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With NASA's historic Artemis II mission concluding its monumental 10-day lunar voyage, the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 5.37 am IST on 11 April Saturday. As the world celebrates the completion of the mission, here's everything you need to know about what it has achieved.
The first set of parachutes deploys on the Artemis II crew capsule in this screengrab from a livestream video as it descends toward splashdown following its re‑entry to Earth after the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon, April 10, 2026.(NASA Handout via REUTERS)Artemis II is home! The Orion spacecraft carrying the four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean early on Saturday, 11 April, completing a historic flyby around the Moon and returning to Earth.
With NASA's historic Artemis II mission concluding its monumental 10-day lunar voyage, the Orion spacecraft carried out a “perfect descent” and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 5.37 am IST on 11 April.
As the world celebrates the completion of this historic mission, here's everything you need to know about what it has achieved.
A historic crew and shattered records
Since lifting off on 1 April aboard the 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Artemis II has scripted history on multiple fronts. It marks the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit in over 53 years, since the Apollo 17 mission of December 1972.
Four astronauts made the historic journey aboard the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the crew, bringing unprecedented diversity to deep space exploration. Veteran naval aviator Reid Wiseman led the mission as commander, joined by US Navy captain Victor Glover, who served as pilot and became the first Black astronaut assigned to a lunar mission.
NASA's Christina Hammock Koch, who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, served as mission specialist, officially becoming the first woman to fly to the Moon. Joining the trio was former fighter pilot Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency, who became the first non-American to ever leave low Earth orbit.
What the mission achieved
Designed as a high-stakes test flight to validate Orion's deep space capabilities, the mission successfully executed its primary objectives. After separating from the SLS rocket's upper stage, the crew spent their first day in high Earth orbit manually piloting the spacecraft and testing vital environmental and life-support systems, including the Airbus-built European Service Module (ESM).
Once these crucial checks were completed, Orion executed a massive trans-lunar injection burn, committing to a free-return trajectory. The spacecraft did not orbit or land on the Moon but instead executed a precise flyby, swinging around the lunar far side at a closest approach of roughly 4,067 miles.
A monumental record was broken during this maneuver. On 6 April, as the crew swung around the far side of the Moon, they hit the absolute peak of their trajectory, reaching a staggering maximum distance of 252,756 miles away from Earth. At this exact moment, they officially broke the Apollo 13 record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled into space.
The journey home and a stepping stone to Mars
After the historic flyby, lunar gravity naturally pulled Orion back towards Earth for the return leg of its 1.1-million-kilometer journey. Following a series of trajectory corrections, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere early on Saturday (11 April, India time), where it deployed parachutes to slow down to a gentle 20 miles per hour before splashing down off the coast of San Diego.
Despite being a lunar flyby, Artemis II was not a repeat of the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, but rather served as a stepping stone for the future of human space exploration. The successful demonstration of systems capable of supporting human spaceflight is an absolute prerequisite for any deep space aspirations, and Artemis II's success paves the way for NASA's Artemis III mission in 2027, which aims to land astronauts near the lunar south pole, and the ultimate leap: crewed missions to the Red Planet, Mars.
About the Author
Shiladitya Ray
Shiladitya Ray specializes in covering geopolitics and science, and believes in communicating complex information through accessible, compelling, and if possible, visually engaging narratives. He has nearly 10 years of experience in digital media, and has been an Associate Editor with Mint for five months.<br><br> Shiladitya holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, and two master's degrees in Development Studies and Sociology from TISS, Hyderabad and Delhi School of Economics respectively.<br><br> Shiladitya has also completed a Data Journalism fellowship with Google News Initiative (GNI), where he was a standout performer. He was subsequently invited as a speaker to GNI's AI Skills Workshop held in 2025, where he shared his previous work and experience in leveraging generative AI tools for data visualization with an audience of senior newsroom editors.<br><br> Prior to joining Mint, Shiladitya was a Chief Sub-Editor with Deccan Herald, and has previously worked for digital media startups NewsBytes and Opoyi. He has also served as an academic editor for Cactus Communications, where he worked with scholars on manuscripts meant for journal publication.<br><br> Shiladitya is based out of Delhi, is an avid reader, and has a keen interest in world affairs, science, philosophy, music, and football.
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