NASA’s Artemis II Orion Spacecraft Splashes Down in Pacific After Nearly 10-Day Crewed Mission

NASA’s Orion capsule completed the nearly 10-day Artemis II crewed mission with a Pacific Ocean splashdown on April 10, 2026, after setting a new distance record for human spaceflight and imaging previously unseen lunar terrain.

An image released by NASA and dated April 10, 2026, shows the Artemis II Orion spacecraft descending under parachutes just seconds before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, marking the end of a nearly 10-day crewed mission. The photograph captures the capsule in its final moments of flight, with its parachute system fully deployed as it closes out the return phase from lunar space.

NASA describes Artemis II as a nearly 10-day crewed mission that concluded with the Pacific splashdown depicted in the April 10 image. Over the course of that flight, the crew logged multiple mission milestones, including a new distance mark for human spaceflight and imaging of lunar terrain not visible from Earth. The agency characterizes these achievements as part of a broader sequence of increasingly demanding missions under the Artemis program.

During Artemis II, the crew surpassed the Apollo 13 record for farthest crewed spaceflight, according to NASA’s account of the mission. While the agency did not specify the exact distance in this release, the statement establishes Artemis II as the new benchmark for maximum range achieved by astronauts from Earth.

NASA also reports that the Artemis II astronauts captured views of the far side of the Moon during the mission. Those observations, taken from a vantage point that cannot be obtained from Earth-based instruments, add to the visual and contextual record of lunar regions that remain permanently hidden from direct terrestrial view. NASA points readers to an Artemis II multimedia collection for additional imagery from the mission, including material associated with the far-side passes and the return sequence.

In its description of the broader program, NASA states that under Artemis it will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery and economic benefits, and to build on a foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars. Within that framework, Artemis II’s record-setting distance and its far-side imaging are positioned as incremental steps toward more complex lunar operations and, ultimately, human missions deeper into the solar system.

Original source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-splashes-down/