U.S. Navy Personnel Are Seen in the Well Deck of USS John P. Murtha

U.S. Navy personnel are seen in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha as they prepare equipment for the recovery of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and extraction of the Artemis II crewmembers, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. NASA’s Artemis II mission is taking NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft. Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen are scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 5:07 p.m. PDT (8:07 p.m. EDT) on Friday, April 10.

Image Credit: NASA