Houston (USA), Apr. 11 (LaPresse) – The four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, involved in the Artemis II mission returned overnight with a spectacular splashdown of the Orion capsule with parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, thus concluding a journey of nearly 10 days to the Moon and back. The crew was the first to visit the Moon since NASA’s Apollo program more than half a century ago. Artemis II set a record for distance in space travel during the lunar flyby, surpassing Apollo 13 from 1970. While traveling on the far side of the Moon, the astronauts captured views never seen before by the human eye, as well as a total solar eclipse. Artemis II was a test flight for future lunar missions. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen crossed the atmosphere traveling at Mach 33, that is 33 times the speed of sound, a breathtaking spectacle not seen since NASA’s Apollo Moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s.