The commander of the Artemis II mission, astronaut Reid Wiseman, shared a video on Tuesday showing the exact moment when members of the United States Navy open the side hatch of the Orion capsule following its landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California.
The clip, published on Wiseman's X account, captures the sheer joy of the four astronauts as they are greeted by the Navy's diving medical rescue team, who were the first humans to make contact with the crew after their return from deep space.
"Jesse, Steve, Laddy, and Vlad… What an excitement to welcome you aboard the Integrity after a journey of nearly 700,000 miles! We will be forever grateful for your service to our crew and to the nation," wrote Wiseman next to the video.
The rescue team that opened the capsule was composed of four medical specialists from the Navy: Lieutenant Commander Jesse Wang, an emergency physician and team leader; Master Chief Laddy Aldridge, who was the first to make direct contact with the crew and to open the hatch; Petty Officer Vlad Link, with 18 years of experience in dive medicine; and First Class Petty Officer Steve Kapala.
After the landing, the crew had to wait for approximately 48 minutes inside the capsule as part of the safety protocol of NASA before the team could proceed to open the side hatch.
Once extracted, the astronauts were transported by helicopters from the HSC-23 Squadron to the ship USS John P. Murtha for the necessary medical evaluations.
The Artemis II mission marked the first crewed flight around the Moon since Apollo 17, and the crew was later welcomed with a standing ovation in Houston following their historic return.
The Orion capsule, named by the crew themselves as "Integrity", has become a symbol of the renewed lunar exploration program of the United States.
Filed under: