The countdown to the Artemis II splashdown in California is on!
On April 1, the world watched with bated breath as NASA launched its Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending four astronauts on a 10-day journey orbiting Earth’s celestial neighbor for the first time in over 50 years.
Now, the world will once again watch as the four Artemis II astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover of NASA, as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, end their journey on the other side of the country, with a water landing off the coast of California.
The astronauts completed the most important leg of the historic moon mission on Monday, April 6, as they spent hours making observations of the moon’s far side, which is permanently faced away from Earth. Known as a lunar flyby, this trailblazing moment in spaceflight took the four astronauts the farthest any human has been from Earth.
As NASA’s Orion capsule makes its way back to Earth, the crew will spend the next two days preparing for the splashdown, leaving the moon in their review as they bring their knowledge and experience from the trip back home.
Here’s what to know about the crew’s journey home, when the California splashdown will occur, how to watch it live and what to know about the crew’s commander, who graduated from college in our very own Empire State.
Where is the Artemis II splashdown in California?
The astronauts are nearing the end of their four-day journey back home to Earth. Our planet’s gravity is working to naturally “slingshot” or pull Orion back home, negating the need for propulsion or much fuel.
When Orion is back in Earth’s atmosphere, a protective heat shield will be cast off to allow parachutes to deploy and slow the vehicle down.
The capsule will then likely make its water landing in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10. It is expected to land off the coast of San Diego, where five orange airbags will inflate around the top of the spacecraft to flip the capsule upright. The crew will then get onto a U.S. Navy recovery vessel.
What time will the California splashdown be in NY?
Those on the East Coast can expect to see NASA’s Orion capsule splash down at about 8:07 p.m. ET Friday, April 10, 2026.
“Following splashdown, recovery teams will retrieve the crew members using helicopters and deliver them to the USS John P. Murtha. Once aboard, the astronauts will undergo post-flight medical evaluations in the ship’s medical bay before traveling back to shore to meet with an aircraft bound for NASA Johnson (Space Center),” a NASA press release said.
Artemis II splashdown livestream. How to watch
Artemis II’s California splashdown event will be livestreamed on NASA’s YouTube page. The livestream, titled ‘NASA’s Artemis II Crew Comes Home,’ is scheduled to start on April 10 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Artemis II tracker. Follow moon mission location
Want to follow the astronauts as they make their way home along the Artemis II lunar journey?
NASA has an Artemis II tracker available online and on its mobile app that allows users to see where Orion is, how fast it’s traveling and how far the spacecraft is from both the Earth and the moon.
The mobile version for smartphones even includes an augmented reality feature that allows users to move their phones to see where Orion is relative to Earth.
The tracker, officially referred to as the “Artemis Real-time Orbit Website” (AROW), uses real-time data collected by sensors on the Orion spacecraft sent to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. That information will continuously be updated starting from one minute after liftoff through Orion’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
As of Thursday morning, April 9, the Orion spacecraft that the crew members are aboard is about 152,300 miles away from Earth, with the moon approximately 126,700 miles behind them.
NY graduate aboard Artemis II. Who is NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman
The commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon is a New York college grad!
Reid Wiseman, 44, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1997, according to NASA. He got his undergraduate degree in Science in New York before getting his Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering in his home city, Baltimore.
Wiseman was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and was the commander of the NEEM021 at the Aquarius Reef Habitat off Islamorada, Florida, in July 2016, according to NASA.
On Monday, the Artemis crew shared an emotional moment as they named a crater they spotted from the Orion capsule after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Wiseman, who was 46 years old when she lost a five-year battle with cancer on May 17, 2020.
“We would like to call it Carroll,” said mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, his voice cracking as Wiseman patted his shoulder and wiped away tears.
“A number of years ago we started this journey, and in our close-knit astronaut family we lost a loved one,” Hansen told Mission Control in Houston, adding that the crater “is in a really neat place on the moon.”
Countdown clock to NASA Artemis II splashdown near San Diego, California
Contributing: USA Today
— Madison Scott is a journalist with the Democrat and Chronicle who covers breaking and trending news for the Finger Lakes Region. She has an interest in how the system helps or doesn’t help families with missing loved ones. She can be reached at MDScott@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Artemis II splashdown countdown: Time, livestream, where to watch
Reporting by Madison Scott, New York Connect Team / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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