The NASA is scheduled for tonight the splashdown of the Artemis II mission in the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles off the coast of San Diego, California, marking the end of a historic 10-day journey around the Moon.
The landing is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. Pacific Time), when the Orion capsule, named "Integrity" by its crew, will complete the return to Earth of the four astronauts on board: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972, making this return a milestone that marks over five decades without any human traveling into deep space.
Liliana Villarreal, director of Landing and Recovery at NASA, described this moment as the most critical of the entire operation.
"It is the most challenging moment of the mission for us as we wait for the splashdown after the vehicle enters the atmosphere," he noted.
The Orion capsule will enter the Earth's atmosphere at nearly 25,000 miles per hour, gradually decelerating to about 300 miles per hour before its system of 11 parachutes is deployed in a precise sequence to slow down to around 20 miles per hour at the moment of impact with the water.
Once the capsule lands, helicopters and divers from the United States Navy will approach to assess the area and ensure there are no hazards.
The divers will install an inflatable raft called "front porch" beneath the side hatch of Orion to assist with the extraction of the astronauts, who will be individually lifted into helicopters and transported to the recovery ship USS John P. Murtha.
On board the vessel, the four crew members will undergo medical evaluations before flying to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The mission, launched on April first from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the SLS rocket, achieved extraordinary milestones during its 10 days in space.
On April 6, the crew set a new Guinness World Record for the greatest distance traveled by humans from Earth, reaching 406,773 km, surpassing the Apollo 13 record that had stood since April 15, 1970, for over 56 years.
On the same day, the spacecraft performed its lunar flyby, coming within 6,543 km of the surface, experiencing a communication blackout for 40 minutes as it passed behind the far side of the Moon. On April 8, the crew left the lunar sphere of influence and began the return to Earth.
The mission also marked several historic firsts in its composition: Victor Glover is the first African American astronaut on a crewed lunar mission, Christina Koch is the first woman to participate in such a mission, and Jeremy Hansen is the first Canadian to travel to lunar orbit.
Villarreal, a Colombian aerospace engineer who graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology, leads the team that has spent years developing the procedures and equipment to ensure the success of this recovery operation, the latest and most critical test of the Artemis program before Artemis III attempts the first lunar landing since 1972.
The live coverage of the re-entry and landing is available on NASA.gov/live, as well as on platforms like YouTube, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.
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