Artemis moonship returns to Earth with picture-perfect Pacific Ocean splashdown
The successful return to Earth marks a major milestone in NASA's plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon.
www.cbsnews.comDirect answer: Artemis 1 splashdown occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, near Guadalupe Island, south of San Diego, on December 11, 2022.
Context and quick details:
- The Orion capsule splashed down about 350–400 miles (roughly 560–640 km) west of Baja California, after an uncrewed 1.4 million-mile flight around the Moon.[4]
- The landing site was adjusted from a location west of San Diego to a position south of Guadalupe Island due to weather and sea conditions.[1][4]
- Recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. Navy retrieved the capsule from the Pacific Ocean and prepared it for transport to the next phase of analyses.[5][1]
If you’d like, I can pull up a couple of recent sources or provide a short map-style summary of the Artemis 1 splashdown route and recovery timeline.