Reid Weissman, Victor Glover, Christina Coke and Jeremy Hansen have succeeded in making history. More specifically, the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission returned to Earth this Saturday morning (11.04.2026) after their 10-day journey into space to explore the Moon.

The four astronauts on the Orion spacecraft entered the atmosphere at a speed of more than 38,000 kilometres per hour. The friction caused temperatures of more than 2,700 degrees Celsius, making their return the most dreaded part of the journey around the Moon. At dawn, however, they arrived off California’s Pacific coast safely and shared moments that will go down in history.

A number of ships and aircraft from US forces had been deployed to the area to retrieve the astronauts.

After medical checks, the hatch opening and a brief stop at a military base in San Diego, the crew’s next scheduled destination was Houston’s Johnson Space Center, which they last saw on March 27.

They were last seen on March 27.

They were joined there by their families.

In their photos of their first moments on Earth, they appear happy, smiling for the camera like little children.

They are happy, smiling for the camera like little children.

Trump: next step is Mars

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Through a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump congratulated the four astronauts after they returned to Earth safely.

The US President called the crew talented and said he was very proud of this mission.

He appreciated that a similar operation is going to be done again while the next step for NASA and the astronauts is to travel to Mars.

“Congratulations to the great and very talented crew of the Artemis II mission. The entire trip was spectacular, the landing was perfect and, as President of the United States, I couldn’t be prouder!”

Donald Trump wrote via Truth Social.

“We’ll do it again and then the ‘next step’ will be American astronauts traveling ‘to Mars!” concluded Donald Trump.