WATCH: Video Captures Emotional Moment Artemis II Crew Emerges From Capsule After Splashdown
After 10 days in space, a journey around the Moon, and a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the Artemis II crew took their first steps back toward Earth on Friday night — one by one, lifted into the sky.
Video captured by ABC News shows all four astronauts on the recovery raft, called the front porch, after exiting the Orion spacecraft. On the live stream, as each astronaut emerged from the capsule, cheers erupted from those observing, and the crew was all smiles.
BREAKING: Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover Jr., Jeremy Hansen and Reid Wiseman have exited the Orion capsule after a successful Artemis II splashdown.
— ABC News (@ABC) April 11, 2026
Follow live updates: https://t.co/obevyEPTg6 pic.twitter.com/6h3l2mzWr7
Another video shared to X from Fox News showed the astronauts getting lifted one-by-one by a helicopter, taking them to the final leg of their journey back to Houston.
One by one, all four Artemis II astronauts are now being airlifted from the recovery raft by helicopter.
— Overton (@overton_news) April 11, 2026
The post-splashdown extraction is now underway as the crew begins the final leg of their journey home.
FOX: “Well, it looks like the first extraction will be taking place,… pic.twitter.com/hJDB8ry9Fb
Artemis II Extraction After Splashdown
The extraction began after splashdown at 8:07 p.m. ET off the coast of San Diego. Recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. military approached the capsule in inflatable boats, and at 9:34 p.m. ET — roughly 90 minutes after hitting the water — the crew was confirmed safely out of Orion. By 9:56 p.m. ET, all four astronauts had been hoisted into helicopters and were en route to the ship.
Prior to being airlifted, the crew was evaluated by a medical examiner on the recovery raft. All four were confirmed "green" — healthy and cleared to proceed.
Once aboard the USS John P. Murtha, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will undergo further post-mission medical evaluations before returning to shore and boarding an aircraft bound for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Orion capsule, meanwhile, will be pulled aboard the ship via a winch line before being transported to U.S. Naval Base San Diego and ultimately returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a thorough inspection — including a critical look at the heat shield that was a known concern heading into the mission.