Cheers erupted, waves of applause rang out, and men, women and children wipe tears of pride and joy from their eyes as an unprecedented crowd of thousands of gathered around giant screens in the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Pavilion of flight to experience the thrill of a lifetime during the historic Artemis II splash down off the coast of San Diego on Friday April 10.

The joyous outbursts began when the crowd first witnessed images from NASA’s live feed of the Orion space capsule – dubbed Integrity by its crew – engulfed in a ball of fire as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an awe-inspiring speed of 25,000 miles an hour.

Once safely back in the blue skies of Earth’s atmosphere, Orion’s distinctive three orange and white parachutes appeared on the screen, prompting a huge round of emotion and applause from the crowd as the now-beloved astronauts were once again in the embrace of their home planet.

When the capsule splashed down at a gentle 19 miles an hour into the calm waters of the Pacific Ocean off San Diego’s world-famous coast, the crowd broke out into spontaneous chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

NASA’s Orion spacecraft that captivated the nation’s attention during its ten-day mission landed roughly 60 miles west of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean at 5:07 p.m., wrapping up a journey that laid the groundwork for future travel into deep space.

Navy teams from the San Diego-based USS John P. Murtha recovered the crew nearly 90 minutes after splashdown, and eventually transported them by helicopter to Naval Air Station North Island. Each time a member of Orion’s four-person crew of Commander Reid Weisman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, emerged from the Orion capsule, new rounds to applause and cheers exploded from the crowd gathered around screens in the Pavilion of Flight as well as from groups gathered around 85-inch monitors watching the splashdown throughout the Museum’s galleries.

The crew of Weisman, Glover, and Christina Koch and Hansen racked up an impressive number of firsts during Artemis II’s 10-day mission, the first time humans have visited our lunar neighbor in over half a century since Apollo 17 returned from lunar orbit in December 1972 with astronauts Gene Cernan, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Ronald Evans aboard, the last astronauts visit Earth’s nearest neighbor before Artemis II.

Artemis II also traveled more miles and farther away than any other previous lunar mission, breaking the record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970 for distance traveled away from Earth. The world has been captivated by the images and video captured by Artemis II during its journey, including stunning never-seen-before photos and personal observations of the Moon’s far side.

Future Artemis missions are slated to splashdown off the coast of San Diego, including Artemis III and Artemis IV in 2027 and 2028, respectfully, and the Museum will be San Diego’s official home for the watch parties for those historic events at its one of a kind venue in Balboa Park.