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Published On 11 Apr 2026<\/span>11 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Artemis II astronauts have completed humanity\u2019s first lunar journey in more than 50 years with a successful Pacific splashdown, setting new records near the moon.<\/p>\n The mission\u2019s dramatic conclusion followed a voyage that unveiled previously unseen expanses of the lunar far side, a total solar eclipse and a celestial display of planets \u2013 most notably a radiant Earth contrasted against the infinite darkness of space.<\/p>\n Having completed their mission, the four astronauts have paved the way for NASA\u2019s planned moon landing by another crew in two years, followed by establishing a permanent lunar base within the decade.<\/p>\n The lunar explorers \u2013 commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen \u2013 surfaced from their floating capsule into daylight off San Diego\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n Echoing the iconic Apollo missions, military helicopters lifted each astronaut individually from an inflatable raft connected to the capsule, transporting them to the waiting Navy recovery vessel, USS John P Murtha.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were the ambassadors from humanity to the stars that we sent out there right now, and I can\u2019t imagine a better crew,\u201d NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman declared from the recovery ship.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Mission Control erupted in celebration, with hundreds pouring in from the back support rooms. \u201cWe did it,\u201d NASA\u2019s Lori Glaze rejoiced at a news conference. \u201cWelcome to our moonshot.\u201d<\/p>\n Their Orion capsule, named Integrity, executed its entire descent automatically. The lunar vessel struck the atmosphere at Mach 33 \u2013 33 times the speed of sound \u2013 a scorching velocity unseen since the Apollo era.<\/p>\n Tension intensified in Mission Control as the capsule became enveloped in red-hot plasma during peak heating, entering a scheduled communication blackout. All attention focused on the heat shield\u2019s crucial performance as it endured temperatures of thousands of degrees during re-entry.<\/p>\n Witnessing the event from nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) away, the astronauts\u2019 families gathered in Mission Control\u2019s viewing room, cheering when the capsule emerged from its six-minute blackout and again at splashdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 Artemis II astronauts have completed humanity\u2019s first lunar journey in more than 50 years with a successful Pacific splashdown, setting new records near the moon. The mission\u2019s dramatic conclusion followed a voyage that unveiled previously unseen expanses of the lunar far side, a total solar eclipse and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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