'Welcome home, Artemis': Crew celebrates historic 10-day moon mission
After their historic lunar flyby, the crew safely splashed down in the Pacific.
NASA's Artemis II mission lifted off on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four-person crew completed a 695,081-mile, 10-day journey around the moon, also known as a lunar fly-by.
A "textbook" splashdown took place at 8:07 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10.
Key Headlines
- Crew makes 1st appearance since return from historic mission
- 'Welcome home, Artemis': Jubilant and emotional, crew speaks out on historic moon mission
- Trump says he will welcome Artemis II crew to White House 'soon'
- NASA officials hail 'new era' of space exploration after successful mission
- Crew members hoisted into helicopters
- All 4 crew members out of the capsule
Artemis II crew awakens to John Legend's 'Green Light'
NASA's Mission Control in Houston just awakened the Artemis II crew with the song "Green Light," by John Legend featuring the rapper André 3000. The astronauts also received voice messages from members of the NASA workforce.
The crew will begin flight day 2 activities and operations, including exercise time, and is now approximately 20 hours into the mission.
In the next few hours, the Artemis II mission management team will decide whether to proceed with the trans-lunar injection burn that will send Orion on its path to the moon.
In response to the musical wakeup, Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman replied, "Houston, Integrity, we are ready to go, and that was awesome. Thank you for all those messages."
-ABC News' Matthew Glasser
Team to decide whether crucial trans-lunar injection burn is a 'go'
The Artemis II mission management team will meet shortly to make a pivotal "go" or "no-go" decision for the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn.
If it's a "go" for the TLI, the burn will occur Thursday at 7:49:50 p.m. ET. This burn commits the Orion spacecraft to the remainder of its 10-day mission.
The TLI burn is the final major engine firing of the Artemis II mission. It will propel Orion on its path toward the moon, setting it on a free-return trajectory that will carry it around the far side of the moon and back to Earth using gravity as an assist. It will also ensure that the spacecraft returns to Earth, even if a system failure occurs.
The main engine on Orion's service module, known as the Orbital Maneuvering System engine, will provide 6,000 pounds of thrust during the nearly six-minute burn. That's enough power to accelerate a car from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 2.7 seconds.
-ABC News' Matthew Glasser
8-year-old watches his plush toy rocket to the moon with Artemis II
A second-grader's plush toy design has rocketed to space alongside astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover Jr., Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on board the Artemis II moon mission.
Lucas Ye, 8, designed a white moon plush named "Rise," which wears an Earth cap with a brim highlighting the galaxy and rockets.
Lucas and his family were invited to witness the Wednesday evening launch of Artemis II at the Kennedy Space Center, an experience that Lucas described to "Good Morning America" on Thursday as "really cool."
"I feel very lucky. A little idea can turn out into a big thing," Lucas told "GMA."
Read more here.
-ABC News' Yi-Jin Yu and Nic Uff
Artemis II crew enters high Earth orbit
The Artemis II crew has entered high Earth orbit about two hours after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center.
The crew will spend about a day in orbit testing Orion's systems. If everything is operating properly, Orion will be instructed on Thursday to perform the translunar injection burn, which will send the crew and spacecraft along their path to the moon.
NASA said high Earth orbit extends "about 46,000 miles beyond Earth."
-ABC News' Briana Alvarado