Artemis II mission ends as astronauts safely return to earth after record-breaking lunar journey

The Artemis II crew has safely returned to Earth, completing a historic 10-day journey around the moon with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

According to NASA, the Orion capsule re-entered the atmosphere at high speed before landing off the coast of California, where recovery teams quickly moved in to retrieve the astronauts.

Among the crew was Jeremy Hansen, who made history as the first Canadian to take part in a lunar mission.

The team also travelled farther into space than any humans before them.

NASA officials praised the mission as a major milestone.

Associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said: “The path to the lunar surface is open, but the work ahead is greater than the work behind us.”

Orion programme manager Howard Hu described the mission as “historic”, adding: “I’m so happy that we get to have this moment, but we’re going to have a lot of these moments coming up.”

He said the data gathered would help shape future missions and called Artemis II the beginning of “a new era of human space exploration.”

Following splashdown, the astronauts exited the capsule into a rescue raft before being lifted by helicopter to a nearby US recovery ship.

They underwent initial medical checks before being transported for further evaluation.