SAN DIEGO — NASA's Artemis II astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean off California's coast Friday night, capping a historic 10-day voyage around the Moon that marked humanity's first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century and set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.

The Orion spacecraft carrying Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen touched the water at precisely 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT) on April 10, 2026, after a flawless high-speed re-entry that tested the capsule's heat shield to its limits. Recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. military quickly secured the capsule and extracted the crew, who were then flown by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for initial medical checks before heading to Houston.

Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! 🫶The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end. pic.twitter.com/1yjAgHEOYl— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026

Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! 🫶The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end. pic.twitter.com/1yjAgHEOYl

"Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy!" NASA posted on X shortly after splashdown, accompanied by video of the dramatic descent under parachutes. The message captured the global excitement as the four astronauts completed a journey that took them 252,756 miles from Earth — surpassing the 1970 Apollo 13 record by more than 4,000 miles — and brought them behind the far side of the Moon for the first time........

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