Desk Correspondent , Washington DC - NASA’s Artemis II mission is entering its final hours, with the crew’s Orion capsule on track for splashdown off the coast of San Diego on Friday, April 10, 2026, at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT. The four person crew has completed a 10 day flight that took them farther from Earth than any humans in history, circling the Moon and testing key systems ahead of future lunar landings.

The Artemis II astronauts performed a dramatic lunar flyby on April 6, soaring to about 252,756 miles from Earth and setting a new distance record for human spaceflight, surpassing Apollo 13’s 1970 mark. Mission controllers in Houston reported the flight as near flawless, with the Orion capsule and life support systems performing within design limits, validating the free return trajectory that uses Earth’s and the Moon’s gravity to guide the spacecraft safely home.

As Orion returns to Earth, the service module will separate and the crew cabin will re enter the atmosphere at around 25,000 mph, facing temperatures up to roughly 3,000°F. Once slowed by parachutes, the capsule is expected to splash down about 60 miles off San Diego, where recovery helicopters and the USS John P. Murtha will retrieve the astronauts and conduct initial medical checks before flying them back to Johnson Space Center in Houston.