Artemis 2 Live: Splashdown Countdown as Orion Races Home Tonight
It is the final hours of a mission that made history. Artemis II, a ten-day lunar flyby mission that launched on April 1, 2026, is the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Tonight, the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft are preparing to come home.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen woke up this morning at 11:35 AM ET to "Run to the Water" by Live and "Free" by Zac Brown Band. Their next wake-up song will be on dry land.
Splashdown Is Hours Away
Reentry is expected to begin at 7:53 PM ET, and the crew is scheduled to splashdown off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 PM ET. The USS John P. Murtha is already in position, waiting to receive the crew by helicopter after Orion hits the water.
Orion recently completed its third and final trajectory correction burn, putting the crew on course for a precise splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles off the coast of San Diego. Mission Control confirmed it appeared to be a good burn, and Commander Wiseman radioed back the same.
What Reentry Will Look Like
The Orion capsule will hit the discernible atmosphere some 75 miles above the Pacific Ocean at a speed of around 24,000 mph. Within seconds, temperatures across its 16.5-foot heat shield will climb to roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit — half as hot as the visible surface of the sun.
The crew will enter a planned six-minute communications blackout at 7:53 PM ET as plasma forms around the capsule during peak heating. The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs in a nominal landing profile. For six tense minutes, Mission Control will simply wait.
After emerging from blackout, Orion will jettison its forward bay cover, deploy its drogue parachutes near 22,000 feet at 8:03 PM ET, and then unfurl its three main parachutes around 6,000 feet at 8:04 PM ET to slow the capsule for splashdown.
A Mission of Records and Historic Firsts
This crew did not just fly to the Moon and back. The Artemis II crew set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by a human mission, surpassing the Apollo 13 record of 248,655 miles set in 1970.
During the lunar flyby on April 6, the crew suggested provisional names for two small craters near the Orientale basin — one named Integrity after their spacecraft, and one named Carroll. The name Carroll was a deeply emotional tribute proposed by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen in honor of Commander Wiseman's late wife.
Following the flyby, the Artemis II mission wrapped up a historic seven-hour lunar flyby marking humanity's first return to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. After the lunar observation period concluded, the crew was congratulated by President Donald J. Trump in a live conversation.
How to Watch Artemis 2 Live Tonight
Live coverage of the Artemis II crew returning to Earth begins at 7 PM ET on ABC News Live, Disney+, and Hulu, with special coverage beginning at 7:30 PM ET on ABC. NASA's own YouTube channel and NASA+ are also streaming continuously.
Recovery teams will retrieve the crew by helicopter and transfer them to the USS John P. Murtha. NASA has set strict conditions for splashdown, including wave heights below six feet, winds under 28.7 mph, and no rain or lightning within a 30-nautical-mile radius. As of the latest reports, weather conditions are meeting those requirements.
After ten days, nearly 695,000 miles traveled, a record-breaking deep space journey, and a first lunar flyby in over half a century, Artemis 2 is coming home tonight.
