NASA Artemis II Crew Returns to Earth After Lunar Flyby

Four astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on April 10, 2026, after completing the Artemis II test flight around the Moon, Fintechbiznews reported. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 5:07 p.m. PDT. [1]

The Artemis II mission was the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program and the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. It also marked the inaugural crewed test flight for both the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which the crew named Integrity. [2]

Fintechbiznews noted that the four crewmembers were the first humans to travel to the Moon in more than half a century during the record-setting test flight. The spacecraft safely touched down in the Pacific Ocean, where liquid surface water covers the majority of the planet's crust. [1][3]