The Orion capsule that carried four astronauts around the moon is back at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, arriving Tuesday nearly three weeks after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.
Engineers trucked the capsule from San Diego to Cape Canaveral, where it will undergo detailed inspection of its heat shield and other systems. The work is part of preparation for Artemis III, currently planned as an orbital docking demonstration around Earth next year. Electronic boxes and research equipment from the capsule will be removed and recycled.
The mission was the first crewed lunar voyage since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen flew deeper into space than any humans had traveled before. The crew named the capsule Integrity.
Despite a malfunctioning toilet, NASA said the spacecraft performed well across the nearly 10-day mission. The four crew members spent time on medical exams and debriefs before getting any real downtime.
Wiseman signaled relief last week in a post on X, sharing a video of himself on the beach. "Been waiting for this moment," he wrote. "I have never in my life felt peace like this."
Artemis III will use a fresh Orion capsule and a new crew. That mission will keep astronauts in Earth orbit for docking exercises with lunar landers still under development by SpaceX and Blue Origin. A successful docking demonstration would clear the path for an actual moon landing, targeted for as early as 2028.
The return of the Integrity capsule marks the formal close-out phase of Artemis II. Engineers at Kennedy Space Center now face the detailed work of understanding exactly how every system held up, data that will directly shape the design decisions and crew safety protocols for the missions that follow.
