NASA’s Artemis II capsule returns to Florida after historic trip around the moon

Cape Canaveral, Florida: The spacecraft that carried four astronauts around the moon is back on home turf. NASA’s Artemis II capsule returned to Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, nearly a month after launching humanity’s first lunar mission in more than 50 years.

The Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific on Friday, April 10, before being recovered by the U.S. Navy. A Navy photo shows the heat shield submerged moments after splashdown, marking the end of a 10-day flight that took the crew farther than any humans have traveled since Apollo 17.

Artemis II didn’t land on the moon, but it looped around it — testing systems and setting the stage for Artemis III, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface. After its record-breaking journey, the capsule is now back where it started, ready for inspection and the next steps toward deep space.