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Artemis II splashdown live updates: Astronauts ready for final descent to Earth and face dangerous reentry move 39%
By Andrew Griffin0% Julia Musto0% Vishwam Sankaran0% Anthony Cuthbertson0% Io Dodds0%
4/10/2026, 11:48:02 PM
Topics: Artemis Ii, Nasa
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Halo Effect, and Availability Heuristic, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 14.8% saturation with 154 hits. Analysis detected 1,236 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,042 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 44.3% and a BS Rank of 39% (10,326 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 61.40% of the article peer group.
Artemis II splashdown live updates: Astronauts ready for final descent to Earth and face dangerous reentry move
NASA crew described the awe they felt when witnessing a rare eclipse near the Moon’s far side
The Artemis II mission astronauts are minutes away from splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after returning from the Moon.
It will be a fiery descent lasting about 15 minutes, finishing around 8.07pm ET today.
NASA expressed “high confidence” in the Artemis II crew spacecraft’s heat shield ahead of Friday’s historic return.
The shield is a critical part of the Orion capsule, protecting the crew from exposure to lethal temperatures - reaching up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit - during their high-speed descent, which is expected to last less than 15 seconds.
“It’s 13 minutes of things that have to go right,” Jeff Radigan, NASA’s Artemis II flight director, said yesterday.
There were problems with the heat shield on the first Artemis flight, which had no human passengers.
Gases that were generated inside the shield’s outer material were not able to vent as expected, causing cracks.
Since then, the shield has undergone extensive testing and Amit Kshatriya, the space agency’s associate administrator, says his confidence in the tech is backed up by engineering and flight data.
The astronauts — NASA’s Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — were said to be in “high spirits” as they started their journey to Earth following a record-breaking slingshot around the Moon.
The critical moment of reentry
At 7:53pm ET, the Orion Integrity craft will be 400,000 feet above Earth’s surface while traveling nearly 35 times the speed of sound.
The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs in the planned entry profile.
This moment marks the spacecraft’s first contact with the upper atmosphere and the start of the planned six-minute communications blackout as plasma builds around the capsule.
Six-minute blackout coming up
In about 10 minutes there will be a six-minute blackout, at which point Nasa’s ground teams will lose contact with the astronauts.
This is due to the build up of super-hot plasma around the Integrity spacecraft.
“During that period of time we will reach our peak speed,” says Nasa.
This is potentially the most dangerous part of reentry, with peak speeds coinciding with peak temperatures.
The blackout period will end at 6:59pm ET.
Parachutes will then be deployed before an anticipated splashdown of 7:07pm.
Moment of separation
We had a brief glimpse of the moment of separation, as the Integrity module successfully moved away from the support craft.
Nasa completes separation ahead of fiery descent to Earth
The separation is complete!
“Job well done,” NASA says.
Just 32 minutes left to go.
San Diego watch parties glued to their screens
Across the U.S., and possibly the world, people will be holding watch parties for the Artemis II splashdown — and nowhere more so than San Diego.
"We’re seeing well over a thousand people already," Jim Kidrick, CEO of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, told Fox 5 San Diego.
"We’re sharing in [the astronauts'] anxieties, happiness, the successful mission that it appears to be.
"The city's Fleet Science Center and swanky beachside Hotel del Coronado will also hold watch parties.Meanwhile, up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the USS Hornet — an Essex-class aircraft carrier which recovered the Apollo 11 and 12 crews in 1969, and which now serves as a museum ship featuring a real Apollo command module — will be screening the splashdown to guests.
"This historic event is the latest step towards returning mankind to the Moon!"
the museum said.
Recovery crews on their way to splashdown site
The navy helicopters are on their way to the splashdown site in the Pacific Ocean, ready to recover the Artemis II astronauts in around three quarters of an hour.
“We’re dead spot on down the middle of the corridor, trajectory wise, to bring Integrity down for its splashdown in the Pacific,” Nasa says.
Artemis II astronauts could very well hurl after splashdown
After splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, the Artemis II astronauts will be extracted by Navy recovery teams using a life raft.
The crew will be put in harnesses and hoisted into two helicopters overhead.
Then, the astronauts will be flown to the USS John P.
Murtha amphibious transport dock ship for between 10-15 minutes.
The crew will be taken into a medical bay for comprehensive examinations before they are flown to the San Diego Naval Air Station - and eventually to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
In an interview with NASA, Dr.
Rich Scheuring, NASA flight surgeon, said that the astronauts had gone over medical protocol earlier Friday, including that they may need nausea medication and fluids to replace the fluid and electrolytes they've lost in space.
"One of the most common responses they get is just some stomach awareness to some nausea - even to some vomiting," he said.
"We don't expect any injuries," Scheuring added, noting that reducing speed can feel "kind of like a car crash."
Key milestones of Artemis II return
We’re less than an hour away from splashdown for the Artemis II crew, and there are several key mission milestones coming up.
Here, from Nasa, is the rundown of the timings for the re-entry.
(They’re in eastern time, so add five hours if you’re watching from the UK.)
The splashdown sequence
With just over an hour to go until the Orion spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, the crew members of the Artemis II mission are making the final preparations for their safe return.
Here’s how the whole sequence should play out:
What do the Artemis II astronauts do when they're not in space?
Christina Koch is a rock climber, surfer, runner and yogi.
She's been seen climbing ice walls in Montana.
Reid Wiseman enjoys a round of golf and go-carting racing, according to Baltimore.
Jeremy Hansen rides sail boats and mountain bikes.
He also enjoys rock climbing.
Victor Glover works out and is a former Division 1 athlete.
He's been seen using a rowing machine during the Artemis II mission.
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