Abu dhabi: The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after nearly 10 days in space, marking the first human voyage to the vicinity of the moon in over half a century. NASA's Orion capsule, named Integrity, gently parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at 5:07 pm Pacific Time (0007 GMT on Saturday), concluding a mission that took astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than any human has traveled before.
According to Emirates News Agency, the Artemis II flight traveled a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby, coming within 4,000 miles of the lunar surface. This mission was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028.
The crew's return was considered the riskiest part of the mission, testing the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft's heat shield to ensure it could withstand the extreme forces of re-entry from a lunar-return trajectory. This successful mission paves the way for future Artemis missions, as NASA plans to continue its exploration of the moon in the coming years.