STORY: NASA officials said Artemis II mission was a “fantastic feat” and there was “a lot more to do” after the capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth's atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday (April 10) after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the moon in over half a century.

NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time (0007 GMT on Saturday), concluding a mission that four days prior took the astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before.

“The biggest objective of this mission, was to prove to ourselves that we could move to crewed flight, but maintain the same level of risk knowledge and understanding,” said NASA Associate Administrator, Amit Kshatriya, during the news conference. NASA officials also said that teamwork had contributed to mission success.

The Artemis II flight, travelling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 4,000 miles from its surface, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2028.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (APRIL 10, 2026) (NASA – For editorial use only)

1. NASA COMMUNICATIONS SPOKESPERSON, RACHEL KRAFT, SPEAKING AT START OF NEWS CONFERENCE

2. NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTEMIS II ENTRY FLIGHT DIRECTOR, RICK HENFLING, SAYING:

“What a truly spectacular day it was for NASA and all of our international partners. This crew has said time and again that they were going for all of humanity, and today we've fulfilled that objective by completing their journey and returning them safely to Earth. I've got a few stats for those who are interested, courtesy of the Flight Dynamics Officer in Mission Control. Integrity and her crew, four astronauts, flew 700,237 miles. We reached a peak velocity of 24,664 miles per hour. We hit our flight path angle target within 0.4%. We flew an entry range of 1,957 miles, and we landed within less than a mile of our target. What a tremendous day.”

4. DEPUTY ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA’S EXPLORATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LORI GLAZE SPEAKING

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA’S EXPLORATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT, LORI GLAZE, SAYING (SOUNDBITE STARTS ON SHOT 4):

“So y'all, we did it. We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years. To the generation that now knows what we're capable of, welcome to our moonshot.”

6. NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORION PROGRAM MANAGER, HOWARD HU, SAYING:

“I think this mission has been historic and has demonstrated new capabilities for Orion spacecraft, has taken our crew farther than any crews that have ever gone to the moon and back safely. 252,756 miles. And that is a fantastic feat. We got a lot more to do.”

8. NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXPLORATION GROUND SYSTEMS PROGRAM MANAGER, SHAWN QUINN, SAYING:

“I got to tell you, I think I'm trying to pick out the best thing that happened today. And I'll just say that we were sitting in the back room getting ready for this press conference. And Howard gets a call from Reid Wiseman, the commander of Integrity. And it was so great to hear his voice and tell us that all the crew is OK. And we can say that we did our mission. We accomplished what we set out to do.”

10. NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING

11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, AMIT KSHATRIYA, SAYING:

“What stands in the way becomes the way. This program faced every obstacle an institution could face. The team met each one with work, and tonight is the proof that that work needs to continue.”

12. KRAFT LISTENING TO QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST

13. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION

14. ARTEMIS II ENTRY FLIGHT DIRECTOR, RICK HENFLING, SPEAKING

15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTEMIS II ENTRY FLIGHT DIRECTOR, RICK HENFLING, SAYING (SOUNDBITE STARTS ON SHOT 14):

“A number of times after they got out of the spacecraft, we saw him on the front porch. Everybody was happy and healthy. I saw Victor as he was sitting on the edge of the helicopter on the flight deck of the ship. And he was smiling and in good spirits. And everything we've been hearing from the surgeons is the flight crew is happy and healthy and ready to come home to Houston.”

16. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTEMIS II ENTRY FLIGHT DIRECTOR, RICK HENFLING, SAYING:

“You know, blackout, there's really no beating around the bush with that. You know, it's a difficult time because the flight control team wants to see data. We want to look at the data. We want to be able to provide input to the flight crew on how to fly their spaceship. And when we don't have data, we're trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. But we knew when blackout was going to start. It started when we expected. We knew when it was going to end. It ended when we expected. And so that gave us the trust that the spaceship was flying itself correctly.”

18. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION

19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, AMIT KSHATRIYA, SAYING:

“And so to me, that was almost the biggest objective of this mission, was to prove to ourselves that we could move to crewed flight, but maintain the same level of risk knowledge and understanding, but also really, really focus on what that looks like. To your point, it is when you fly the crew, when you fly any crew, you can be paralyzed. You can almost be paralyzed by risk because you become so close to them. You understand what's at stake when you're with the families, you understand what's at stake. But the crew knows this and we have to do it too. But organizationally, understand that what we do is we take calculated risks and that it's going to take a risk to explore. But you have to make sure you find the right line between being paralyzed by it and being able to manage it and bound it the right way.”

20. NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING

21. NASA COMMUNICATIONS SPOKESPERSON RACHEL KRAFT CONCLUDING NEWS CONFERENCE