SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The Orion space capsule that brought North American astronauts around the moon and back in a historic mission has left San Diego and is headed on a cross-country trip back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where parts of the capsule will be reused for future missions.
San Diego-based Navy sailors had an integral part in the Artemis II mission, from assisting the astronauts from the capsule that was floating in the Pacific Ocean after they returned from space, to recovering and assessing the Orion capsule.
New video shows moment Navy divers recover Artemis II crew off San Diego
Once the space capsule was taken to Naval Base San Diego by the Navy recovery ship, engineers worked to remove parts that will be used for future missions, NASA said.
Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday posted photos showing Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southwest Metro Production Department’s (MPD) Crane & Rigging team lift and move NASA’s Artemis II Orion space capsule from April 11 to 19 as they prepared the Integrity for its cross-country trip to the Kennedy Space Center.
PHOTOS: The Navy dive team that recovered Artemis II crew
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen reentered the Earth’s atmosphere with a sonic boom and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast on April 10 following a 10-day moon mission that took them nearly 700,000 miles around the moon and back.
A highly trained San Diego special ops Navy dive medical team was the first to greet the astronauts and open the hatch when they arrived back on Earth after their historic moon mission.
Navy divers helped recover the astronauts from the Orion, then MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 “Wildcards” based at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego flew them to the awaiting amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26).
California leads the way in NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission
The Navy dive team then helped to recover the Orion capsule as they pulled it onto the ship’s well deck before it was transported to Naval Base San Diego.
NASA said initial inspections of the system found it performed as expected, and that the spacecraft splashed down just 2.9 miles from the targeted landing site off the San Diego coast…