Artemis crew safely splashes down off California coast

All signals are green after the Artemis II mission crew successfully re-entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California. NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are waiting for their ride home after their 10-day round trip to the moon.

"What a journey," said Wiseman, Artemis II commander, after the water landing. "We are stable one, four green crew members."

A satellite connection to the lander failed after splashdown, slowing recovery, but NASA described it as a textbook landing and reported all four astronauts in "excellent shape."

The crew traveled further than any humans from Earth, flying around the Moon and returning to Earth: a critical step before a planned landing there in 2027. In 2026, Artemis III will test orbital systems and the landing module ahead of Artemis IV, which will repersent the first time humans set foot on the moon since the Apollo 12 mission on December 11, 1972.

China's Chang'e moon program is also in full swing, with unmanned landings scheduled this and next year and a manned mission by 2030. Both countries plan to follow up the trips by building bases there.

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