Artemis II successfully completed its historic lunar mission on Friday. The Orion module with astronauts landed safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. As people around the world continue to celebrate the big moment, some have expressed concern for the safety of the Artemis II crew. Among the questions, everyone was particularly interested in one about a possible encounter with sharks during the touchdown.
Artemis II spray safety
So how did the Artemis II crew save themselves from the sharks after landing in the ocean? According to NASA, the safety of the astronauts is ensured by a specific rescue team whose task is to monitor the water.
American author Chasten Buttigieg took to X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “Watching the Artemis splashdown and just curious is it someone’s job to make sure there are no sharks?
“He was also worried about ocean creatures,” another commented on the post. Another commented: “Imagine successfully completing a mission right into a shark’s mouth. No, that’s wild.” Someone else said, “Statistically, I’ve heard that the chances of me being eaten by a shark are pretty low. And the chances of me being an astronaut are even lower. So the chances of me being an astronaut being eaten by a shark… But you know, you never know.”
In response to the post, NASA wrote back: “Yes – rescue teams are monitoring the area, so the only thing welcoming the crew is a welcome party.”
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Splashdown Artemis II
The Artemis II astronauts lifted off at 8:07 PM ET after a historic 10-day mission around the Moon.
The Artemis II crew consisted of four astronauts – NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover, NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. They were the first humans to orbit the moon in more than 50 years, according to several reports.
Artemis II was the first crewed mission using a NASA Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew module.
The mission flew 700,237 miles; its top speed was 24,664 mph; and the flight had an entry range of 1,957 miles but landed within a mile of its target, formerly Rick Henfling, the flight director said.
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Artemis III mission around the corner?
On the other hand, NASA also said that the Artemis III mission is “just around the corner” after its trip around the moon.
“The next mission is right around the corner, and you know, we’re going to learn from Artemis II,” Henfling said.
“We’ve learned a lot about flying humans in space, both from operating the vehicles, but also from how to run the control room with a deep space mission. And when the time is right, we’ll go back into specific training and we have a core group of about 30 flight directors, and they’re all extremely capable.”
“I think whoever gets assigned to the next mission will be as successful as we are,” Henfling added.
