Artemis II astronauts now under Earth's gravity again after leaving moon's sphere of influence
The Artemis II astronauts have left the moon's sphere of influence and are now speeding back under Earth's gravitational force on Flight Day 8 of 10. A Friday splash down will welcome the crew back in a mission hailed as sending men and a woman to the furthest reaches of the solar system in human history.
Artemis II enters Flight Day 8 of 10 after leaving moon's sphere of influence
Artemis II enters Flight Day 8 early Wednesday after the Orion capsule exited the moon’s sphere of influence Tuesday at 1:23 p.m. ET, placing the spacecraft back under Earth’s dominant gravity for the final leg of its return journey.
"Earth is pulling us back and we are happy about that," Commander Reid Wiseman said Tuesday.
The four-astronaut crew, sleeping until an 11:35 a.m. ET wakeup, is now headed toward a planned Pacific splashdown off San Diego on Friday, April 10, after a historic lunar flyby that sent humans farther from Earth than ever before.
The Orion capsule is expected to hit the water at approximately 8:07 p.m. ET, following the crew module separation and re-entry process beginning at 6:33 p.m. ET.
NASA said the crew remained safe and the capsule continued to perform well following its passage behind the moon, which included a brief communications blackout and views of the lunar far side.
The mission has followed a free-return trajectory, using the moon’s gravity to slingshot Orion back toward Earth while conserving fuel.
As re-entry approaches at over 1,700 miles per hour, the astronauts are resting and preparing for splashdown, capping a milestone voyage in NASA’s Artemis program.
Integrity, ISS crews joke about racing inside space craft to set historic 'furthest' milestones
Both Orion's Integrity and the International Space Station crews joked Tuesday night in a historical space-to-space call that they were elbowing each other to set milestones of going distances where no man or woman has gone before.
"We like to joke about that up here, too, because everyone's talking about the records of the distance," ISS Commander Jessica Weir told Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman and her fellow former ISS resident Christina Koch.
"And we ran to the far end of the space station when you guys were on the other side, so that we could claim we were the furthest away from you in that moment.
"I love all four of you so, so much."
Wiseman replied with a joke in kind.
"We were doing the same shenanigans here when we got to the furthest point from the moon," he said. "I tried to get to the furthest point from Earth. I tried to get to the furthest point in the spacecraft, and my roommates were clawing me down.
"I know, that's a joke. We were busy doing science, but we had that same conversation. It was a lot of fun."
Wiseman turned more serious, thanking the seven-member ISS crew for the historic call.
"I don't know how much longer we have here, but from the four members of the spacecraft integrity, we really want to just say our deepest appreciation to the seven members of the International Space Station," he concluded. "This has been a true treat. iIt takes the entire world to do amazing things like this and to get to come together as this group of people, and talk for just a minute at these distances.
"We are all off the planet Earth right now, and we're all going to go home to that planet, and that is a very special thing. So thank you all for tying in."
Artemis jokes its going to run into Earth as it grows before their eyes: 'It does bend your mind'
Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman joked with the astronauts aboard the International Space Station in a rare ship-to-ship call that the Orion capsule looked headed for a crash course with Earth.
"When we were about 5 or 6,000 miles up from the Earth, looking at the entire Earth just growing rapidly in the window, Jeremy [Hansen] turns around to us, he goes, 'I'm not sure; I think we're going to run right into it,'" Wiseman said.
"We were all dying laughing, and it was the most fascinating thing to watch that Earth grow."
Wiseman noted the Orion capsule recorrected from a trajectory pointing at the top half of Earth to the bottom half.
"So it is crazy up here, and it does bend your mind," he said.
Artemis II crew shares emotional space-to-space call with the International Space Station
The Artemis II crew shared an emotional ship-to-ship call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, creating one of the mission’s most human moments as both crews connected from different corners of space.
"So we have a view right now, and it is making us so excited: We feel like you're here with us, and this is really just making our entire week right now," ISS NASA astronaut Jessica Meir told Artemis II's Integrity crew.
The event came as Artemis II was on its return leg to Earth after a lunar flyby, with the spacecraft more than 200,000 nautical miles away from home.
"We have been waiting for this like you can't imagine," Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman told Expedition 74. "We are 201,726, now 25, nautical miles from planet Earth, which is just hard to believe. The scales are impossible to believe."
During the exchange, the Orion crew aboard Integrity spoke with the seven Expedition 74 crew members living and working aboard the station, with both sides reflecting on the wonder of spaceflight, the meaning of exploration, and the rare experience of talking to fellow astronauts while all of them were off the planet at the same time.
"So we can tell that you guys are definitely experiencing moon joy, and I feel like even we are experiencing moon joy right now," Meir said.
NASA kicks off Artemis III timeline, begins early prep as crawler heads to launchpad
While the historic Artemis II mission enters its final days returning to Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the agency is already accelerating the timeline for its next mission, signaling a shift away from its traditional, linear approach to spaceflight.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed that the agency’s crawler — the massive track-laying vehicle used to transport rockets — is already rolling to launchpad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center to retrieve the mobile launcher used for Artemis II.
“We've got other things to get done, including thinking about Artemis III,” he said. “It's why I was very happy that the crawler is making its way out to 39 B right now.”
By starting logistical preparations for Artemis III early, NASA expects to reduce turnaround time between missions by roughly three months, marking a significant improvement over the typical gap between launches.
“We've got a timeline to get it back in the VAB, ideally in a week,” he said, referring to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the launcher is refurbished and prepared for future missions.
“That would cut down on the turnaround, I think, by three months compared to Artemis II. So, we can undertake, again, world-changing missions like Artemis II right now and get ready for the next ones at the same time.”
Artemis III is currently targeted for 2027 and is expected to test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and commercial lunar landers, including those being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, capabilities essential for safely landing astronauts on the Moon.
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