Artemis II splashes down in Pacific, crew returns to Earth
Artemis II's Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific off southern California, returning the crew to Earth. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were recovered safe. The spacecraft completed a lunar flyby and reentered the atmosphere at about 32 times the speed of sound. The successful splashdown validates Artemis hardware and keeps NASA on track for future crewed lunar missions.
The Earth is getting bigger in the window. The crew of Artemis II is now about 8,200 nautical miles from splashdown, which should happen in about one hour. You can watch live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXv_...
Test Pilot Guy10Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville right now. Big crowd with lots of NASA folks cheering.
🅹🆄🅻🅸🅴9I don't want this to end. Their journey is absolutely amazing and the perfect distraction from the shitshow on Earth.
Churlayla 86.477Having only been 14 months old in July, 1969 I gotta say..... This NASA moon-shot stuff is really fukkin cool.
Mitch King6Being not old enough for the Apollo missions but old enough to have watched the losses of Challenger and Columbia, the successful mission and safe reentry for these astronauts makes me tear up a bit.
Meidas Paul Wigton 🫘 🇺🇳🇺🇦5Watch the whole thing, and I’m still watching! It takes me back to when I was 12 years old, and watched Apollo 11 splashdown!
julieengbrecht.bsky.social4I was in elementary school when the Apollo missions took place. I remember how much national pride existed. Sadly, the division in our country, caused by MAGA, has tempered this monumental scientific achievement. Safe Spashdown Artemis II!!!!
Just Tom4Didn't we do this 58 years ago?
smbhnl.bsky.social4Call me old, but I liked it when all the NASA staff wore short sleeve white shirts and skinny ties.
Gumpshn3Thanks for letting us know..
Haemaker2If you are in San Diego you might be able to see it by stepping outside!
Holly Sharp2Netflix is also doing a live stream thing
Right now the #Artemis II capsule is engulfed in hot plasma as it plunges through the atmosphere and will be out of communication for another 3 minutes. Holding my breath.
Katie Mack284No one can talk to the astronauts but several aircraft have a visual on the capsule coming in, because it’s glowing
Poocharé21Changing my online status to "Currently: Engulfed in hot plasma"
Keesling Sky12I can't believe they are tracking it visually. Amazing!
Rachael8My cats are yelling at me that it's dinner time but I'm like NOPE NOT YET KITTIES.
Southpaw8I've watched the Apollo 13 movie like 500 times lol I have been training all my life for the reentry comms blackout
Pyperkub5The blackout period is painstaking I wish they were showing the visuals they have from the ground/airborne assets
Jennifer Graham5I had no idea I was holding mine until I heard his voice come over the comms. Whew. Huge exhale.
Lars Eric Holm4Those *are* very good looking parachutes!
Lars Eric Holm3I actually did not realize that was the ocean until it splashed!
Zee (missing life's little cues)2I was literally bouncing in my seat I was so tense
Shanna Bright2My heart is in my throat! I'm so nervous!
If you aren't watching the return of Artemis II, I completely understand. I'm watching, but I'm nervous about the heatshield. On Artemis I, it had problems, so they made changes to the flight path, but it's the same heat shield. I won't feel secure until they are on the ground.
Mary Robinette Kowal202So far, everything is going smoothly and the live stream lets you hear the conversation between the crew and ground. I'm always struck by how calm everyone sounds. They've done simulations of everything that happens today so many times that it really is routine. But...
Naomi Kritzer26That is why I'm not watching 😬
Charlotte Moore-Lambert23I don’t want to be nervous, but I am. I am nervous.
John Wiswell20As always, I love your excitement about space travel.
Decker Reported18It's like flying: the most dangerous times are takeoff and landing. Challenger/Columbia. We're all nervous.
Doug Hanke15I white-knuckled it through the launch, but I definitely do not regret watching this view
Ashlee15Ohhhh that explains my nervousness. I remember Columbia from when I was in high school. Ohhhh.
Joni10It's nerve-wracking. A lot of us over a certain age get quite nervous, it seems.
J.R. Dawson8Oh I’m really glad I didn’t see this post until after they touched down. If I knew MRK was nervous I would have been VERY CONCERNED.
DrRamblings7I figured I'd catch a clip of it....and also in case there are problems, I'd want to know everything went okay bc I just can't with 2026 right now.
Pamela Dean6Thank you for this thread. I was out and about earlier, but got to read this slightly behind real time and burst into relieved tears.
Daniel Zenon Klein6The funny thing is the changes they made were like “oh we need to put more heat into it more quickly”. Not what you’d expect but it turns out skip re-entry caused gas buildup under some tiles so the answer was just steeper angle and raw dog re-entry in one go
Jes Malitoris5I am in an airport endlessly refreshing the news updates, I am nervous with you
SiobhantheCoach3Glued to it - they keep reassuring us but I’m clenched .
CJ3Thank you for this thread. I am usually okay enough to watch these kind of things but I couldn’t this time. This was a great catch-up.
Dave Hogg3Yes, I'm not enjoying this.
Artemis II's live view of its return to Earth is hands down the coolest thing I've ever watched.
Adam Schwarz85Having grown up obsessively watching Star Wars (gah, don't act surprised), seeing the live feed of Earth slowly appearing larger as Artemis II approaches is just totally mind blowing. What an incredible privilege to be alive right now to witness real life catch up with sci-fi.
Jeroen 🇪🇺🇺🇦3The speed at which the earth is getting bigger in the picture is just mind blowing. Still thousands of km’s to go and less than 51 mins.
Orion’s crew and service module have separated. The crew module continues on its path towards Earth while the service module will harmlessly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Source: NASA Artemis
Astronomy 🔭24“The Artemis II return trajectory is designed to ensure any remaining debris does not pose a hazard to land, people, or shipping lanes.”
Marc Graham, Candidate for Arizona House AZ-282In my teenage sci-fi dreams, someone converts that into a tavern at the edge of space. No spoilers please.
Artemis ll comes home. Watch at NASA on YouTube. www.youtube.com/live/nfhDuOH...
KellzEvan💙🫶🏻6Thanks for providing this! I'm sitting here on hold with my cable company for 45 minutes now. Can you imagine your cable going out when man first landed on the moon? Terrible timing!!!
Bluebird (BB) 🐦 🌼💫🎶🫶 🐦4I'm watching. Just a few more minutes. 🚀
1seetruth.bsky.social3I'm experiencing PTSD from the Challenger incident, but this is amazing.
🍁Jaded🍁3I'm glad they're home safe.🙂
Bill2A much needed breath of fresh air, amongst all the nonsense of the past week….
Catweazle2No comms, alien protocol SETI B3...👽
Rebba.bsky.social2I watched it live! Absolutely amazing! 7:07 pm. CT I hope President Biden calls them soon to congratulate them. 🫂👏🚀🇺🇸
