Dangerous Test Still Ahead for Artemis II Crew

The Artemis II crew are on their way home after completing a record-breaking mission around the moon, but their ship’s re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere will be the most dangerous part yet.

The Orion spacecraft is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT on Friday, just off the coast of San Diego.

The spacecraft will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 25,000 mph using a “free return” system, meaning the crew are using the gravitational forces from the moon and Earth’s orbit to slingshot back to Earth.

Although travel at that speed can bring temperatures reaching several thousand degrees Fahrenheit, Earth’s atmosphere also helps slow down the high-speed spacecraft, making the landing somewhat softer.

Eleven parachutes will deploy to further slow the capsule as it lands in the ocean about 60 miles off the California coast.

NASA plans to rescue the astronauts with help from the U.S. Navy. The USS John P. Murtha, a San Diego-based Navy ship, will pick up the crew members out at sea, and the spacecraft will be tracked by a Navy helicopter.

During the first Artemis mission, an uncrewed test flight in 2022, the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield cracked during its re-entry.

Instead of redesigning the heat shield, engineers adjusted Artemis II’s re-entry trajectory to reduce the stress on the capsule.

Mission Updates

On day six of the Artemis II 10-day mission, the astronauts set a record for human spaceflight, traveling 252,756 miles from Earth around the far side of the moon.

At one point, the spacecraft was prepared to lose connection to Earth and experienced a communications outage that lasted roughly 45 minutes.

Shortly after, the astronauts received a surprise phone call from President Donald Trump. The president called them “modern-day pioneers,” adding, “We’re going all out. We’ll plant our flag once again, and this time we won’t just leave footprints.”

A Heartfelt Moment

While the crew was on the far side of the moon—which never faces Earth—they took high-resolution images of the surface in daylight and identified new craters and formations.

The camera captured an emotional moment for the crew when mission specialist Jeremy Hansen announced that one newly identified crater should be named “Carroll” — after Carroll Wiseman, the spouse of Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman.

Carroll Wiseman died of cancer in 2020 at age 46.

“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one … her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen said over the radio.

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