WATCH: Artemis II nears return to Earth with Pacific splashdown

Artemis II’s astronauts closed out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century with a Pacific splashdown on Friday, blazing new records near the moon with grace and joy. It was a dramatic grand finale to a mission that revealed not only swaths of the lunar far side never seen before by human eyes, but a total solar eclipse and a parade of planets, most notably our own shimmering Earth against the endless black void of space. With their flight now complete, the four astronauts have set NASA up for a moon landing by another crew in just two years and a full-blown moon base within the decade. The triumphant moon-farers — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen — emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight off the coast of San Diego.

Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another on a 10-day mission as they navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, marking the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base. NASA has planned out a carefully timed reentry process the crew will undergo before landing, with a targeted splashdown time of 8:07 p.m., according to WTOP’s Greg Redfern. “They go through the time frame in which the plasma cloud that surrounds them, the spacecraft will be out of radio communication,” Redfern said. “And we wait for that reentry and then the call to integrity. And hopefully we see those beautiful mains that pop out and recovery crew ready to get them.” A livestream of the Artemis II finale is below:

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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