Washington DC [US], April 11 (ANI): The Artemis II crew has safely returned to Earth after successfully splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, marking a historic milestone in human space exploration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Saturday.

Moments before reentry, NASA shared a glimpse of the crew's final preparations, posting a celebratory 'fist bump' update on X as the astronauts readied the spacecraft for its descent.

Sharing the details in a post on X, NASA wrote, 'Fist bump! The Artemis II crew is now under 35,000 miles from Earth. The astronauts are preparing the spacecraft for reentry, and the weather is looking good for splashdown.'

https://x.com/NASA/status/2042685174534504571?s=20

The mission has already achieved a major milestone, with the crew breaking the record for the farthest human spaceflight distance at 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth while navigating the far side of the Moon.

During the mission, the crew also witnessed a solar eclipse from space, marking another rare moment in human space exploration.

Following splashdown, the US Navy's USS John P Murtha (LPD-26) will retrieve the crew and the Orion spacecraft, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command.

Meanwhile, US Senator Ted Cruz hailed the achievement, saying the astronauts have inspired a new generation of space explorers through their historic mission.

The Artemis II mission represents a key step in NASA's broader plan to return humans to the Moon and advance future deep space exploration.

The crew comprised NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Notably, Artemis II surpassed the previous record held by the Apollo 13 mission, which had reached a distance of 248,655 miles from Earth, making it the farthest distance ever travelled by humans in space.

Artemis II is NASA's first crewed test flight under the Artemis programme and is designed to validate critical systems required for sustained human presence beyond low-Earth orbit.

As per the official website of NASA, there are five main priorities for Artemis II. These included the ability of systems and teams to sustain the flight crew in the flight environment, and through their return to Earth; demonstrate systems and operations essential to a crewed lunar campaign; retrieve flight hardware and data, assessing performance for future missions; demonstrate emergency system capabilities and validate associated operations to the extent practical, such as abort operations and rescue procedures, as needed and complete additional objectives to verify subsystems and validate data.

Artemis II also marks the first crewed mission to travel around the Moon in more than 50 years, carrying astronauts farther into space than any humans have travelled before, reinforcing a new era of lunar exploration. (ANI)