{"id":3189,"date":"2026-04-12T08:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3189"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:58:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:58:47","slug":"splashdown-of-artemis-ii-concludes-10-day-moon-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3189","title":{"rendered":"Splashdown of Artemis II concludes 10-day moon mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth&#8217;s atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the moon in over half a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA&#8217;s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, \u200cparachuted gently into calm seas off the southern California coast shortly after 5 p.m. PT, concluding a mission that took the astronauts deeper into space than anyone had flown before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Asake - Organise (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_u4_iWCvZ5c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Artemis II flight, traveling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) across two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 252,000 miles away, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the \u200clunar surface starting in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The splashdown, about two hours before sunset, was carried by live video feed in a NASA webcast. &#8220;A \u2060perfect bull&#8217;s eye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts,&#8221; NASA commentator Rob Navias said moments after the landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recovery teams were standing by \u2060to secure the floating capsule and retrieve \u2060the crew &#8211; U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, 50, Victor Glover, 49, and Christina Koch, 47, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, 50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We got a great view of the moon out window \u200c2 &#8211; looks a little smaller than yesterday,&#8221; Wiseman, mission commander, radioed to mission control in Houston minutes before the crew dove into Earth&#8217;s atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Guess we&#8217;ll have to go back,&#8221; mission control \u2060replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crew&#8217;s homecoming cleared a critical final hurdle for the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft, proving it would \u2060withstand the extreme forces of re-entry from a lunar-return trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It followed a white-knuckle, 13-minute fiery plunge through Earth&#8217;s atmosphere, generating frictional heat that sent temperatures on the capsule&#8217;s exterior soaring to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the peak of re-entry stress, as expected, intense heat and air compression formed a red-hot sheath of ionized gas, or plasma, that engulfed the capsule, cutting off radio communications with the crew for several minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tension broke as contact was re-established and two sets \u2060of parachutes were seen billowing from the nose of the free-falling capsule, slowing its descent to about 15 mph (25 kph) before Orion gently hit the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was expected to take \u2060NASA and U.S. Navy teams about an hour to secure the floating \u200ccapsule, assist the four astronauts out of the vehicle, hoist them into helicopters hovering overhead and fly them to a nearby Navy ship, the USS John P. Murtha, to undergo an initial medical checkup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crew was expected to spend the night aboard the vessel and be flown on Saturday to Houston, where they would be reunited with family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth&#8217;s atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the moon in over half a century. NASA&#8217;s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, \u200cparachuted gently into calm seas off the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Splashdown of Artemis II concludes 10-day moon mission - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth&#039;s atmosphere and safely splashed down in t\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3189\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Splashdown of Artemis II concludes 10-day moon mission - Tona Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth&#039;s atmosphere and safely splashed down in t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3189\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tona Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-12T08:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Orion-spacecraft.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tona.Today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tona.Today\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tona.Today\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/76420356652545dc8fd331a11f052477\"},\"headline\":\"Splashdown of Artemis II concludes 10-day moon mission\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-12T08:21:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189\"},\"wordCount\":468,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Orion-spacecraft.jpeg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189\",\"name\":\"Splashdown of Artemis II concludes 10-day moon mission - Tona Today\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Orion-spacecraft.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-12T08:21:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth's atmosphere and safely splashed down in t\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/?p=3189#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Orion-spacecraft.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tona.today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Orion-spacecraft.jpeg\",\"width\":850,\"height\":623,\"caption\":\"In this photo provided by NASA, the Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers aboard splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. 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