The mission is not over. Orion is heading home, due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on 11 April.
What remains is re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere – the moment that caused so much anxiety after Artemis I, when unexpected heat shield damage triggered an investigation that delayed this mission by more than a year. The Orion capsule will hit the atmosphere at roughly 25,000 mph (40,000km/h).
That is the test no simulator can replicate, and its outcome will define this mission’s legacy more than any image of the Moon’s far side.
If re-entry goes well, the picture that emerges from Artemis II will be genuinely encouraging. The rocket worked. The spacecraft worked. The crew handled the systems with competence and grace. And Nasa has at last articulated a credible plan to build on this moment rather than wait three years and start again.
A Moon landing by 2028 remains a stretch. Barber’s instinct is that it is more like three to four years away, and that judgement is hard to argue with.
But the smoothness of this mission – from launch to lunar flyby – has shifted the probability in the right direction. The question is no longer whether Orion can fly. The question is whether the landers, the cadence, and the political will can keep pace. The spacecraft, at least, has done its part.
Artemis II a story of inspiration and a story of science. The events of last night had echoes of the Apollo programme. At a time when this world has not enough optimism, just as there was so little in the 1960s with wars across the world and civil unrest at home in the US, this was a moment in time when we could for one night remember that we are one. We can see that picture of the Earth.
This is not the end of the story by any means, this is just a test flight for an eventual landing on the Moon – not just one, but many more to come.
