Artemis II astronauts head for home, wrapping up final tests and experiments

After a historic loop around the moon, the Artemis II astronauts sped back toward Earth on Wednesday, enjoying a relatively easy day in space as they wrapped up a few last tests before getting ready for reentry and splashdown on Friday.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen planned to hold a news conference late Wednesday, answering reporters’ questions about the flight, the first piloted trip around the moon in more than a half century.

The crew plans to take another shot at manually flying their Orion capsule, putting their skills to the test by precisely maneuvering the spacecraft.

Earlier tests with all four astronauts showed how precisely they could respond to pilot inputs, a skill that might be essential for future dockings with lunar landers in the moon’s orbit if automatic systems fail..

Flight controllers, meanwhile, reviewed the reentry timeline and Navy recovery crews headed to the splashdown site off the Southern California coast near San Diego, where the Orion capsule is expected to splash down at 8:07 p.m. ET.

At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, scientists kept busy reviewing thousands of photos taken by astronauts as they flew over the moon’s far side on Monday, along with videos and audio recordings describing various high-priority targets.

Between 1968 and 1972, nine three-man Apollo crews flew over the moon’s far side, but those missions took place when the near side was brightly lit and the far side was in darkness..

The Artemis II astronauts were the first humans to see, with their own eyes, large swaths of the far side in daylight, giving researchers insights that could lead to a better understanding of the moon’s evolution.

NASA’s first crewed moon mission since the last Apollo landing in 1972 has been running smoothly, with just a few minor hiccups. One of these was a quirky issue with the ship’s toilet, which struggled to properly release liquid waste overboard as needed.

While an annoyance at times for the crew, it’s been a relatively minor issue given the technical challenges of safely flying to the moon and back.