SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — After the Artemis II crew makes history traveling around the far side of the moon, the crew will be heading back to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego Friday night.
The historic 10-day moon mission will come to an end right here in Southern California.
Artemis II astronauts to splash down off San Diego coast following 10-day moon mission
The exact timing and precise location of the crew’s splashdown in the Orion spacecraft could change in the days leading up to reentry as the Artemis II crew hits mission milestones.
At this time, NASA said it expects the crew to splash down off the San Diego coast at 8:07 p.m. (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10.
After years of training for this moment, NASA’s Artemis Landing and Recovery team and U.S. Department of War personnel, including an elite team of U.S. Navy divers, will be waiting in the ocean to retrieve the Artemis II crew.
Artemis II launch: What to know about NASA’s historic moon mission
The four astronauts will be taken by helicopter to Naval Base San Diego’s USS John P. Murtha, according to NASA, where they will be evaluated post-mission by the ship’s medical personnel before being sent back to shore and flown out to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Artemis II crew took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, and will be conducting a lunar flyby on Monday, April 6. During the flyby, the crew will pass the far side of the moon as they travel farther into space than humans have ever gone before, according to NASA…