{"id":64636,"date":"2026-04-10T21:19:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T01:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64636"},"modified":"2026-04-10T21:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T01:20:06","slug":"the-artemis-ii-mission-successfully-concluded-today-friday-april-10-2026-with-the-orion-spacecraft-splashing-down-in-the-pacific-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/the-artemis-ii-mission-successfully-concluded-today-friday-april-10-2026-with-the-orion-spacecraft-splashing-down-in-the-pacific-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artemis II mission successfully concluded today, Friday, April 10, 2026, with the Orion spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"10183a\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #10183a;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"921\" height=\"575\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/splashdown1.webp?resize=921%2C575&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64637 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/splashdown1.webp?w=921&amp;ssl=1 921w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/splashdown1.webp?resize=300%2C187&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/splashdown1.webp?resize=768%2C479&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>Artemis II<\/strong> mission successfully concluded today, <strong>Friday, April 10, 2026<\/strong>, with the Orion spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at <strong>8:07 p.m. EDT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This 0-day flight around the Moon marks the first time humans have traveled to lunar distance and back since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The mission also set a new record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, reaching a distance of <strong>252,756 miles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Crew<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The four astronauts aboard the Orion capsule, named &#8220;Integrity,&#8221; have safely returned to Earth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Reid Wiseman (Commander)<\/strong> \u2013 NASA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Victor Glover (Pilot)<\/strong> \u2013 NASA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Christina Koch (Mission Specialist)<\/strong> \u2013 NASA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist)<\/strong> \u2013 CSA (Canadian Space Agency)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Mission Milestones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Time (EDT)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Event<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Details<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>7:33 p.m.<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Module Separation<\/strong><\/td><td>The Orion crew module separated from the European Service Module.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>7:53 p.m.<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Atmospheric Entry<\/strong><\/td><td>Orion entered Earth&#8217;s atmosphere at approximately <strong>23,864 mph<\/strong>.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>7:53\u20137:59 p.m.<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Blackout Period<\/strong><\/td><td>A six-minute communications blackout occurred due to plasma buildup.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>8:04 p.m.<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Main Parachutes<\/strong><\/td><td>Three main parachutes deployed at 6,000 feet to slow the craft to <strong>17 mph<\/strong>.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>8:07 p.m.<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Splashdown<\/strong><\/td><td>Successful landing in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recovery and Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The crew is being recovered by teams from the <strong>USS John P. Murtha<\/strong>. Following initial medical evaluations on the ship, they will be flown to San Diego and then back to NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston for a reunion with their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This successful test flight paves the way for <strong>Artemis III<\/strong>, which is currently targeted for 2028 and aims to return humans to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Artemis II mission successfully concluded today, Friday, April 10, 2026, with the Orion spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL3NwbGFzaGRvd24xLndlYnA_Zml0PTkyMSUyQzU3NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlRoZSBBcnRlbWlzIElJIG1pc3Npb24gc3VjY2Vzc2Z1bGx5IGNvbmNsdWRlZCB0b2RheSwgRnJpZGF5LCBBcHJpbCAxMCwgMjAyNiwgd2l0aCB0aGUgT3Jpb24gc3BhY2VjcmFmdCBzcGxhc2hpbmcgZG93biBpbiB0aGUgUGFjaWZpYyBPY2VhbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.eC_8E4rUgrjfdXhUVg8wMckg5izZ-kWEPn4xK2eqbqUMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJ0eHQiOiJUaGUgQXJ0ZW1pcyBJSSBtaXNzaW9uIHN1Y2Nlc3NmdWxseSBjb25jbHVkZWQgdG9kYXksIEZyaWRheSwgQXByaWwgMTAsIDIwMjYsIHdpdGggdGhlIE9yaW9uIHNwYWNlY3JhZnQgc3BsYXNoaW5nIGRvd24gaW4gdGhlIFBhY2lmaWMgT2NlYW4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ._HBH8s4F3goI8ourdPvg5VTohNp5VdmEitAbVGWvvZMMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13094,14356,13944,14355,14357],"class_list":["post-64636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-13094","tag-april-10","tag-friday","tag-the-artemis-ii-mission-successfully-concluded-today","tag-with-the-orion-spacecraft-splashing-down-in-the-pacific-ocean"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64638,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64636\/revisions\/64638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}