How to watch NASA’s Artemis II return to Earth

NASA’s Artemis 2 crew of four astronauts from the United States and Canada is scheduled to return to Earth on Friday after their historic journey to the far side of the moon.

Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft. They are expected to begin their return at 7:33 PM ET with a drop at 8:07 PM.

NASA has a live stream when the crew lands in the Pacific Ocean later today. The Orion spacecraft is expected to land off the coast of San Diego, California.

The Artemis II mission marks the first time humans have ventured into lunar orbit in more than 50 years. The crew traveled farther from Earth than any human before, reaching an estimated 252,760 miles from our planet. That’s about 100 times the distance between New York City and Los Angeles, only the astronauts are inside a capsule with 330 cubic feet of habitable space, which is about the size of two minivans.

The goal of the Artemis 2 mission is to collect data and insights that will help NASA prepare for future lunar missions and landings — astronauts put the Orion spacecraft through planned tests to evaluate how it would perform with a crew in deep space. This includes testing communication systems with colleagues on the ground, making course adjustments, and performing a safe return and landing.

Landing can be one of the most dangerous moments of the entire mission. On the Artemis I mission in 2022, which was uncrewed, Orion’s protective heat shield suffered unexpected damage upon its return to Earth. The heat shield was made of avocot — a material designed to dissipate slowly and protect the crew from temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees as they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere — but the shield was charred and cracked in places, which was not supposed to happen.

NASA said that if humans had been aboard Artemis 1, they would have returned safely. The agency has also conducted extensive research into how the heat shield becomes damaged in the first place. However, the heat shield remains top of mind for people around the world hoping to see these four astronauts return safely.

The crew left Earth on April 1, and the astronauts soon encountered some mundane glitches, including issues with Microsoft Office and their toilet. But these early moments were easily overshadowed by the wonder of the images and information the crew sent back from the Moon. You can already see new images from a lunar flyby on the dark side of the Moon.

The astronauts also named new craters, including one named after the mission commander’s late wife, Carol Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 46.

The crew was also able to view a total solar eclipse from just a few thousand miles from the Moon, a unique vantage point that no astronaut had ever experienced before.

“It wasn’t just an eclipse where the sun was hiding behind the moon,” explained Koch, the crew’s mission specialist. “We can also see Earth’s light, sunlight reflecting off Earth, enveloping the Moon in a soft, borrowed glow.”

The rest of the broadcast is streamed live here.