UPD April 11, 00:07 UTC — Mission complete. Perfect bullseye splashdown. All four crew members safe and well. For the first time in 54 years, humans returned from the Moon.
---
On April 11, the Orion spacecraft passed through Earth's atmosphere at 40,000 km/h.
The heat shield reached 2,760 °C. Communication was lost for 8 minutes — plasma blocks radio waves. The heat shield held. The skip-entry maneuver worked. The Artemis I issues did not recur.
The Artemis II crew returned after the first crewed flight around the Moon in 54 years. They broke the Apollo 13 record for distance from Earth (+6,616 km), took an Earthset photo from the far side, observed an eclipse, and filmed Earth from 400,000 km away.
Timeline (Moscow time, night of April 10–11) — ✓ all done:
• 02:20 — service module separation ✓
• 02:53 — atmospheric entry ✓
• ~02:55 — 8-minute radio blackout ✓
• 03:07 — splashdown in the Pacific Ocean ✓
Artemis 2: mission results, photos, crew, and program history
At peak, 1,200,000 people watched the broadcast — you could hear Mission Control and crew comms in real time.