When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: NASAArtemis 2 has come home.The four Artemis 2 astronauts splashed down off the coast of San Diego this evening (April 10), wrapping up an epic mission that broke spaceflight records, caught the attention of the world and set the stage for even more ambitious moonshots to come.”From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern-day mission to the moon, a new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. Integrity’s astronauts are back on Earth,” NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said just after splashdown, referring to the name of Artemis 2’s Orion capsule.NASA/Bill IngallsNASA’s Artemis 2 Orion capsule Integrity returns from the moon with its four astronauts in a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, 2026.NASA/Joel KowskyRecovery boats head out to the Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft after splashdown.NASA/Joel KowskyAdvertisementAdvertisementNASA’s Artemis 2 Orion capsule Integrity returns from the moon with its four astronauts in a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, 2026.NASA/Joel KowskyNASA’s Artemis 2 Orion capsule Integrity returns from the moon with its four astronauts in a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, 2026.NASA/Joel KowskyA mission of firstsArtemis 2 launched on April 1, sending four explorers — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — toward the moon inside Integrity.It was the second-ever liftoff for NASA’s huge Space Launch System rocket and the first crewed flight for both SLS and Orion.Artemis 2 was a mission of firsts in many other ways as well. For starters, it launched humanity back to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Glover was the first person of color ever to leave Earth orbit, and Koch and Hansen were the first woman and first non-American, respectively, to do so. (The Apollo astronauts had been the only people to achieve this feat, and they were all white American men.)”We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s Artemis program manager, said after the splashdown. “To the generation that now knows what we’re capable of, ‘Welcome to our moonshot.'”AdvertisementAdvertisementNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who watched the Artemis 2 astronauts return to Earth from the deck of their recovery ship, the USS John P. Murtha, seemed in awe of the entire …
