Splashdown

The Full Story of Artemis II Mission

At exactly 8:07 p.m. on Friday, April 10, 2026, four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. The mission was over. The story was just beginning.

Splashdown is the complete account of NASA's Artemis II mission — the first time human beings have traveled beyond Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Written and published within hours of the crew's recovery by the USS John P. Murtha, this is the book that could only exist after the mission concluded.

It covers everything the news covered in headlines and everything it left behind. Why it took fifty-four years to go back to the Moon — not because we failed, but because of budget pressure, political calculation, and a space program that turned inward for half a century. What Artemis II actually did, and why a mission that didn't land and didn't orbit still proved everything that matters about the future of human spaceflight. The distance record broken on Monday — 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 record that had stood since 1970. The four remarkable crew members: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — and what their selection says about where humanity is going. The European engine that powered the spacecraft. The sixty-one nations that have committed to a shared framework for space exploration. And what comes next — the landing planned for 2028, the water ice at the lunar south pole that changes everything about permanent human presence on the Moon, and the long arc toward Mars.

Commander Reid Wiseman radioed Mission Control as the capsule bobbed in the Pacific: "What a journey. We are stable. Four green crew members." This is that journey — from the fifty-four-year absence to the moment they came home.

The Backstory series. Because the event is just the ending.