The NASA crew of the Artemis II mission have completed a 10-day trip around the moon, travelling furthest from the Earth than anyone ever has.
The group landed back on Earth yesterday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast overnight.
The historic mission has revitalised passion for space travel within a new generation and has everyone asking one question: what did it achieve, and what’s next?
Here’s all you need to know about Artemis II and upcoming missions.
When did the Artemis II mission take place?
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Crowds cheered as a spacecraft named Integrity soared into the clear skies above Florida at 6.35pm local time on April 1.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen embarked on the trip of a lifetime, which stretched across ten days.
During the first few days of the mission, the Orion entered an elliptical orbit around Earth before rockets blasted it towards the moon’s orbit.
On April 6, the spacecraft went around the moon’s far side, also called the dark side, so astronauts could observe parts of the lunar surface never seen by humans before.
Just a day later, the team returned to Earth by using the moon’s gravity to fling itself, a process called ‘free return’, which took days.
The Orion then smashed into the Earth’s rough atmosphere at about 25,000mph, withstanding temperatures of 2,760°C, and splash down just off the coast of San Diego on April 10.
What did the Artemis II mission discover?
Rather than being focused on discovery, Artemis was focused on record-breaking.
The four astronauts are the first humans to go beyond Earth’s orbit since 1972 in their historic lunar flyby.
It’s also the first time humans flew in an Orion spacecraft, which was built by Lockheed Martin, a US defence and aerospace manufacturer, and was christened Integrity by the crew for this mission.
‘The Orion spacecraft is about the size of a small minivan, and there are four of them, and they can’t get out of 10 days, so it’s very cramped,’ Libby Jackson, who worked in Mission Control for a module on the International Space Station, tells Metro.
But the spacecraft featured new life-support systems and advanced technology for those onboard.
The astronauts also named a few craters on the moon and were the first to see parts of the dark side of the moon never before seen by humans.
The crew named two craters on the dark side of the moon after their ship, Integrity, and Commander Reid Weisman’s wife, Carroll, who sadly passed away before the mission.
‘We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll she was a mother of Katie and Ellie. It’s a bright spot on the moon. We would like to call it Carroll.’
‘Integrity and Carroll crater. Loud and clear’, comes the message back from Nasa.
What’s next for NASA’s Artemis missions?
Artemis, NASA’s return-to-the-moon programme, was plagued by delays, technical hiccups and budget cuts for years.
Donald Trump made bringing American space boots back to the lunar surface a goal during his first administration, signing Artemis in 2017.
Next, the Artemis project aims to launch next year with a practice crew rehearsing docking a capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth.
Then, in 2028, it’s hoped Artemis IV will land on the moon again in 2028, with two astronauts attempting a touchdown.
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