The Artemis II crew completed their mission Friday and returned to Earth following a historic journey in space.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Artemis II mission launched at 6:35 p.m. on April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a brief hold for final technical checks, including a minor sensor concern that engineers confirmed would not affect the launch. NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen carried out final procedures aboard their spacecraft before beginning reentry.
The spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere at 7:53 p.m. ET after descending from an altitude of about 400,000 feet and traveling at roughly 30 times the speed of sound. During the descent, ground teams experienced a brief six-minute communications blackout, as expected. The mission concluded with a successful splashdown off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. ET.
Artemis II plays a key role in testing NASA’s systems as part of broader efforts to advance future lunar exploration and strengthen U.S. leadership in the space race with China, Reuters reported. The program, which supports plans for regular Moon missions and has cost about $93 billion since 2012, aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028 for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
A defense funding bill failed to meet the 60-vote threshold in the Senate Tuesday as…
Documents released Tuesday reveal in new detail the scope and intrusiveness of the Biden Department…
The House of Representatives voted 308-117 Tuesday to pass a bill that seeks to make…
Star Wars is not just a movie anymore, as laser weapons begin to trickle into…