Splashdown for the astronauts on the Artemis II mission marks the completion of humanity’s first voyage to the Moon in more than half a century.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen will hit the atmosphere travelling at Mach 32 — or 32 times the speed of sound — in the self-flying Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, before landing in the Pacific.
Since launching from Florida on April 1st, the astronauts have documented scenes of the lunar far side never seen before by the naked eye, and savoured a total solar eclipse, capturing a series of breathtaking pictures in the process.
Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on a visit to Cape Kennedy on March 30 (Bill Ingalls/Nasa/AP)A huge roar marks blast-off at Kennedy Space Centre (John Raoux/AP)The launch is watched by guests at the Banana Creek viewing site in Florida (Keegan Barber/Nasa/AP)Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen enjoys a shave inside the Orion spacecraft on day five (Nasa/AP)The Artemis II crew captured this image of the Milky Way on April 7 (Nasa/AP)The crew members pose with eclipse viewers during the lunar flyby (Nasa/AP)An image of the Moon eclipsing the Sun (Nasa/AP)A group photo inside the Orion spacecraft as the crew make their way home (Nasa/AP)A view of the moon taken by the Artemis II crew before going to sleep on day five (Nasa/AP)Christina Koch gazes back at Earth from of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows (Nasa/AP)The Moon is seen from a camera outside the Orion spacecraft after the astronauts surpassed the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth (Nasa/AP)A view of Earth taken by Commander Reid Wiseman (Nasa/AP)
