The NASA Artemis II astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, have returned from the world's first crewed moon voyage in over half a century. They are set to splash down on their Orion spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California if all goes well. The mission took place on the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, becoming the first astronauts to fly in the vicinity of the moon since the Apollo program in the 1960s and '70s. The return to Earth will require a critical test of the Orion spacecraft's heat shield, which sustained an unexpected level of scorching and stress on re-entry during a 2022 test flight. The ultimate goal of the Artemis program is to establish a long-term presence on the moon as a stepping stone to eventual human exploration of Mars.