The Artemis II astronauts safely splashed down off the coast of San Diego at 5:07 p.m. Friday. After their historic 10-day mission around the moon, the crew and NASA officials are finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“I’m still at a loss for words. The childhood Jared right now can’t believe what I just saw,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, standing aboard a Navy warship assisting with recovering the four returned astronauts in the Pacific Ocean.
Isaacman was born more than a decade after the last time humans walked on the moon.
“I’ve almost been waiting my whole lifetime to see this, and then as NASA administrator, I just couldn’t be more proud of the entire workforce,” he said.
The return mission was highly anticipated and attracted rapt viewers from across the nation. The Empire State Building was lit up in red, white and blue to welcome the crew home. Multiple MLB stadiums displayed footage of the landing on their scoreboards.
NASA regarded the high-energy reentry — streaking through the atmosphere in a nearly 5,000-degree-Fahrenheit fireball at more than 32 times the speed of sound — as one of the riskiest moments of the mission.
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Space agency officials’ blood pressure was further elevated as experts closely watched the performance of the craft’s heat shield, which astronauts rely on to slow them down and keep temperatures livable.
During the crew-less 2022 Artemis I test mission, the heat shield unexpectedly chipped in more than 100 spots. NASA determined that any astronauts aboard would have been unscathed, but noted the problem posed an increased risk to future crews. Instead of redesigning the heat shield — which NASA will do for future missions — the agency opted to bring the capsule in on a steeper trajectory intended to inflict less stress on the materials.
After splashdown, multiple minor snafus delayed Navy divers as they tried to bring the astronauts out of the capsule.
First, the divers struggled to contact the astronauts inside — though both parties could still reach Mission Control. After the Navy crew opened the hatch, ocean currents hindered their ability to deploy inflatable devices around the capsule to stabilize it and help the astronauts exit.
Eventually, nearly an hour and a half after splashdown, the team helped the astronauts out of the toasty Orion capsule, to the cheers of dozens of flight controllers in Mission Control.
The Navy team then airlifted the astronauts by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha Navy warship, about 1.5 miles away, for medical evaluation.
Crews will continue to work into the night securing the capsule and guiding it back to the Murtha, which is expected to reach Naval Base San Diego early Saturday.
For many NASA scientists and engineers across the country, the work to analyze every bit of data from the capsule has just begun.
“We’re going to want to definitely take a look at the thermal protection system,” Isaacman said. “We’re going to want to download all the data they couldn’t transmit back to us and use that to inform Artemis III.”
The Artemis Program, an international collaboration spearheaded by NASA, aims to put boots back on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The space agency hopes to establish a lunar base as a testing grounds for future missions to Mars.
Artemis II, a flyby mission around the moon that lifted off on April 1, was focused on testing out life support systems and practice piloting the spacecraft to make the journey a smoother ride for future crews who will be focused on the complex challenge of actually landing on the lunar surface.
Christian Ramirez, Jr., 8, checks out an astronaut suit while waiting for the Artemis II Landing Watch Party featuring a live broadcast of the splashdown on a large screen at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey on Friday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
They worked out problems with the capsule’s space toilet (multiple times), piloted the spacecraft by hand, and tested procedures such as sheltering from solar radiation in the cargo locker.
Yet Monday’s flyby — the first time humans had reached the moon since 1972 — held emotional significance for the crew and space enthusiasts beyond the mission’s technical objectives.
While in space, the crew spoke of the surreal sights of our dusty, rugged natural satellite, appearing about the size of a bowling ball at arm’s length, suspended in nothingness. The astronauts couldn’t help but feel a renewed appreciation for our home planet.
“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special,” Artemis II pilot and Southern California native Victor Glover said on Easter while on his way to the moon. “But we’re the same distance from you, and — I’m trying to tell you, just trust me — you are special. In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist, together.”
About 25 minutes before the crew splashed back down on our oasis, Artemis II Cmdr. Reid Wiseman radioed Mission Control.
“We have a great view of the moon out window two,” he said. “Looks a little smaller than yesterday.”
“Guess we’ll have to go back,” Mission Control replied.
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