The Artemis II astronauts are returning home to Earth right this moment after a historic journey around the moon. Just minutes ago, their spacecraft hit the atmosphere, reaching a maximum speed of over 24,000 miles an hour. Now a viral - now a video feed, rather, from NASA is showing the capsule floating down to the Pacific Ocean under three billowed red-and-white striped parachutes. The four astronauts are headed for a splashdown off the coast of California near San Diego. The USS John P. Murtha is standing by, waiting to scoop them up. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce has been following the nearly 10-day mission. Hey, Nell.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Hey.
DETROW: We're here in the studio watching this. You haven't been on the Orion Capsule, but you've been along for the ride the whole time. We're seeing it kind of shoot some guidance flares out, it looks like. It's billowing down to the ground right now. What are you thinking? What are you feeling?
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, I think there's a great sense of relief. I mean, I think everybody watching this return to Earth was sort of, you know, a little tense, a little nervous. Even the NASA officials admitted that in a briefing the other night. And so, you know, reentering the Earth's atmosphere was one of the most risky parts of the mission. And so now through the NASA video feed, we can see the capsule coming down, kind of floating down under these parachutes in the blue sky. And I think everybody who's worked on this mission has got to feel a tremendous sense of relief and joy.
DETROW: They've just splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. Everything seems to have gone according to the plan - the Artemis capsule, the Orion capsule, bobbing up and down in a picture-perfect day off San Diego, that dark blue water. Navy sailors are going to make their way in pretty quickly to get them out of that capsule. It's going to evoke the images of the Apollo program. We've been landing space shuttles for many decades on runways. Now it's back to a capsule in the ocean. And Nell, this is - you just described it - a high-stakes thing to do, no matter what circumstances, but there were some questions about the heat shield due to what happened with Artemis I.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's right, yeah. So during that test flight, which didn't have people onboard, NASA saw some unexpected damage to the heat shield. And so officials said they dealt with the problem before this flight, but, you know, it's always in the back of people's minds that there could be an accident or something like that. I mean, the spacecraft entered the atmosphere at 400,000 feet, near Hawaii. And as you said, it was traveling at this near-record speed of more than 24,000 miles per hour. I mean, it's like a fireball...
GREENFIELDBOYCE: ...Coming across the sky. You've got these superheated gases outside the capsule and temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. And because of all those hot gases, for six nerve-wracking minutes, the capsule could not communicate with Mission Control at all. And so everybody just had to wait, and then you finally got to see the spacecraft, spotted it in the sky, and then we saw those chutes come out. And now it's there in the water, and everybody has got to feel relieved.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Super relieved.
DETROW: About 8 minutes ago, we heard the commander of the mission, Reid Wiseman, talking for the first time after that blackout, saying, it's Integrity, we hear you loud and clear. And Nell, talk me through what happens next. We're seeing the space capsule in the Pacific Ocean.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: So as you mentioned, there's a U.S. Navy recovery ship. So it's the first time the Defense Department and NASA have teamed up for this kind of spacecraft recovery since the end of the Apollo Lunar program. I mean, that was Apollo 17 in 1972.
So they'll get the astronauts out. They'll bring them back. They'll get routine medical checks, and then they'll be flown to Houston, where they can reunite with their families, get some rest and, you know, even enjoy a fully functional toilet.
DETROW: (Laughter) Which was...
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The one in their capsule had some plumbing issues, I think you might have heard.
DETROW: Right. That was a high-stakes situation. If you're that far from Earth and the toilet doesn't work, lot of nervousness about that.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, this was the first toilet put around the moon, so, you know, it was going where no one had gone before.
DETROW: Well, literally. And to that end, this was a test flight, right? We paid a lot of attention. We were all mesmerized by those pictures of the moon and the Earth setting behind the moon. But in the end, this was - the main goal of this was to test to see if this capsule - if this whole system works so that they can land on the moon later on.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Absolutely. And so the astronauts will be, you know, debriefed by the engineers at NASA, the spacecraft engineers, but they're also going to be talking to the scientists. I mean, they took thousands of pictures, recorded hours of audio. They were closer to the moon than anyone has been for more than half a century. And the commander of the mission, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, he said they had been so busy, they really hadn't been able to sort of take in the whole surreal experience of going around the far side of the moon.
REID WISEMAN: And there's a lot that our brains have to process. Human mind should not go through what these just went through. And it is a true gift, and we have a lot that we just need to think about and journal and write, and then we'll get the full feeling of what we just went through.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: I mean, they saw parts of the moon that the human eyes had never seen before, not even the Apollo astronauts.
DETROW: Quick update on what's going on right now - they're bobbing up and down in the Pacific Ocean. You've got kind of inflatable red balloons that have popped out to the side of the capsule. I haven't seen a shot yet of a helicopter hovering overhead, but I think it's pretty clear that the Navy - it's making its way to this capsule as quickly as possible. And, Nell, this was a big moment for NASA, America, kind of - the only people to go to the moon before were Americans. This was the first time a Canadian circled the moon among others, but this is a big moment for the international space community.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Yeah, I mean, NASA gets a lot of attention, but the European space agency built part of the spacecraft, the service module that had the solar arrays and the engines needed to fire the way to the moon once the spacecraft was in orbit around Earth. And, yeah, I mean, there was Jeremy Hansen, the astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency. That was a big difference between now and the days of Apollo. I mean, when you saw video coming back from the spacecraft, you would see the American flag up there, but you'd see the Canadian flag right up there next to it. And so that was a huge difference. And it's not the only difference. I mean, the Apollo astronauts were all white men, but this mission had Christina Koch, the first woman to go to the moon, and Victor Glover, the first person of color to go to the moon.
DETROW: They were the furthest people from planet Earth in the history of aviation. Now they are in the Pacific Ocean ending their mission. Nell, in the 30 seconds we've got left, what's next for the Artemis program? What's next for NASA?
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, there's going to be a test flight next year, hopefully, where they're going to try out some lunar landers in orbit around Earth, just to test the technology. And the head of NASA says there could be a moon landing as soon as 2028. Although some people think that's a little optimistic. There's often delays. But this mission is certainly a strong start showing that NASA can get people back to the moon.
DETROW: That is NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce. Thank you so much. Again, the Artemis II crew has returned safely to Earth after a mission around the moon and back.
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