The Orion spaceship is headed for home.
NASA Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are returning home after the first lunar mission in half a century.
Artemis II completed the history-making moon orbit on Monday (6), having reached the record distance of 252,756 miles away from Earth.
The crew is now heading back toward Earth.
The Artemis II mission has recently completed a return trajectory correction burn. This is when the Orion spacecraft fires its thrusters to change the spacecraft’s velocity and fine-tune the path back home to Earth. pic.twitter.com/0n02ESio5v
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) April 8, 2026
Fox News reported:
“The Artemis II crew on Tuesday successfully initiated its Return Trajectory Correction Burn (RTCB), a key maneuver used to fine-tune Orion’s path back to Earth during the mission’s return leg.
Orion’s thrusters ignited at approximately 8:03 p.m. ET, marking the first of three planned trajectory correction burns. Artemis II crew confirmed that “they also saw a good Return Trajectory Correction 1 burn,” mission control said.”
The Artemis II crew is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on Friday.
Yesterday, a historic call took place between the Artemis II and crew and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, a conversation that NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described as filled with ‘touching moments’.
“The milestone exchange came during a 15-minute, audio-only call between the Artemis II crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian crewmember Jeremy Hansen — and the orbiting ISS crew, including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, along with Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency.”
🚨 JUST NOW: Historic Call taking place as Artemis II makes a Space-to-Space phone call with the International Space Station.
“This entire journey has been AMAZING!” pic.twitter.com/LhtG9T7qoN
— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) April 7, 2026
But the most moving moment of the mission was probably one that had to do with memories of a loved one.
The Artemis II crew named a lunar crater after Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. What a beautiful and touching moment.
I’m not crying, you’re crying 🤧 pic.twitter.com/3D1qgxK0jB
— Jenny Hautmann (@JennyHPhoto) April 6, 2026
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