After the trip around the Moon, the journey of Artemis II it is compressed into a sequence of minutes that weigh as much as the entire mission. NASA describes this flight as a route of approx 10 daysthe first manned flight of the Artemis program and the first mission with humans aboard SLS And Orion. They are on board Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch And Jeremy Hansen. From the launch of April 1st until ditching, the crew is expected on a total journey of 695,081 milesthat is, approximately 1.12 million kilometres. At the farthest point he touched 252,760 miles from Earth, surpassing the human record set by Apollo 13.
The official timetables released by NASA are very precise and, translated into Italy, outline a night to follow almost without leaving the screen. Friday 10 April 2026 at 7.50pm Italian the configuration of the cabin for the return begins. At 8.53pm arrives there third correction of the return trajectory. The NASA+ live broadcast starts at 00:30 on Saturday 11 April. At 1:33 separation is expected between crew module And service module. At 1:37 snap the crew module raise burnthe brief ignition that refines the trajectory before entry. At 1:53 Orion reaches theentry interfacei.e. the conventional entry point into the atmosphere. At 2:07 Italian is expectedditching in the Pacific. Later, at 4:30NASA will hold its post-reentry press conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Official coverage of the return to Earth starts at 6:30 pm EDTthen a half past midnight in Italyup NASA+. NASA itself also reports the distribution of the live broadcast on YouTube and on various partner platforms, with coverage that continues up to assistance to the crew after exiting the capsule. For those who want to follow the return Artemis II in real time, that’s the right window.
The hardest part begins when the service module comes off
The technical part of the return has an official chronology that is worth keeping in mind, because it explains well where the risk is concentrated. NASA indicates that the service module will separate around 7:33 pm EDTabout twenty minutes before Orion reaches the upper atmosphere southeast of Hawaii. Four minutes later, at 7:37 pmcomes the brief final ignition that adjusts the path and prepares a series of roll maneuvers useful for putting distance between the crew module and the now discarded hardware. Shortly before the actual entrance, Orion reaches a maximum speed of approx 23,864 miles per hourthat is, approximately 38,400 kilometers per hour.
Then the return changes face. Approximately 400 thousand feet of altitude, around 7:53 pm EDTthe capsule enters the phase of communications blackout. NASA estimates it at approx six minutes: The plasma that forms around the vehicle during peak heating temporarily isolates Orion from contact with Earth. In a nominal profile, the crew gets to hear up to 3.9G. Once that step is passed, the capsule releases the forward bay coveropens i drogue parachute around the 22 thousand feet at 8:03 pm and immediately afterwards unfolds i three main parachutes around 6 thousand feet at 8:04 pmenough to accompany Orion to the water off the coast of San Diego.
As soon as theditchinganother less spectacular and very concrete phase begins. The recovery teams reach the capsule, the crew is pulled out of Orion and transferred by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha. The first post-mission medical evaluations are scheduled on board, then the return to land and the transfer to Houston. Here too, NASA insists on a simple point: Artemis II serves to test systems, procedures and behavior of the vehicle in deep space, including final reentry with humans on board. It is the passage that prepares the next lunar missions and the longer trajectory leading to Mars.
