Now that Artemis II is completeNASA began its post-match performance analyzes of all the systems that worked together to get four astronauts safely to the Moon and back earlier this month. In addition to taking humans further than ever before, Artemis II served as a crucial test flight for upcoming crewed missions planned as early as 2027 and 2028, the latter of which is NASA’s ambitious goal to land astronauts on the lunar surface. So far, the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket appear to have performed quite well.
NASA claims that its initial evaluations of the crew capsule show that its heat shield “performed as expected, with no unusual conditions identified”, and that it did not exhibit as much coal loss as was observed during the uncrewed Artemis I test. (Navy divers took some really cool photos of the heat shield underwater after water landing, as seen below). Splashdown went as planned, with Orion landing 2.9 miles from its targeted landing site, according to NASA, and its entry interface speed “was within a mile per hour of forecast.”
NASA says the SLS rocket also performed well. It still has some testing left to do, but “at main engine shutdown, when the main stage’s RS-25 liquid engines shut down, the spacecraft was moving at more than 18,000 miles per hour, reaching its insertion speed for orbit and running on target for its intended location,” the space agency noted in a blog post.
One thing we know did However, there were some problems with the toilet system. Shortly after launch, the astronauts reported problems with the urine drain linewhich mission specialist Christina Koch was able to resolve with the help of the ground team. But everyone would like to avoid that on the next mission, which is why NASA now has teams checking hardware and data to identify what went wrong and how to avoid it.
Look at the Earthset
The Artemis II astronauts have continued to share glimpses of their journey around the Moon, and this week, mission commander Reid Wiseman released an incredible video of the Earth behind the Moon, as seen from the Orion spacecraft. Humans have not witnessed this phenomenon for more than 50 years, since the last Apollo mission. Learn more about this here.
Only one chance in this life…
Like I was watching the sunset on the beach from the most alien seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter button on the Nikon like @Astro_Christina hammers 3-shot supports and captures those… pic.twitter.com/8aWnaFJ69c
– Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) April 19, 2026
Even though ten days doesn’t seem like that long to be in space, it still takes its toll on the body, and returning to Earth was a bit of an adjustment for the crew. Astronaut Koch last week released a video of herself struggling during a tandem walk exercise with her eyes closed, taken after returning to Earth. “When people live in microgravity, the systems in our body that evolved to tell our brains how we move, the vestibular organs, don’t work properly,” she explained in the journal. legend. “Our brains learn to ignore these signals and so when we return to gravity, we rely heavily on our eyes to orient ourselves visually.”
Before you go, be sure to also check out these stories:
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Blue Origin landed its recycled New Glenn booster but failed to put the payload into orbit
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/nasas-initial-takeaways-from-the-artemis-ii-mission-and-more-science-stories-160000808.html?src=rss