Artemis II returning to Earth for splashdown to end historic moon mission

Live Artemis II splashdown live updates as NASA mission returns to Earth By William Harwood, William Harwood CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. Read Full Bio William Harwood, Miles Doran April 10, 2026 / 1:11 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google What to know about Artemis II's splashdown return:NASA's Artemis II astronauts are set to return to Earth from their moon mission on Friday with a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean after making a high-speed reentry through the atmosphere.The Orion capsule will reach a speed of up to 24,000 mph as it takes commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen through the atmosphere.The Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific near San Diego at around 8:07 p.m. ET. Navy recovery crews will bring the astronauts to the USS John P. Murtha for medical checks before they helicopter back to land. New Updates   14m ago Artemis II crew wakes up for final day of the mission — 61,326 miles from Earth For the final day of their mission, the Artemis II astronauts woke up at 11:35 a.m. ET to the tunes of "Run to the Water" by Live, selected by the crew, and "Free" by Zac Brown Band. "What a great way to start the day, Houston. Courage and grit. That'll stick with me and it should stick with all of you all day long," commander Reid Wiseman said.At wake-up time, they were 61,326 miles from Earth.A day earlier, NASA shared the crew's morning playlist on Spotify. "Each track was selected by the Moon crew, continuing a tradition that started more than 50 years ago," NASA wrote on social media.Read more and see the list of songs here. By Miles Doran, Melissa Gaffney https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/artemis-ii-splashdown-return/#post-update-43c23c3f link copied   14m ago California 8-year-old design...