A new video from NASA shows the jubilant moment U.S. Navy divers first opened the hatch of the Artemis II Orion capsule after it splashed down to Earth following its historic mission to the moon.
The Artemis II mission sent four astronauts on a lunar flyby for the first time in over 50 years, gathering data so the agency can prepare for future missions to the moon's surface and to Mars and breaking the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.
While everything went extremely well, the moments that led up to the crew’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean were nail-biting – especially as NASA’s mission control lost contact with the astronauts and later on during the hour that they were bobbing around in the ocean near San Diego, California, on Friday afternoon.
“Got ‘em! Yes!” one Navy diver wearing the body camera yells as the spacecraft’s hatch pops open.
More cheers and applause break out as the door is opened and divers head inside the small space, including from NASA mission specialist Christina Koch – the first woman to go to the moon.
“Christina, welcome home!” the man wearing the camera says as he double fist bumps her after pilot Victor Glover.
“Thank you!” she exclaims loudly.
Koch and Glover were on Orion for 10 days with NASA commander Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.
After the astronauts were checked out and extracted, they were put on rafts and then flown by helicopter to an awaiting ship, the USS John P. Murtha.
After a day of rest and reuniting with loved ones, the astronauts told reporters that their experience “was not easy.”
“We are bonded forever,” Wiseman told his fellow crew mates, “and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through. And it was the most special thing that has ever happened in my life.”
“It’s a special thing to be a human and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” he added.
Koch said she couldn’t sleep after returning home.
“Earth was just the lifeboat hanging [undisturbed] in the universe,” she recalled of the view looking back at the blue marble humans call home.
The astronauts are expected to further discuss their mission in another news conference on Thursday afternoon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Next, the Artemis II astronauts will help prepare future Artemis missions, applying the systems and flight data they gathered during their trip.
The next phase of Artemis is slated for 2027, when astronauts will launch in Orion to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the moon.
Koch posted on social media Monday that their work had already begun, including videos of her in a full spacesuit walking and hammering the rocks on a fake moon.
“We didn’t walk on the Moon until we got back to Earth. To understand how to optimize lunar surface spacewalks on future Artemis missions, we do simulated runs as soon as we are back,” she explained. “Spoiler alert: It felt great.”
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