April 12, 2026
Artemis II splashed down on April 11 in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of San Diego after nine days, one hour, thirty-two minutes. The first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The crew
- Reid Wiseman (NASA, Commander)
- Victor Glover (NASA, Pilot)
- Christina Koch (NASA, Mission Specialist 1)
- Jeremy Hansen (CSA, Mission Specialist 2)
They named the Orion capsule Integrity. Hansen was the only first-time flyer; the other three had ISS experience.
The trajectory
Unlike Artemis I, which spent 25 days in a Distant Retrograde Orbit, Artemis II flew a free-return trajectory: a path that uses the Moon’s gravity to loop the spacecraft back toward Earth without requiring a dedicated return burn. This profile is inherently safer for a crewed mission because if the engine fails at the wrong moment, the trajectory still brings the crew home.
After launch from LC-39B on April 1, the crew spent time in high Earth orbit testing systems, including manual proximity operations with the upper stage (ICPS). Translunar injection followed on flight day 1. The closest lunar approach was on April 6 at about 6,545 km, not an orbital insertion, just a flyby. Maximum distance from Earth: 406,771 km, reached on April 6, breaking the record set by Apollo 13.
Total distance traveled: approximately 2.2 million km.
What it validated
The main purpose was to put crew in Orion and verify everything that Artemis I tested with mannequins: life support, crew displays and controls, communication, and reentry survivability. The modified reentry profile needs to be confirmed with the actual heat shield data from this splashdown before Artemis III can proceed.
See: NASA Artemis