{"id":259349,"date":"2026-04-09T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:19:11","slug":"how-to-see-astronauts-off-californias-coast-in-historic-artemis-ii-splash-down-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259349\/","title":{"rendered":"How to see astronauts off California\u2019s coast in historic Artemis II splash down Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

California residents will have a golden opportunity to witness history<\/a> when NASA\u2019s Artemis II splashes down on Friday<\/a> off the San Diego coast.<\/p>\n

For those who live in southern California or want to travel to see it, the historic moment is expected to happen at 5:07 p.m. on Friday April 10, when the crew of the 10-day moon mission returns to earth.<\/p>\n

The Orion capsule is expected to splash down into the Pacific Ocean<\/a>, somewhere between 50-70 miles offshore, between Catalina Island and San Clemente Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the crew had already begun their trip back, after soaring farther from earth<\/a>\u00a0than any other humans have ever before.<\/p>\n

The USS John P. Murtha prepares to retrieve Artemis II crew off the San Diego coast. <\/p>\n

Francisco Contreras, an Oceanside resident and board member for the San Diego Astronomy Association, said, if people in San Diego County want to get a chance to catch some of the history, the best bet is to \u201chead to the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s so high up and so far away, you should be able to see it from the coast; you don\u2019t have to get close to San Clemente, I don\u2019t think,\u201d Contreras told CBS 8 News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A dive crew will then get to the capsule and get the crew safely to the ship. U.S. Navy<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as you can have a clear view northwest, that would be your best chances to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will also be a watch party held at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, with fun activities for the kids.<\/p>\n

San Diego being a huge Navy town plays into the recovery of the capsule, with both Coronado\u2019s Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Base San Diego involved in the efforts.<\/p>\n

An image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew. AP<\/p>\n

A Navy helicopter squadron based out of Naval Air Station North Island will track the capsule as it streaks through Earth\u2019s atmosphere, then it will pick up the four astronauts and deliver them to the ship for evaluation, the Navy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the San Diego-based USS John P. Murtha<\/a> will be ready front and center<\/a> to recover the astronauts after their spacecraft hits the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Navy said the ship has \u201cunique advantages\u201d<\/a> that will help with recovering the Orion capsule and gathering \u201ccritical data to help ensure it\u2019s ready to recover the astronauts and capsule during future Artemis missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on this with NASA for about 12 years, working up to this day,\u201d Captain Neil Krueger, from Naval Base San Diego, told the outlet.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The San Diego-based USS John P. Murtha will play a huge role in recovery efforts. U.S. Navy<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come in really fast, they have parachutes that deploy, so by the time they splash down in the water, they\u2019re only going about 20 miles per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have mobile dive teams to open the capsule, get them onto a floating raft, helicopters will take them to the ship and get medical care,\u201d Krueger said, noting that the capsule will then be recovered and towed back to the naval ship.<\/p>\n

Krueger said when the ship returns to shore on Saturday morning, people could get a chance to catch a glimpse of history.<\/p>\n

While the excitement for the astronauts return is palpable, the most dangerous part of the mission<\/a> is ahead for the crew as the shield of the Orion capsule will be tested when it plunges through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere being scorched by temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

The crew\u2019s survival through that inferno will depend on the capsule\u2019s heat shield, a 16.5-foot-wide dome on the bottom of the spacecraft designed to slough away at controlled rates as they plummet 25,000 mph back to Earth.<\/p>\n

The uncrewed Artemis I shield in 2022 was left with giant poke marks and cracks, so adjustments were made to the coating on the shield, which will be officially field tested on Friday.<\/p>\n

The four crew members of the Artemis II will return to earth on Friday. Nasa\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

NASA later determined that the shield\u2019s coating material had been applied too densely and made adjustments for Artemis II to be applied lighter as to allow hot gases to release upon the dangerous reentry.<\/p>\n

The crew were ultimately given the go-ahead to take off, because reports noted that the Artemis I cabin temperature would have been safe for astronauts, despite the shield cracking and ripping apart.<\/p>\n

As if the crew needed one more thing to worry about, NASA will be keeping an eye on the forecast in San Diego, as there\u2019s now a possibility of rain and possible thunderstorms on Friday, according to local weather forecasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But at this point, the weather is expected to cooperate with recovery efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California residents will have a golden opportunity to witness history when NASA\u2019s Artemis II splashes down on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105999,68637,7,9,8,4182,11482,3098,5923,74,3586],"class_list":["post-259349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-artemis-ii","tag-astronauts","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-metro","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-navy","tag-san-diego","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}