'We got a lot more to do': NASA hopes to build on Artemis success
This handout picture by an Artemis II crew member provided by NASA shows a sliver of the Earth illuminated by the blackness of space peering out the window of the Orion spacecraft on April 3, 2026. Photo: AFP
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NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time (0007 GMT on Saturday), concluding a mission that four days prior took the astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before.
“The biggest objective of this mission, was to prove to ourselves that we could move to crewed flight, but maintain the same level of risk knowledge and understanding,” said NASA Associate Administrator, Amit Kshatriya, during the news conference. NASA officials also said that teamwork had contributed to mission success.
The Artemis II flight, travelling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 4,000 miles from its surface, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2028.
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