Artemis II Getting Ready For Splashdown Tomorrow

The crew of Artemis II is busy configuring the Orion capsule for reentry tomorrow, with splashdown off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 pm ET.  NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said today Orion will be traveling at almost 25,000 miles per hour with a heat shield built from materials designed to withstand temperatures approaching the surface of the Sun. He has “high confidence” the systems will land them safely in the Pacific Ocean, but concedes he’ll be anxious.

Kshatriya has 22 years of experience at NASA and was the Moon-to-Mars program manager before his appointment as the agency’s top civil servant last year. Asked during a press briefing today what he’ll be feeling as Orion reenters, he expressed full confidence in the team that built Orion, is executing the mission, and recovery forces, but “it’s impossible to say you don’t have irrational fears about what’s going to happen.” But he quickly added “I don’t have any rational fears” about it.

Orion has only made the trip through Earth’s atmosphere from lunar distance once before on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in November-December 2022. Orion has an ablative heat shield and material is intended to burn off — char — during reentry, but the char loss was much more than anticipated. The extent wasn’t known publicly until May 2024 when the NASA Office of Inspector General published a report with photographs.

In October 2024, NASA announced they’d determined the root cause, but did not disclose it until December.  Kshatriya was head of the Moon-to-Mars program at the time and is the one who explained they would change the permeability of the heat shield for future Orion missions, but keep the current version for Artemis II because it was already built. They didn’t want to delay Artemis II any further and decided to use a different reentry profile instead to lessen the heat load.

That’s the profile they’ll use tomorrow — a modified skip-return trajectory called a lofted reentry. Yesterday Entry Flight Director Rick Henfling shared these key milestones of what will happen.

Kshatriya said today the modified trajectory is shorter than on Artemis I so the duration of the heat load similarly is shorter.

Two more brief trajectory burns will take place tonight and tomorrow to put Orion on the precise path needed to get through the atmosphere safely. Jeff Radigan, Lead Flight Director, noted they have very little margin for error.

“We’ve got about less than a degree of angle that we need to hit, and when we come in we need to be right in the center of that. … Let’s not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly. Otherwise we’re not going to have a successful reentry.” — Jeff Radigan, Lead Flight Director

Orion will slow from 23,839 miles (38,365 kilometers) per hour, Mach 32, to splashdown at 19 mph (30.6 kph) 13.5 minutes later.

As Orion reenters, the Service Module will detach, then the Forward Bay Cover, then drogue, pilot and main parachutes. All of that will fall into the Pacific Ocean creating a hazard area. Once the crew is in the water, the Navy/NASA recovery team from the USS John P. Murtha will have to wait for clearance before approaching the capsule to ensure they’re clear of the debris.

As Liliana Villarreal, Landing and Recovery Director, explained yesterday, it will be some time before the crew is extracted. Divers first must ensure the air and water around the capsule is safe to approach, then medical officers will enter the capsule to check on the crew, and an inflatable raft they call the “front porch” is made ready to accommodate the crew until helicopters arrive to transport them to the Murtha. Then they have to get back to San Diego and fly home. Exactly how long it will take for the crew to be reunited with their families in Houston is TBD.

The weather is looking great. Splashdown is a couple hundred miles offshore from San Diego and while it won’t be visible to those on shore, the U.S. Geological Survey says a sonic boom may be heard. They’d like anyone who hears it between 5:00-5:15 pm Pacific Time to let them know.

🌑Artemis II is nearing its return to Earth🌎

A sonic boom is expected as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere and could potentially be felt and heard throughout Southern California between 5:00 and 5:15 pm local time tomorrow, April 10.

If you hear or feel sonic booms (or… pic.twitter.com/2efbhBsCYW

— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) April 9, 2026

For now, the crew is getting their capsule ready, stowing everything they’ve had out during their trip, reinstalling their seats, and a myriad other tasks.

They also had a chance to chat this evening with several bipartisan members of Congress who support the Artemis program: Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Ashley Moody (R-FL), and Representatives Brian Babin (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Hal Rogers (R-KY), Grace Meng (D-NY), Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), and Valerie Foushee (D-NC).