Artemis II Splashdown Live Updates: NASA Astronauts on Course to Return to Earth 8%
By Kenneth Chang0% Nazaneen Ghaffar0% Ashley Ahn0%
4/10/2026, 8:00:10 PM
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Live Updates: Artemis II Astronauts On Course for Moon Mission Splashdown
The NASA flight is hours away from parachuting into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, concluding a journey that sent humans around the moon for the first time since 1972.
They’re almost home.
The four astronauts aboard Artemis II are hours from the end of their historic mission, the first to fly by the moon in more than 50 years.
If all goes as planned , they will splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on Friday evening.
That follows a 10-day trip started on April 1 with liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After spending a day orbiting around Earth to make sure that their spacecraft was operating as expected, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen became the first human beings since 1972 to head toward the moon.
The mission is filled with superlatives.
Mr.
Glover is the first Black man to travel around the moon, and Ms.
Koch is the first woman.
Mr.
Hansen is the first Canadian astronaut to make the journey.
Commanded by Mr.
Wiseman, the NASA mission surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
As the astronauts swung around the moon’s far side, they passed through a point 252,756 miles from Earth, roughly 4,100 miles farther than the Apollo 13 crew had traveled.
In the process, the Artemis II astronauts studied parts of the far side that human eyes had never seen (Those parts of the surface were in shadow during the Apollo missions.)
They also witnessed a 53-minute solar eclipse, which wowed both them and people on Earth.
Artemis II has had its setbacks, including communications glitches and problems with a toilet, which showed a need for I.T. support and plumbing skills in space.
But most importantly, the mission demonstrated that critical systems on the Orion spacecraft like life support and propulsion can handle transporting human beings to the moon.
Getting the astronauts home safely is the mission’s final act.
Here’s what to know:
Splashdown : The capsule, the part of the spacecraft in which the astronauts are sitting, is scheduled to detach from the service module, which contains the main power, communications and propulsion systems, at 7:33 p.m.
Eastern time.
Four minutes later, the capsule is expected to fire its thrusters to put it on the landing trajectory.
At 7:53 p.m., the capsule would then encounter the upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 24,000 miles per hour.
The friction of air will slow the capsule down, and then the parachutes will deploy.
Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, to the west of San Diego, is expected at 8:07 p.m.
Eastern time.
How to watch : NASA will stream the live video of the return starting at 6:30 p.m.
Eastern time.
You can watch it on the agency’s YouTube or X accounts, as well as on its website or its smart TV apps.
You can also watch it here in the video player provided above.
Risky re-entry : Re-entry is always one of the two most dangerous parts of human spaceflight — launch is the other — but the Artemis II mission has an additional layer of uncertainty.
NASA agrees that there are flaws in the heat shield, which protects the spacecraft as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, but says that its analysis indicates that it will still protect the astronauts.
The agency planned the return trajectory to minimize the risks posed by those flaws.
But some former NASA astronauts and engineers with expertise in thermal protection say the mission should never have launched in the first place.
Read more ›
As part of the preparations for returning to Earth, the astronauts have turned off the toilet aboard the Orion spacecraft .
Known as the Universal Waste Management System in NASA parlance, it was the first toilet to be used on a deep space mission, and has had persistent problems needing troubleshooting during the mission.
Artemis II is in the final phase of its mission, heading back to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego scheduled for Friday.
To recover the crew and the Orion spacecraft at the splash down site, which is scheduled for 8:07 p.m.
Eastern time, strict weather criteria set by NASA must be met:
There cannot be precipitation or thunderstorms within 35 miles.
Significant wave height should be less than six feet.
Winds should be under 29 miles per hour.
Since the spacecraft went around the moon on Monday and headed back toward Earth, the West Coast has experienced largely dry conditions, thanks to a high pressure system.
A storm system moving across California is creating a slight chance of rain and a potential cloud near the spacecraft’s splashdown site in the Pacific Ocean, according to the latest forecast from the San Diego office of the National Weather Service.
But with the current splashdown schedule, the Artemis II crew should likely land and be recovered before the weather gets in the way.
Rob Navias, a NASA commentator, said on the agency’s live video stream of the crew’s return that weather was “Go” at the splash zone shortly before 3 p.m.
Eastern.
Conditions at sea are looking relatively calm.
Winds near the recovery area are forecast to stay light, generally between 4 to 8 miles, with wave heights of about three to four feet, well within NASA’s criteria.
For the four astronauts of Artemis II, their last day in space began with a pair of wake-up songs.
The first was “Run to the Water” by the rock group Live.
That was the song that the crew had requested for their beginning of their last day in space.
That was followed by “Free” by the Zac Brown Band, and a recorded message.
“It takes courage, grit and freedom to chase the unknown,” Mr.
Brown told the crew.
“It’s the purest kind of American spirit.”
In the afternoon, a brief, eight-second firing of Orion’s thrusters ensured that the spacecraft would enter the atmosphere at just the right place and at just the right angle.
After venturing farther into space than anyone in history, four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II are set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on Friday.
The Orion spacecraft will bring Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency back home after 10 days and a trip around the far side of the moon.
The splashdown ends the first crewed mission into deep space in more than 50 years.
It is a significant step toward further space exploration and a new lunar landing.
Here’s what you need to know about Artemis II and its splashdown.
The crew is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 8:07 p.m.
Eastern time.
NASA will stream video of the spacecraft’s return to Earth starting at 6:30 p.m.
Friday.
You can watch it on NASA’s YouTube and X accounts, as well as NASA’s website and smart TV apps.
You can also watch it here on The New York Times’s website .
You can track the Orion capsule’s speed and distance from Earth on NASA’s AROW website .
It shows a visualization of the capsule.
The spacecraft is not likely to be visible to those along the coast near San Diego as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere, said Rachel Kraft, a NASA spokeswoman.
That’s because it will enter from the southwest over the Pacific Ocean and during daylight.
The teardrop-shaped crew module, which carries the four astronauts, is scheduled to separate from the service module, which powers and propels the spacecraft, at 7:33 p.m.
This signals that the crew is preparing for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
The separation will expose the crew module’s heat shield, which is designed to protect Orion from blistering temperatures as it races through Earth’s atmosphere.
The spacecraft’s speed will be nearly 24,000 miles per hour as it hits the atmosphere.
It will then use parachutes to slow it to about 335 m.p.h., and then 20 m.p.h. or less.
It will then splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Following splashdown, recovery teams from NASA and the U.S.
Navy will stabilize the Orion capsule and then help the crew board helicopters that will deliver them to the U.S.S.
John P.
Murtha.
The crew will undergo medical evaluations on the ship before traveling back to shore.
Eventually they will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Space Launch System, a massive orange-and-white rocket, launched the crew and their Orion capsule into space from Florida on April 1.
On Monday, the crew went around the far side of the moon and observed parts of the lunar surface that had never been seen by human eyes.
The crew captured images of craters, smooth plains and other lunar features that will be studied for future moon missions.
They named a crater after their spacecraft, which they call Integrity, and another after Mr.
Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Wiseman .
After coming back around the moon, they witnessed a 53-minute solar eclipse.
The mission was also an opportunity for the crew to test new technology and equipment in space.
In the early hours of the mission, the crew tested Orion’s ability to execute docking maneuvers for future flights.
The astronauts also tested new technology featured in their orange spacesuits designed to help them breathe for up to six days if the capsule depressurizes in emergency situations.
They also had to troubleshoot glitches with the first toilet sent into deep space .
The round trip is expected to cover more than 695,000 miles from launch to splashdown.
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