'I could not be more proud!': Trump congratulates Artemis II crew on successful mission

U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated the four-member crew of the Artemis II mission on Friday (April 10) after they safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the moon in over half a century.

"I could not be more proud! I look forward to seeing you all at the White House soon," posted Trump on his Truth Social platform. "Next step, Mars!"

NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into the sea off the Southern California coast shortly after 5 p.m. PT (0000 GMT), concluding a mission that took the astronauts deeper into space than anyone had flown before.

The Artemis II flight, traveling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515 km) across two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 252,000 miles away, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to start landing astronauts on the lunar surface starting in 2028.

-Kokkai Ng/Reuters