ARTEMIS II SPLASHDOWN: What you need to know about crew’s dramatic return to Earth
· Toronto Sun
The crew of the Artemis II will be making its much-anticipated return to Earth on Friday.
The four astronauts — Canada’s Jeremy Hansen along with NASA’s Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman — are set to conclude their historic 10-day journey around the moon after travelling farther than humans have ever gone before, surpassing the record distance by Apollo 13.
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The Orion capsule is set to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere Friday evening.
Here’s what you need to know:
The splashdown
The Orion capsule, about the size of a minivan, is set to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere Friday evening, beginning at 7:53 p.m. ET.
The astronauts will hit the top of Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 400,000 feet (121,920 m), travelling about 30 times the speed of sound before hurtling towards Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, where they are expected to splashdown at 8:07 p.m. ET.
The entire sequence of events will take only 14 minutes.
“Riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound, as well,” Glover said in a press briefing on Wednesday. “I’m gonna be thinking about and talking about all of these things for the rest of my life.”
NASA will begin streaming the crew’s return at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Prior to splashdown
The crew has already established its cabin configuration for re-entry, which began at 1:50 p.m. ET, while a correction burn will take place about an hour later (2:53 p.m. ET) to calibrate the capsule’s trajectory back to Earth.
For the last 10 days, the European Space Agency’s European Service Module has been providing power to Orion. That needs to separate prior to re-entry, which happens only about 20 minutes before re-entry begins.
But before that, the crew will need to tweak Orion’s trajectory, with the capsule conducting a few roll manoeuvres that will take it farther from the service module.
The spacecraft will end up being about 16,000 km from its landing site.
“That’s when the fun really begins,” Artemis II flight director Rick Henfling said in a press conference on Wednesday.
When the spacecraft hits the Earth’s atmosphere in a “fireball,” the re-entry boom could be so loud it may shake windows in San Diego, according to the US Geological Survey.
“A sonic boom is expected as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere and could potentially be felt and heard throughout Southern California between 5 p.m. and 5:15 pm. (PT) local time,” the USGS posted on X.
🌑Artemis II is nearing its return to Earth🌎
— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) April 9, 2026
A sonic boom is expected as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere and could potentially be felt and heard throughout Southern California between 5:00 and 5:15 pm local time tomorrow, April 10.
If you hear or feel sonic booms (or… pic.twitter.com/2efbhBsCYW
Also, communication between the astronauts and NASA ground control will be lost for about six minutes.
“Once that six-minute blackout is done, Orion is going to be about 150,000 feet (45,720 m) — so, still falling pretty quickly,” Henfling detailed.
“We’ve got two drogue parachutes that will deploy,” he added. “It’ll be at about 22,000 feet (6,705 m). That’ll slow us down to about 200 miles an hour (322 km/h).”
At about 1,800 metres, the three main parachutes will deploy and slow the spacecraft down to just 32 km/h, before it splashes down in the Pacific.
Post-splashdown
The USS John P. Murtha Navy recovery vessel will be standing by to assist with removing the astronauts from the capsule and will provide them with immediate medical evaluations.
“After ensuring the area is safe, they’re going to go ahead and open the Orion hatch and help the astronauts from their seats to a large inflatable raft that we call the front porch,” Liliana Villarreal, Artemis II landing and recovery director, said in Wednesday’s press conference.
“Once all four astronauts are on the front porch, we will tow the capsule away from the front porch, and the team will wait,” she continued. “Two helicopters are going to rotate, picking up all four crew members before they return to the recovery ship within a few minutes of each other.”
The plan is for Koch to exit first, followed by Glover, Hansen, then finally, Wiseman.
Once the medical evaluations are completed, the astronauts will return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where a news conference is scheduled at 10:30 p.m. ET.