Historic Artemis II Mission Ends With A Safe Splashdown
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Alignment
NASA's Artemis II Orion spacecraft, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Southern California at 5:07 pm on April 10, 2026. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen completed the 690,000-mile (1.1 million km) journey around the Moon in just over nine days. Their return marks the first time humans have made this trip since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
A perfect splashdown
Orion re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at speeds close to 25,000 miles (40,000 km) per hour. This is about 32 times the speed of sound. During re-entry, the astronauts briefly lost contact with NASA mission control. This is normal, as hot gases surrounding the spacecraft can block radio signals for a short time.
It took Orion just over 13 minutes to descend through the atmosphere. Then, a series of parachutes opened up. This helped slow down the spacecraft for a gentle splashdown in the ocean. Soon after, Navy divers helped the astronauts out of the capsule and onto a raft. From there, they were flown by helicopter to the recovery ship and then taken to shore. After medical checks, the astronauts were reunited with their families on April 11, 2026.
What's next?
NASA is now getting ready for the Artemis III mission. It will test how well Orion docks with other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. This is an important step toward landing astronauts on the Moon. More details about the mission and its crew will be shared closer to the 2027 launch.
Resources: NPR.com, NASA.gov, CNN.com
Get the Workbook for this article!
Workbook contains: Article, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking Questions, Vocabulary in Context (+ answers), Multiple Choice Quiz (+ answers), Parts of Speech Quiz (+ answers), Vocabulary Game (+ answers)Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
54 Comments
- hydozylelalu16 daysSo glad they landed safely and that they will be reunited with their family. But wow! After 50 years!
cats4everrr16 daysAFTER 50 YEARS!- maconesukoly16 daysCool
wycijenyvika17 daysNice to know they landed safely
biwoverufeti17 daysI know this is not about this article but how do you change your name?- biwoverufeti17 daysTHAT made history😱
fahhhhhhhhhhh17 daysWOW that crazy!- pefobyvysody17 daysI watched the Artemis rocket takeoff and splashdown, it’s so cool
winter_soldier17 daysI watched it live at home. It was awesome and we celebrated once the capsol splashed down. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
freerangekid17 daysI got to see it live!! I think it was so cool to actually watch it with real people on it because November 16th of 2022 it launched to space but it was uncrewed and then it came back December 11th of 2022! I'm so glad that the crew got to Earth safely! Also when the crew came back they had to check them for symptoms of being in space wich is normally headache,nausea ect.
