The crew is preparing for a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere in the final phase of their historic 10-day mission
WATCH LIVE: Artemis II astronauts prepare for splashdown
WATCH LIVE: Artemis II astronauts prepare for splashdownReutersPublished: 7:09am, 11 Apr 2026The four Artemis II astronauts, returning from the world’s first crewed moon voyage in over half a century, hurtled back towards Earth on Friday as they prepared their Orion spacecraft for the final phase of their descent and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California.
On Friday afternoon, the autonomously piloted Orion crew capsule executed one last eight-second firing of its jet thrusters to fine-tune the flight course, a critical manoeuvre to ensure a safe return.
Nasa’s celebrated 10-day mission was expected to culminate with the gumdrop-shaped Orion vehicle jettisoning the service module housing its main rocket system, followed by a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and a six-minute radio blackout before the capsule parachutes into the sea.
If all goes well, US astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will end up bobbing safely in the ocean aboard their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, shortly after 8pm off the coast of San Diego.
The quartet blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, lofted into an initial Earth orbit by Nasa’s giant Space Launch System rocket before sailing on around the far side of the moon, venturing deeper into space than any humans before them.
