Artemis II astronauts have made history after successfully completing a mission around the moon, marking a major milestone in human space exploration.
NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four-person crew completed a 695,081-mile, 10-day journey around the moon, also known as a lunar fly-by.
A “textbook” splashdown took place at 8:07 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10.
At a press conference following the safe splashdown of the Artemis II crew in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening, NASA officials described the mission as historic while noting that more challenges lie ahead.
“So, ya’ll, we did it,” said Lori Haze, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
Howard Hu, NASA Orion program manager, said: “This is the start of a new era of human space exploration.”
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NASA is planning its next major step, with a crewed lunar landing targeted for 2028 under the Artemis IV mission.
Amit Kshatriya, associate NASA administrator, said the successful mission signals progress but emphasised that more work remains.
“the path to the lunar surface is open,” he said.
“Fifty-three years ago, humanity left the moon. This time we returned to stay,” Kshatriya said. “Let us finish what they started … Let us not go to plant flags and leave – but to stay.”