Artemis II crew completed first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years
Mission tested Orion spacecraft systems for future lunar landings
Crew traveled farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft previously
Success paves way for Artemis III Moon landing mission later this decade
Splashdown and recovery in Pacific Ocean proceeded without issues
📖 Full Retelling
NASA's Artemis II crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, 2024, concluding humanity's first crewed mission to lunar orbit since the Apollo program ended in 1972. The four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—returned aboard their Orion spacecraft after a 10-day journey that took them around the far side of the Moon, marking a critical test of systems needed for future lunar landings.
The mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center on December 1, represented NASA's most significant step toward returning humans to the lunar surface. During their voyage, the crew tested the Orion spacecraft's life support, communication, and navigation systems in deep space, while also conducting scientific observations and public outreach. Their trajectory, a distant retrograde orbit, took them farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has ever traveled, providing invaluable data on radiation exposure and spacecraft performance.
The successful return of Artemis II clears a major hurdle for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon with Artemis III later this decade. This mission demonstrated that NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule can safely transport astronauts to lunar orbit and back, validating technologies for sustained lunar exploration and future missions to Mars. The splashdown and recovery operations by the U.S. Navy off the coast of California proceeded flawlessly, with the astronauts reported to be in good health as they begin post-mission debriefings and medical evaluations.
American crewed spacecraft for the Artemis program
Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin that is paired with a European Service Module (ESM) manufactured by Airbus Defence ...
The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 through Space Policy Directive-1. The program intends to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 miss...
