Full Artemis II landing: Orion spacecraft capsule splashdown ends NASA moon mission
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Full Artemis II landing: Orion spacecraft capsule splashdown ends NASA moon mission

April 11, 2026
USA TODAY
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The Orion spacecraft has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, ending Artemis II’s historic 10-day mission to the moon and back. Splashdown followed a harrowing and dangerous reentry, where NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, traveled at speeds up to 25,000 mph ‒ possibly faster than humans have ever traveled.

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Artemis II marked a historic moment as the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program to travel beyond low Earth orbit returned home, traveling farther and likely faster than any human has before. Sign up for our newsletter for the day's top stories, from sports to movies to politics to world events: https://profile.usatoday.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/

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