The Artemis II astronauts safely splashed down off the coast of San Diego at 5:07 p.m. Friday. After their historic 10-day mission around the moon, the crew and NASA officials are finally breathing a sigh of relief. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still at a loss for words. The childhood Jared right now can\u2019t believe what I just saw,\u201d said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, standing aboard a Navy warship assisting with recovering the four returned astronauts in the Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n
Isaacman was born more than a decade after the last time humans walked on the moon. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve almost been waiting my whole lifetime to see this, and then as NASA administrator, I just couldn\u2019t be more proud of the entire workforce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The return mission was highly anticipated and attracted rapt viewers from across the nation. The Empire State Building was lit up<\/a> in red, white and blue to welcome the crew home. Multiple MLB stadiums<\/a> displayed footage of the landing on their scoreboards<\/a>.<\/p>\n NASA regarded the high-energy reentry \u2014 streaking through the atmosphere in a nearly 5,000-degree-Fahrenheit fireball at more than 32 times the speed of sound \u2014 as one of the riskiest moments of the mission.<\/p>\n