The world is ready to welcome four Moon explorers back to Earth. NASA’s Artemis II astronauts, who launched on a lunar voyage on April 2, are on their way home and are scheduled to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 11.
The four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen – have travelled farther than any human ever, breaking the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, and all eyes are now on their reentry that is one of the scariest phases of spaceflight.
It’s not just a phase 🌕
Artemis II astronauts captured these views of the Moon as the Orion spacecraft flew around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026. pic.twitter.com/lT7245Gp28
— NASA (@NASA) April 8, 2026
According to NASA, the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts will splashdown off the coast of San Diego in California at 6:37 am IST on April 11 [8:07 pm EDT, Apr 10].
NASA prepares for hellish reentry of Artemis II crew
But prior to the splashdown, the capsule will have to endure a hellish atmospheric reentry. Owing to the immense friction caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will be subjected to temperatures as high as 2,760 degrees Celsius (5,000 degrees Fahrenheit), when it hits the atmosphere at nearly 40,000 km per hour (24,000 mph).
Unlike Artemis I, the Orion spacecraft will make reentry at a much steeper angle to avoid the damage caused to its heatshield in the previous mission.
NASA had programmed the uncrewed Orion to dip in and out of the atmosphere, like a rock skipping on water surface, to reduce its velocity. But this method caused gases to get trapped between the Avcoat (material) blocks that make up the shield, and caused it to erode more than expected.
A steeper angle of reentry is to ensure the heatshield is effective and there’s no threat to the astronauts’ lives.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a recent interview with The Free Press that the heatshield “has to work” because there’s no plan B. “I’m going to be thinking about that constantly until they’re back in the water,” he said.
“The heat shield has to work.”
NASA Administrator @RookIsaacman warns there is no backup plan for the reentry of Artemis II. The mission relies on a single heat shield, which he acknowledges has limitations.
In the 1960s, NASA had plenty of backup hardware. But that’s not true… pic.twitter.com/9zNmP4RyV3
— The Free Press (@TheFP) April 7, 2026
Orion has a total of 11 parachutes that will be deployed sequentially once the spacecraft makes it through the atmosphere. By the time the main parachutes are deployed, Orion’s speed will have decreased to just a little over 25 km per hour (17 mph) before it touches down on the water.
The spacecraft will then be secured and the astronauts extracted by US Navy operators who will bring them onboard the USS John P. Murtha for a medical evaluation. They will then fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for further process of recovery.
ALSO READ: NASA Artemis II: Why This Moon Mission Is Our Generation’s Apollo 8
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