After a whirlwind mission to the moon, astronauts are back home. Here's what's next

Space After a whirlwind mission to the moon, astronauts are back home. Here's what's next April 11, 20266:00 AM ET By  Brendan Byrne The Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — splashed down in an Orion space capsule Friday after a 9-day mission to the moon and back. Bill Ingalls/NASA hide caption toggle caption Bill Ingalls/NASA The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission are safely back on Earth after a nine-day mission took them on a trip around the moon and back, sending humans deeper into space than ever before. To come home safely, the crew — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — and its capsule had to endure near-record-breaking entry speeds and temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Here & Now Anytime What Artemis II saw on the moon The Orion spacecraft spent 13 and a half minutes falling through the atmosphere, hitting a top speed of more than 30 times the speed of sound. Orion performed as designed. The capsule's heat shield protected the crew, and a series of parachutes helped the capsule gently splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. With that landing, the mission came to a close, clocking more than 700,237 statute miles, said Artemis II entry flight director Rick Henfling. Sponsor Message Science WATCH: Artemis II astronauts splash down on Earth Four members of the U.S. Navy Dive team pulled the crew from the capsule. Helicopters plucked them from a raft outside their spacecraft — called the porch — and within 24 hours of splashdown, they'll arrive at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We did it. We sent four amazing people to the moon and safely returned them to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years," said NASA's Lori Glaze, who leads the Artemis programs. "To the generation that now knows what we're capable of: Welcome to our moonshot." The crew'...