NASA's Artemis II mission successfully concluded with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, marking the end of a historic 10-day journey around the Moon.
The Orion capsule, Integrity, parachuted into calm waters off the coast of Southern California, carrying four astronauts safely back to Earth after traveling over 694,000 miles.
The mission is hailed as a major step towards humanity's return to the Moon under NASA's Artemis programme, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent presence on the Moon as a prelude to future exploration of Mars.
During re-entry, the capsule faced extreme heat and air compression, but its exterior temperature reached almost 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and the crew's return demonstrated the Orion spacecraft's ability to resist the forces of re-entry from a lunar-return trajectory.
