SPLASHDOWN: See the moment ARTEMIS II crew successfully splashes down off coast of San Diego

[0:00] Again, the reentry at any moment, we will not be hearing from the astronauts on integrity. [0:05] Ten seconds till entry interface, and we have crossed the threshold now, entering the Earth's atmosphere. [0:24] We're at 400,000 feet, traveling 34,800 feet per second. [0:29] Time to splash down 13 minutes, 10 seconds. [0:40] This is incredible to witness, and Susan, I gather that's some of the heat right there. [0:48] Yes, that's the plasma. [0:49] The plasma and the heat surrounding this capsule. [0:53] And as predicted, we've entered our communications blackout. [0:57] Is what leads to the blackout. [0:58] This will be a six-minute blackout period. [1:01] Six minutes. [1:02] No voice, no data from the crew. [1:03] No voice, no data from the crew, as we're hearing from NASA right now. [1:08] Dr. Hakeem Ulusheye, an astrophysicist, science educator, has been with us for our coverage these last 10 days. [1:15] And Hakeem, you've been great throughout. [1:18] This is one of the most anxious times of the entire journey. [1:21] This is the true test of our trajectory. [1:23] Absolutely it is. [1:24] I am sitting on the edge of my seat, just like the rest of you, waiting to see these parachutes deploy and a safe splashdown. [1:33] Aircraft in the vicinity of the splashdown. [1:36] Let's listen back into NASA. [1:38] And again, they'll let us know in about five minutes now if they have regained communication with those four astronauts. [1:45] As it enters the period of peak heating in the Earth's atmosphere, the first tug of gravity being felt by Integrity's astronauts since their launch back on April 1st. [1:54] Of course, we are thinking of the families of pilot Victor Glover, mission pilot, Reid Weissman, the commander. [2:08] Four and a half minutes until the end of the blackout period. [2:10] Tina Cook, four and a half minutes to go until we hear from them again. [2:13] Jeremy Hansen. [2:14] Time to slash down. [2:14] 11 minutes, 33 seconds. [2:16] Of course, the Canadian astronaut. [2:19] Everyone on board making history in their own way. [2:21] The first Canadian to join them in a mission to the moon. [2:25] This is the first time in many decades since the Apollo missions that we have sent humans back to the moon. [2:31] And they made their own history traveling farther than any astronauts who went before them. [2:36] Going to the far side of the moon and seeing with human eyes parts of the moon that have never been seen before. [2:43] And sending back messages of hope and those extraordinary images. [2:48] They have talked during their press conferences. [2:53] The landing and support officer reports that the P-3 has acquisition on Integrity. [3:00] About the importance of coming home. [3:04] It was Victor Glover himself. [3:05] Three and a half minutes left in this blackout period. [3:07] There you see it. [3:08] This is a visualization. [3:10] A visualization. [3:11] So this is similar to the simulations we showed you earlier, only this one is from NASA. [3:15] Let's listen. [3:16] Repelling of that heat on Integrity's heat shield. [3:19] I was saying Victor Glover, the mission pilot, was asked, what is he most looking forward to? [3:33] And he said, splashdown. [3:34] And who could argue with that? [3:39] He also talked about this being like riding a fireball through the atmosphere. [3:43] This incredible moment. [3:44] And this visualization from NASA helps to explain this. [3:49] Why there would be a blackout during this period of time. [3:53] The families of all of these astronauts. [3:55] Flight Dynamics reports that airborne assets in the vicinity of the splashdown zone do have a visual on Integrity. [4:02] Still two minutes and 40 seconds left in our blackout period. [4:08] Time to splashdown. [4:09] Nine minutes, 35 seconds. [4:13] Nine minutes until splashdown. [4:15] Let's keep this visualization. [4:17] But if we could add, Dave, our director in the control room, Trevor Rault, [4:21] who is at a watch party at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. [4:25] And Trevor, I gather the nerves can be felt in that room right now. [4:32] Absolutely, David. [4:33] And what we are seeing is basically every single checkpoint that's being hit is being met with thunderous applause. [4:39] You can hear us nattering right now. [4:41] That's been happening continuously, 30 seconds after 30 seconds after 30 seconds after. [4:45] And what we've been seeing are generations of families experiencing something that many of these people have never experienced before. [4:51] I talked with one man here, an 86-year-old grandfather. [4:55] He said he remembers watching the very first space launches. [4:57] He remembers the Apollo flights. [4:59] He remembers those first lunar missions. [5:01] It inspired him to become a pilot and an engineer. [5:04] Now, after 45 years of his own flight, he's retired. [5:07] He is back here tonight with his grandchildren watching Artemis. [5:11] And then at the same time, we're hearing from young people. [5:13] There's two people behind me here, Lena, Olivia. [5:15] These are students at UC San Diego who told me that they can't believe, when they learned about Artemis, [5:21] they said, I can't believe it's happening in real life and not in the movies. [5:24] That's how long it has been. [5:26] What we've been hearing from family after family is that this is something that feels like a previous America would accomplish. [5:32] Now, of course, we are in that tight window. [5:35] Will it land safely? [5:36] And, of course, we know everyone's waiting on bated breath, but they are optimistic, David. [5:40] No question about that. [5:41] A lot of optimism and a lot of prayers across this country tonight. [5:45] As we watch and wait for Artemis 2 to emerge in communication. [5:48] We're standing by for communications from the crew. [5:51] We should be out of the blackout period less than a minute from now. [5:54] All right. [5:54] Let's listen. [5:54] Less than a minute here to see if we can regain communications with the four astronauts on board. [5:59] Victor Glover, Reid Weissman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. [6:03] We are now processing data from Integrity. [6:21] Which is a very good sign, right, Susan, that they are getting data. [6:24] No communications yet with the astronauts, but they are receiving transmission from Integrity. [6:29] This is great news. [6:36] Landing and support officer reports the small boats are en route to the splashdown target zone. [6:44] The vessels carrying the divers, members of the U.S. Navy standing by to race to that splashdown zone. [6:52] And, Susan, tell us what we're looking at right here. [6:54] It's the visual. [6:56] It's the camera view of the reentry. [7:01] It's no longer a visualization. [7:07] And, you know, it looks healthy. [7:11] Well, they mentioned six minutes. [7:14] We knew they would be six excruciating minutes, particularly. [7:16] Passing through 150,000 feet, our trajectory is perfect. [7:21] We're getting intermittent views of Integrity. [7:26] Still waiting to establish voice communication. [7:29] Integrity, Houston. [7:36] Com check post-blackout. [7:37] Integrity, we have you loud and clear. [7:42] Incredible. [7:42] Your trajectory is nominal, and your recovery teams have visual. [7:50] So there you have it. [7:50] Guys, looks good. [7:52] Artemis 2 responding. [7:53] No action for the enabled internal camera controller fail. [7:57] To mission control. [7:58] Big cheers from the viewing room here in mission control as voice communication reestablished with [8:03] Commander Reed Wiseman for America in a waiting world, integrity is five and a half minutes away from coming home. [8:12] Well, it's not often when you sit here at the anchor desk, when you feel chills. [8:18] This is certainly one of them. [8:20] History being made tonight. [8:21] Artemis 2, the first mission. [8:23] Passing 100,000 feet now. [8:24] In many decades, taking humans back to the moon. [8:27] In fact, they went farther than. [8:29] Range to splash down 19 nautical miles. [8:32] 19 nautical miles until splash down. [8:35] We were expecting it at about 8.06 or so eastern time. [8:40] 8.07 perhaps. [8:46] So just about five minutes from now. [8:52] They mentioned those divers are already en route. [8:55] They clearly know where certainly the integrity impact to the camera controller fail is no cab one views of the chutes. [9:04] We were expecting, hoping, that we might get a view of some of these parachutes, though we're not entirely sure we will. [9:14] We're processing good data through the GPS system. [9:17] A good view of integrity. [9:18] Time to splash down four and a half minutes. [9:20] Four and a half minutes to splash down. [9:22] There's an elaborate sequence of parachutes here. [9:26] The first deployed it around. [9:27] And a view of integrity from the WB-57. [9:29] There you go. [9:30] We're at 50,000 feet. [9:34] At around 22,000 feet, you'll see the first parachutes here. [9:40] Part of this sequence of chutes. [9:42] I saw some movement right there. [9:43] Was that a, there it is. [9:49] You can see a flash of something. [9:53] Entirely sure it's one of the chutes here. [9:54] Pyros are armed for forward bay covered jettison. [9:56] A flicker of something just above. [10:02] Here, you're going to see the drug, the jettison and then the drug chutes. [10:09] And they deploy at about 22,000 feet, right, Susan? [10:11] Right, and they're the first ones to come out. [10:13] Yeah. [10:13] There they are. [10:14] There they are right there. [10:15] And then they go the first series of parachutes. [10:16] Other ones right away. [10:17] And we're on drogues. [10:19] And Houston, we're visual two drogues out the window. [10:22] Yep. [10:23] The drogues. [10:24] Those parachutes right there will slow the spacecraft to about 200 miles an hour. [10:28] Next up. [10:29] We copy. [10:29] We see them. [10:31] Next up, the deployment of pilot parachutes that will pull the main chutes out. [10:36] Time to splash down three minutes and 10 seconds. [10:39] Well, it's just incredible to think for human beings inside that capsule, right, [10:43] who have just seen the far side of the moon and come back to tell us about it. [10:46] And what a bond we've witnessed from them. [10:49] The hug. [10:50] Perfect descent rate according to flight dynamics. [10:52] Speed rates on two drogues. [10:54] The symbol of the heart in their photographs. [10:56] We need to bring him on board. [10:58] That they sent back. [10:59] And they named one of the craters in the moon that they discovered themselves after Reid Weissman's late wife, Carol. [11:05] She died in 2020 of cancer. [11:07] They'd been together for decades. [11:10] And one of his fellow astronauts. [11:11] Passing through 10,000 feet. [11:13] Spoke at the moment. [11:14] Still on drogues. [11:16] Because Reid couldn't say it himself, though he was moved, certainly, that the astronauts decided, [11:22] let's name it after your late wife, Carol. [11:24] So many stories they'll share with us. [11:26] There's the second set right there. [11:30] Main chute deploy. [11:32] We're at 5,000 feet. [11:37] The crew we met with. [11:42] The search and recovery beacon has been activated on Integrity. [11:46] The search and recovery beacon activated for those Navy divers who are now racing to the sites. [11:53] Good three main chutes. [11:55] Good reefing. [11:55] Good descent rate. [11:57] And we see three good-looking parachutes. [12:02] This is picture perfect. [12:12] Integrity. [12:13] Cabin pressure indicates no need for hydrazine checks. [12:15] Integrity copies. [12:22] This is a perfect descent for Integrity. [12:25] It's crew sounding hale and hearty on board. [12:29] Glad to hear it. [12:31] Time to splash down one minute, 15 seconds. [12:34] One minute, 15 seconds until splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off of San Diego. [12:40] The USS John Mertha is in the region. [12:42] Navy divers will race to the craft. [12:45] They will deploy that inflatable around the capsule. [12:47] Integrity about to complete a journey spanning 694,481 miles from its launch from the Kennedy Space Center back on April 1st. [12:58] And a trip around the moon. [12:59] I mean, these are words you have not heard in decades in this country. [13:06] There are a lot of viewers watching tonight who remember this from the Apollo mission, several of them, those missions. [13:12] But, of course, a whole younger generation witnessing something that they've only read about in the history books. [13:32] A flash there at the capsule. [13:33] Passing through 1,000 feet. [13:35] Those three parachutes, of course, the end of that sequence. [14:08] And certainly the ones that are doing most of the work in trying to slow this capsule, slow integrity down to about 20 miles per hour. [14:16] There's the splashdown. [14:19] Splashdown confirmed. [14:20] Copy, splashdown. [14:21] Waiting on VLDR. [14:23] Splashdown confirmed at 7.07 p.m. Central Time, 5.07 p.m. Pacific Time. [14:30] Which, by the way, is exactly when NASA said it would happen. [14:33] Seven minutes past the hour. [14:34] A new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. [14:39] Integrity's astronauts, back on Earth. [14:43] Back on Earth in the Pacific. [14:46] The divers will get there. [14:47] They will look at the outside of Integrity to make sure. [14:51] And the landing and support officer reports the vehicle is stable one. [14:54] Stable. [14:55] There you go. [14:55] We still will be deploying the crew module uprighting system to maintain that orientation. [15:00] A perfect bullseye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts. [15:04] We can breathe. [15:18] We can. [15:19] We just want to see them now, right? [15:20] And they will get to the craft, the divers. [15:23] And as I was mentioning earlier, I just don't like to talk over NASA because they're so fascinating. [15:27] I'm having fun listening in on them as well. [15:29] But they will check the exterior of the capsule to make sure that there isn't any significant damage, [15:34] to make sure it's safe to open the latch. [15:39] The unofficial splashdown time, 7.07 and 47 seconds p.m. Central Time. [15:45] We'll get that refined for you. [15:47] Well, now they're just showing off. [15:49] They tell us it's exactly when we said it would happen. [15:52] One hour, 31 minutes, 35 seconds. [15:54] There will be an initial check. [16:02] And we're configuring for a very low data rate. [16:04] They will initially check to make sure that all of the astronauts are feeling okay. [16:10] And then they're going to take... [16:11] Once again, splashdown occurring in the Pacific, southwest of San Diego, at 7.07 and 47 seconds p.m. [16:20] Integrity Houston, ComCheck on VLDR. [16:22] Please see you next time, VLDR. [16:38] Thank you. [16:38] So the rest is a special equation. [16:42] We'll see you next time. [16:43] erected by the Chinese government. [16:44] For me, rising in its configurable, you must be proud of them in the Pacific,