NASA's Artemis II crewed Moon flyby ends with Pacific splashdown
The gist
NASA's Artemis II crew splashed down off San Diego on Apr 10 after a 9-day, 695,081-mile Moon flyby.
The mission set a distance record and feeds NASA's push toward a 2028 landing.
How it unfolded
- Mar 9, 2026NASA announced a March 12 news conference at Kennedy Space Center after the Artemis II Flight Readiness Review, with the rocket and Orion awaiting a second rollout ahead of a possible April launch.
- Apr 1, 2026Artemis II launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39B in Florida; the crew completed the apogee and perigee raise maneuvers.
- Apr 2, 2026The crew finished an approximately 70-minute proximity operations demonstration, manually flying Orion around the detached upper stage.
Key terms
- Artemis
- A NASA-led international Moon exploration program aiming to return humans to the Moon and build a permanent lunar base.
- Orion capsule
- A partially reusable crewed spacecraft used by NASA for the Artemis lunar program, consisting of a crew module and European service module.
- ionospheric disturbances
- Irregular variations in the ionized upper atmosphere that can affect radio and GPS signals.
Source: Wikipedia