The crew of the Artemis II mission has completed the return to Earth

Rescuers extracted the crew from the American Orion spacecraft, which was driven into In the Pacific Ocean after the first flyby of the Moon in more than 50 years as part of the Artemis II mission, NASA announced.

The command module of the spacecraft, crewed by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, carried out a soft landing with the help of a parachute system off the coast of California near San Diego on Saturday at 03.07 Moscow time.

As reported by NASA, all four astronauts feel well after returning to Earth.

After the landing, they were flown by MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and taken aboard the USS John P. Murtha landing helicopter dock ship, where they were greeted by NASA head Jared Isaacman.

The capsule itself with the help of winches will then be pulled into the dock of the ship. After the initial medical examination, the crew members will be transported ashore and from there sent by plane to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The Orion spacecraft was launched using the SLS heavy launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in Florida on April 1, local time (on the night of April 2, Moscow time). The duration of the flight to the Moon and back was about 10 days. During this time, Orion flew a total of 1 million 118 thousand km.

During the almost seven-hour flyby of the Moon, the spacecraft conducted scientific research and photographing of more than three dozen objects on its surface. During the maximum approach, the spacecraft was located at a distance of 6 thousand 550 km from the lunar surface.

The crew was able to observe the sunlit surface of the Moon for about five hours. For the first time, astronauts explored its reverse side from a higher and wider vantage point than previous American Apollo missions.

Astronauts witnessed the fall of meteorites on the lunar surface, watched the eclipse from a unique vantage point when the Sun disappeared behind the Moon, seeing its crown.