Inside the Artemis II splashdown: NASA astronauts breathe sigh of relief after 700,000-mile moon mission

After travelling faster than a bullet and enduring four times the force of gravity, the Artemis II crew’s first real sign they had made it home came in two words: “Four green”.

When viewers watched NASA’s Artemis II capsule splash down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, the dramatic scenes of astronauts emerging from the spacecraft captured global attention.

But newly released helmet-camera footage showed the moment that mattered most, the seconds when recovery crews opened the hatch and confirmed the astronauts had survived one of the most dangerous phases of the mission.

Inside the 330 cubic-foot Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen had just completed a nearly 700,000-mile journey around the moon — the first time humans had travelled that far into deep space since 1972, The New York Times reported.

Video captured from cameras mounted on recovery team helmets places viewers inside the moment the hatch opened, revealing cheers and clapping as Navy divers and medical officers greeted the crew.

Shouts of “let’s go!” were followed by the callout “four green”, confirming all four astronauts were conscious and in good health.

“Welcome home,” the recovery team said as they entered the capsule, which appeared scorched from the intense heat generated during re-entry.

The footage shows astronauts smiling as they waited for procedures to allow them to exit the spacecraft, a moment of relief for the crew, but also the families and viewers holding their breath.

“Jesse, Steve, Laddy, and Vlad….such an incredible feeling to welcome you aboard Integrity after a nearly 700,000 mile journey,” Wiseman later wrote on X.

“Forever thankful for your service to our crew and the nation.”

Artemis II, which launched April 1, marks NASA’s first human deep space mission in more than five decades and serves as a crucial test flight ahead of a planned return to the moon later this decade.

During the 10-day mission, the crew tested Orion’s propulsion, communications systems and onboard living conditions, gathering data designed to inform future Artemis missions, including a planned lunar landing and eventual journeys to Mars.

The mission also unfolds against the backdrop of a renewed global space race, with the United States aiming to return humans to the moon before China achieves its own crewed landing.

Even after splashdown, the testing did not end. Within hours of returning to Earth, the astronauts faced further evaluation, including an obstacle course designed to measure how the human body responds after extended exposure to deep space.

For Artemis II, the journey may have stretched hundreds of thousands of miles, but success ultimately came down to the moment the hatch opened, and the crew could finally breathe a sigh of relief.