It’s A Splashdown: NASA Shares Video Of Artemis II Crew Returning Home | Watch

Last Updated:April 11, 2026, 06:10 IST

The video shows the capsule descending under three massive main parachutes before gently touching down in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA marked the triumphant end of the Artemis II mission by sharing dramatic footage of the spacecraft’s splashdown, capturing the moment the Orion capsule returned safely to Earth after its historic journey around the Moon.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), NASA welcomed the crew home, writing, “Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end."

The video shows the capsule descending under three massive main parachutes after surviving a high-speed reentry through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, where temperatures outside the spacecraft reached around 2,700°C and a plasma sheath briefly cut off communications during the blackout phase. Orion then transitioned from guided atmospheric flight to controlled descent, deploying its parachutes in sequence to slow from orbital reentry speeds to a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Read more: Artemis II Didn’t Land On Moon, But 5 Reasons Why It Can Help NASA Take Humans On Lunar Journey

Aboard the spacecraft were astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, who spent nearly 10 days in space. During the mission, the crew traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, surpassing Apollo-era distance records and reaching over 400,000 kilometers from Earth while orbiting beyond the Moon’s far side. They also captured high-resolution imagery of the lunar surface and Earthset views, providing valuable data for future deep-space missions.

Read more: ‘America First’ On Moon: How NASA Realigned Lunar Mission Artemis With Trump’s Policy

Artemis II was a full end-to-end test of NASA’s crewed deep-space systems, validating Orion’s life support, navigation, thermal protection and autonomous reentry capabilities under real lunar-return conditions. The mission is widely viewed as a critical step toward future Artemis program flights, including Artemis III, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface and long-term plans for sustained lunar presence and eventual Mars exploration.

News world It’s A Splashdown: NASA Shares Video Of Artemis II Crew Returning Home | Watch

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