The final day of the space mission, including splashdown, which takes place in the early hours of tomorrow (11th April 2026).

But first this interesting video from Speedify which attempted to explain the differences between 2026’s Artemis 2 mission and that of the Apollo missions.

He is quite right about these things. The Apollo broadcasts are still outstanding however because they were practically as things happened (given a very short time delay). And those for Artemis were in fact of higher quality (or bitrate etc). Nevertheless the low quality the Artemis 2 lunar flyby afforded disappointed many because there seemed little desire to excel beyond what Apollo had achieved. Have discussed this in other posts anyway.

Artemis II astronauts have traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, flown around the Moon, and observed the lunar surface like never before. Now, they’re coming home. 🌎

Watch the crew splash down on Friday, April 10, around 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11). https://t.co/Ccsk5Z3HFS pic.twitter.com/QoJW2oYVFG

— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026

1815pm UK time: MSS just said six hours forty eight minutes to splashdown. Cloud cover is expected to be minimal and weather looks good.

Current view of Orion with earth in the background. About 52,000 miles to go however speed is now 5,900mph and increasing.

Just six hours and counting. Live picture from Orion as the crew prepare for the return to earth.

The crew and MSS are currently in some confusion over a file and they are discussing whether it ought to be Version one or Version two. It seems MSS saved it as Version one but the Orion crew saved it as Version two. These are part of the steps for the craft’s re-entry – and it seems both MSS and the Orion crew are going over every detail (its called the burn conference apparently) ensuring everything is up to date for the approach and re-entry etc and going over the critical numbers for the return trajectory.

In about thirty minutes (around 19.53pm UK time) time a correction burn will take place. Another will occur at 00.37 UK time.

Tonight’s blackout (due to the re-entry and plasma around the craft) is expected to be from about 00.53 and last six minutes.

Fist bump! 👊

The Artemis II crew is now under 35,000 miles from Earth. The astronauts are preparing the spacecraft for reentry and the weather is looking good for splashdown. pic.twitter.com/jYNlo0xoNu

— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026

Published a couple of hours ago – Scott Manley on the pros and cons of the various types of heat shield and the latest design for Artemis.

As Scott says, it remains to be seen whether the latest heat shield is successful tonight.

The weather around the landing site area is not too bad at the moment. Its just a little misty currently.