After breaking a 50-year distance record and completing the first crewed lunar fly by since Apollo.
The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft are preparing to return to Earth on Friday, April 10, closing out a nearly 10-day mission that marked the first time humans had traveled to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen lifted off April 1 from Kennedy Space Center aboard Orion, nicknamed Integrity, targeting a splashdown off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. ET.
What the mission accomplished
The crew completed their lunar flyby on April 6, passing within roughly 4,067 miles of the Moon’s surface and surpassing Apollo 13’s distance record at approximately 252,000 miles from Earth. That record stood for more than five decades. The trajectory that brought them that far from home traces back to the translunar injection burn executed April 2, which pushed Orion just fast enough for the Moon’s gravity to sling the spacecraft around its far side and redirect it toward Earth without requiring major additional engine firings.
The mission was designed as a foundational step toward re-establishing sustained human presence on the Moon. It tested Orion’s systems, life support, and crew operations in deep space in ways that simulated what future crewed lunar landing missions will require.
Glover, who became the first Black man to travel beyond low Earth orbit on this mission, reflected on the experience before departure, describing the volume of data and imagery the crew is carrying home. Koch, speaking before launch, offered a line that captured the mission’s place in the larger program with characteristic dry precision, expressing hope that a future Moon landing would make this mission feel like a footnote.
How the return unfolds
Reentry is the riskiest phase of the mission. Orion will hit Earth’s upper atmosphere at approximately 23,840 miles per hour. During descent, the crew will experience up to 3.9 times their normal body weight as the capsule decelerates through peak heating.
A six-minute communications blackout begins when Orion reaches the upper atmosphere at roughly 400,000 feet altitude, approximately 13 minutes before splashdown. During that window, Mission Control loses contact with the spacecraft as temperatures outside the heat shield reach 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
NASA made a deliberate modification to Orion’s descent profile ahead of this mission after a 2022 uncrewed test flight revealed the heat shield sustained more damage than expected during reentry. Rather than replacing the shield entirely, which would have caused significant delays, engineers adjusted the capsule’s angle through the atmosphere to reduce peak heating exposure. Redesigned heat shields are planned for Artemis III and beyond.
The timeline on Friday begins with the crew module and service module separating approximately 42 minutes before splashdown. A final trajectory correction burn follows if needed. Drogue parachutes deploy near 22,000 feet, followed by three main parachutes around 6,000 feet to slow the capsule for water landing. The USS John P. Murtha is already positioned off the San Diego coast, supported by military aircraft and helicopters. It is the first joint NASA and Department of Defense recovery operation for a lunar crew since Apollo 17.
Lead flight director Jeff Radigan has emphasized the precision required, noting the reentry angle must be held within less than one degree. A deviation outside that window makes a successful reentry impossible. Mission Control is treating Friday’s window with the same focus it applied to launch.
Extraction and medical evaluation are expected to take between one and two hours after splashdown. The crew will then be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
How to watch
NASA will stream live coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET on its YouTube channel and NASA+. The return will also air on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix, HBO Max, Discovery+, Peacock, and Roku.
What comes next
Artemis III, planned for next year, will have astronauts practice docking with a lunar lander in Earth orbit. Artemis IV is targeted for 2028 and aims to land two astronauts near the Moon’s south pole, a mission that would begin the work of establishing the sustained lunar presence this program was designed to achieve. Commander Wiseman, who had a crater named after his late wife during the mission, described the experience of flying behind the Moon’s far side during a 40-minute communication blackout earlier this week as surreal. What happens in the next few years may eventually put even that moment into perspective.