Artemis II astronauts return to Earth after historic lunar mission

Artemis II's history-making astronauts have successfully arrived back on Earth with a "perfect bullseye splashdown" off the coast of California.

After its 10-day lunar voyage, the Orion capsule hit the atmosphere travelling at Mach 33, or 33 times the speed of sound - a blistering pace not seen since the Apollo missions.

Tension mounted in mission control as the capsule, named Integrity by its crew, became engulfed in red-hot plasma and entered a planned six-minute communication blackout.

All eyes were on Orion's life-protecting heat shield, which withstood thousands of degrees of heat at the moment of re-entry.

The capsule then deployed nearly a dozen parachutes to slow itself down to around 17mph for the moment at 5.07pm local time on Friday (1.07am UK time on Saturday) when it hit the Pacific Ocean - which NASA described as a "perfect bullseye splashdown".

The triumphant crew - commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen - emerged into sunlight and were checked over by medics.

NASA's mission control in Houston, Texas, where the astronauts' families were huddled in a viewing room, erupted in a celebration, with hundreds of people pouring in from the back support rooms.

Military helicopters hoisted the crew one by one from an inflatable raft attached to the capsule, taking them on a short trip to the navy's recovery ship, USS John P Murtha.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said from the recovery ship: "These were the ambassadors from humanity to the stars that we sent out there right now, and I can't imagine a better crew."

The astronauts are expected to spend the night aboard the US navy ship and will be flown to Houston to be reunited with their families on Saturday, NASA said.

Artemis II broke Apollo 13's distance record, marking the farthest humans have ever journeyed from Earth when it reached 252,756 miles.

In one of the mission's most emotional scenes, the astronauts asked to name two craters on the moon after their ship and Commander Wiseman's late wife, Carroll.

During last Monday's record-breaking lunar fly-by, they documented parts of the moon never seen before by the human eye and witnessed a total solar eclipse.