have never been seen on the moon before. They saw the edges of the moon shining with light reflected from Earth. \u201cIt is truly hard to describe,\u201d said Mr. Glover. \u201cIt is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n The crew made sketches and took photos, which will help scientists identify interesting areas for future study. They used new laser technology to quickly send photos and information back to scientists on Earth.<\/p>\n The success of the mission is an important step toward NASA\u2019s long-term goal of creating a base on the moon. The mission was also a practice run for future missions, including Artemis III, which is expected to land astronauts on the moon in 2028. Mr. Glover noted that the moon\u2019s south pole, where NASA hopes to land in 2028, will be a challenging area to land in and travel across.<\/p>\n Though the mission was about exploring the moon, the astronauts said they felt a deep connection to our home planet. Mr. Wiseman, the mission\u2019s commander, said, \u201cBefore you launch, it [going into space] feels like it\u2019s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you\u2019re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a special thing to be a human,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a special thing to be on planet Earth.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Friday evening, NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission came to an exciting end as the Orion spacecraft splashed down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-606688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606688","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=606688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NASA\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/artemis-mission-orion-in-the-spotlight-art002e009566.jpg\")
The Artemis II mission was a historic 10-day journey that took four astronauts around the moon and back. The mission set a new record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans. Above, a \u201cselfie\u201d by the Orion spacecraft, with the moon in the background.
(Source: NASA [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n![\"Integrity,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/artemis-ii-recovery-nhq202604100018.jpg\")
As the Orion spacecraft returned to Earth, it faced extreme heat, entering the atmosphere at speeds of roughly 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 kilometers per hour). Parachutes helped slow the spacecraft down before it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean (above).
(Source: Bill Ingalls\/NASA [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/art002e013365-1200.jpg\")
The Artemis II mission has a large collection of \u201cfirsts\u201d. The crew included the first woman (Ms. Koch, left), the first person of color (Mr. Glover, bottom), and the first non-American (Mr. Hansen, top) to go on a lunar mission. Mr. Wiseman is on the right.
(Source: [Public Domain], NASA<\/a>.)<\/p>\n![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/artemis-ii-crew-speak-jsc2026e022311-1200.jpg\")
The astronauts said they felt a deep connection to our home planet. Mr. Wiseman, the mission\u2019s commander, said, \u201cBefore you launch, it [going into space] feels like it\u2019s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you\u2019re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends.\u201d
(Source: [Public Domain], NASA<\/a>\/ Helen Arase Vargas.)<\/p>\n