Artemis II: Astronauts Returned to Earth – Photos show how the historic spaceflight progressed

Hearing flight Artemis II’s Orion capsule plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday morning as planned at 3:07 a.m. Finnish time.

“What a journey,” the flight commander Reid Wiseman said the first thing to the air traffic control and then told that the whole crew was in good shape. Director General of NASA Jared Isaacman praised the crew for their professionalism and excellent communication during the flight.

“I can’t think of a better crew than this one that did a perfect job,” he stated.

In addition to Wiseman, there were astronauts on the flight Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen.

of the United States president Donald Trump congratulated the crew on a “wonderful” trip and a “perfect” landing.

“I look forward to seeing you all at the White House soon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The ten-day flight orbited the Moon and was the first manned lunar mission in more than 50 years. The astronauts did not land on the surface of the Moon, but the crew flew farther than humans have ever gone before.

Nasa has planned a lunar flight for the year 2028, in which a person would land on the surface of the Moon again. At that time, it is also planned to establish a NASA base on the Moon.

HS compiled the highlights of the historic trip.

April 2: Depart Florida

Hearing flight rose from the morning of April 2 Finnish time into space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was carried into orbit around the Earth by a nearly hundred-meter launch vehicle.

In the nose of the moon rocket was the spacecraft Orion, with four astronauts on board.

April 3: Leaving Earth’s orbit

Orion spacecraft left Earth’s orbit on April 3 Finnish time, when the maintenance module’s main engine launched it towards the Moon.

During the first day, the crew tested cameras, steered the Orion ship and suffered from minor toilet and email problems, which were nevertheless fixed.

April 4: First pictures published

of the United States the space agency Nasa announced on April 4 that the lunar probe has crossed the halfway mark on its journey from Earth to the Moon. The halfway point was reached approximately two days, five hours and 24 minutes after launch.

At the same time, Nasa published the first pictures of Earth taken from the Orion spacecraft. In the pictures, the Earth appears as a whole sphere, on the surface of which the oceans and cloud formations stand out.

April 5: New pictures released

Nasa told early Sunday morning Finnish time that two-thirds of the journey to the Moon has been completed.

Astronaut Reid Wiseman’s social media accounts published a photo early on Sunday, which gained great popularity on the X service and Instagram.

The picture shows the side profile of the flight commander Wiseman and the window of the Orion ship from which the Earth can be seen.

April 7: Rounding the far side of the moon

I hear astronauts successfully orbited the far side of the Moon.

On the far side of the moon, the flight reached the farthest point of its journey, approximately 406,800 kilometers from Earth. The previous record from 1970 is about 400,171 kilometers.

The astronauts received congratulations from the President of the United States From Donald Trumpwho spoke to the crew live on the phone.

After circling the reverse side of the moon, the journey home began.

April 11: Flight returns to Earth

Orion ship arrived in the Earth’s atmosphere and plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday morning Finnish time. The astronauts were picked up at a US Navy landing craft near California.