Artemis 2 LIVE: Today's fiery plunge is the riskiest stage of Orion's flight
Today is splashdown day for the Artemis 2 crew. Tune in for live updates throughout the afternoon!
Artemis 2 returns home, today, from their 10-day trip around the Moon, and their fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere will be the riskiest part of this entire mission.
The crew of the Artemis 2 mission — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are nearing the final stage of their flight.
After launching into orbit on April 1, they spent one day circling Earth, testing out the capabilities of their Orion spacecraft, they named Integrity. Once that shakedown was complete, they then set off for a four-day journey out to the Moon, taking a day to pass around the far side, while they explored its geology from space, capturing incredible imagery along the way.
The Artemis 2 image gallery 'frontpage'. (NASA)
RELATED: 'He gave her the Moon': Artemis 2 crew names crater after commander's late wife
In the days since, Integrity has been falling back towards Earth, bringing the crew closer and closer to home again.
As of Friday morning, with only hours left in their journey, anticipation is growing.
Orion's orientation, speed, and distance from Earth and the Moon are shown in this computer visualization of the spacecraft as of around 10:30 a.m. EDT, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (NASA TV)
By noon, Eastern Time, the crew crossed the 100,000-kilometre-distance from Earth, as they remain on track for reentry starting around 7:30 p.m. EDT, with a splashdown expected off the coast of California by 8:07 p.m. EDT.
Follow the live updates from this risky final stage of the mission, below.
NASA's coverage of Artemis 2's return home begins at 6:30 p.m. EDT.
7:05 p.m. EDT
We are just a little over 1 hour from expected splashdown of the Artemis 2 mission.
Once the capsule is down, it can end up settling into one of two orientations: either floating with the heat shield down, which is the ideal situation, or with the heat shield facing up, putting the capsule upside down in the water. In either situation, five airbags will inflate at the top of the capsule. This will either right the capsule, or simply keep it upright.
The Artemis 1 Orion capsule is pictured here, from after splashdown in 2022, with its five airbags inflated. (NASA)
Roughly 1 hour after splashdown, ground crew will approach, inflating a large raft known as The Front Porch, which they will position next to the capsule, to extract the crew.
Christina Koch will be the first out of the capsule, followed by Victor Glover. Each will board a separate helicopter. Then, Jeremy Hansen will be next, who will board the same helicopter as Christina Koch, and finally Reid Wiseman will disembark and join Victor Glover on his helicopter. They will then fly back to the USS John P. Murtha for medical checkups.
6:45 p.m. EDT
Megan Cruz, from Kennedy Space Center, is reporting from the deck of the USS John P. Murtha, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.
(NASA TV)
Several cameras are on board the John P. Murtha, ready to observe the Orion capsule as it descends, but also to present views of the ship's deck.
(NASA TV)
Two helicopters, at the far end of the flight deck in the screen capture, above, are standing by to retrieve the Orion crew after splashdown. Two more helicopters stand by as backup.
6:30 p.m. EDT
NASA's live coverage of the Artemis 2 reentry, descent, and splashdown has now begun.
The view from one of Orion's solar panel cameras, just before 6:30 p.m. EDT, on April 10, 2026. (NASA TV)
The crew is on-track for a splashdown at 8 seconds after 8:07 p.m. EDT.
5:45 p.m. EDT
Mission Control has confirmed an unofficial estimate of Orion's maximum speed as it reenters Earth's atmosphere.
At 7:54 p.m. EDT, during the communications blackout between the capsule and Mission Control, Orion should achieve a speed of 39,688.37 kilometres per hour.
(NASA TV)
According to NASA, this is about 210 kilometres per hour short of the fastest speed ever achieved by a crewed spacecraft, which was set back in 1969 by the Apollo 10 crew.
4:58 p.m. EDT
In an exchange with CAPCOM Jacki Mahaffey, Reid Wiseman addressed a discrepancy between the calculations the spacecraft's computer made regarding the upcoming raise burn.
The crew on Orion expected the raise burn to last only 19 seconds, by the schedule. However, the computer was returning a time of 44 seconds total, which was way out of bounds.
CAPCOM Jacki Mahaffey sits at her station, answering the crew's questions as they prepare to return to Earth. (NASA TV)
CAPCOM explained that the error was expected, as the computer on Orion is currently taking into account that it is still connected to the European Service Module. The discrepancy was due to the extra mass of the SM, and once it was ejected, the calculations would work out.
"I remember that class in November 2023, in building 5, on the third floor. Thank you, very much," Wiseman replied.
4:35 p.m. EDT
Likely due to skipping a few steps as they secured their capsule for re-entry (as those steps were unnecessary), the crew requested to start the pre-entry checklist 30 minutes earlier than originally planned. This includes breaking out their entry suits, which they will don and conduct leak checks.
(NASA TV)
The crew is currently on track for the separation of the European Service Module as 7:33 p.m. EDT. A 19 second firing of Integrity's thrusters will follow, about 4 minutes later, to angle the capsule back slightly, in final preparation for plunging into Earth's atmosphere.
2:50 p.m. EDT
What makes this part of the mission the riskiest is the temperatures that the crew capsule will experience during reentry, and how the Orion heat shield is designed to handle those temperatures.
During the Artemis 1 mission, in late 2022, the heat shield performed well. The capsule made it to splashdown intact, and it was determined that any crew on board, if it had been a crewed mission, would have been completely safe.
However, there were some concerns about this, as the heat shield had cracked and degraded far more than expected.
Artemis 1's Orion heat shield after reentry. (NASA)
During re-entry, the heat shield functions by becoming charred, with pieces flaking off of it to carry away some of the heat. So, although pieces of the surface layer of the shield had been torn away during the capsule's return to Earth, this was expected.
It was the extent of this damage to the shield that was the unexpected part.
This new Orion spacecraft has the same type of heat shield, and it will work in the same way. To ensure the crew remains safe, though, the entry, descent, and splashdown team has altered their path. As a result, they will make a steeper initial dive through the upper atmosphere than the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft made, plunging from over 120 kilometres up to down around 60 kilometres in just 2 minutes.
The intention is to minimize the amount of time the heat shield is subjected to extreme temperatures. Along with the 'skip' maneuver they will perform afterward, this should reduce the stress on the shield and the risk to the crew.
__DON'T MISS: Four astronauts made history as they flew around the Moon on Monday!
2:25 p.m. EDT
Pilot Victor Glover and CAPCOM Jacki Mahaffey just concluded an exchange, finalizing the settings of a correction burn for the Orion spacecraft, to put them on the correct path for reentry.
The crescent of Earth grows larger in Orion's solar panel camera views, at around 2 p.m. EDT, on April 10, 2026. (NASA TV)
According to Flight Director Rick Henfling, at Mission Control in Houston, this burn will take place at 2:52 p.m. EDT.
Henfling added that this correction burn, as well as the final raise burn before reentry, are designed to minimize the temperatures experienced by Orion's heat shield as it enters the atmosphere.
Additionally, weather conditions at the splashdown zone, off the coast of San Diego, appear to be ideal. There are broken clouds in the area, winds are only 10 knots, or 18 kph, and wave heights are only around 4 feet, or just over 1 metre.
1:00 p.m. EDT
NASA's timeline for the entry, descent, and splashdown of the Artemis 2 mission begins at just before 3 p.m. EDT, as the spacecraft will make any final trajectory correction needed to bring the astronauts home.
The crew will then don their spacesuits and being working through their checklist to prepare for re-entry.
The most critical, and dangerous, portion of today's event takes place over the course of just over 30 minutes:
7:33 p.m. EDT: Orion's crew module will separate from the European Service Module. This will exposing the capsule's heat shield for the return through Earth's atmosphere.
7:37 p.m. EDT: Orion will perform an 18 second crew module raise burn, to set up their proper entry angle and align the heat shield for atmospheric interface.
Artemis 2's reentry sequence. (NASA)
7:53 p.m. EDT: Orion reaches around 122 kilometres above Earth's surface, travelling at around 35 times the speed of sound. This is the spacecraft's first contact with the upper atmosphere. The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs as the atmosphere slows their capsule, and this will begin a planned six-minute communications blackout due to the plasma build-up around the capsule. During its descent, the capsule will roll from side to side, to shift the position of peak heating on the heat shield, allowing the most extreme heat to bleed off into the surrounding thin air.
7:55 p.m. EDT: At roughly 61 km above the surface, the heat shield will reach peak heating, at an estimated 2,760°C, and the spacecraft will perform a brief 'skip', taking on atmospheric flight to take the pressure off the heat shield, before resuming its plunge roughly 2 minutes later.
7:59 p.m. EDT: The planned communications blackout will end, and NASA will attempt to re-establish comms with the crew.
The parachute deployment sequence for Artemis 2. (NASA)
8:02 p.m. EDT: At this time, the Orion capsule will be sub-sonic, and now travelling slow enough for the deployment of parachutes.
8:03 p.m. EDT: Around 6.7 km up, the first of three sets of parachutes will deploy. These drogue parachutes will slow and stabilize the capsule as Orion nears splashdown.
8:04 p.m. EDT: At around 1.8 km, the drogues will be released, followed by three pilot chutes deploying, which will guide the three main parachutes in their deployment. As the main chutes inflate, it will reduced Orion's speed to around 40 kilometres per hour.
8:07 p.m. EDT: Slowing to just 6 kph with the main parachutes, Orion will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
The flight path ground track of the Orion capsule for the splashdown of the Artemis 2 mission. (NASA)
(Thumbnail image, courtesy NASA, depicts a computer simulation of the view of the Orion capsule entering Earth's atmosphere from space, passing over a dark region of ocean water, towards splashdown. An inset image shows a closeup view of the capsule and the plume of plasma enveloping it during this stage of re-entry.)