What all did NASA's Artemis II Moon mission achieve in 10 days?

The primary objective of Artemis II was assessing the performance of the Orion spacecraft and its life support systems in deep space with humans onboard.

NASA Artemis II Moon mission concluded on April 11 after the successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The four astronauts were all smiles as they were extracted from the Orion spacecraft 'Integrity' by US Navy personnel.

Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, launched to the Moon on April 2 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the splashdown marked the end of their 10-day lunar voyage.

NASA said the astronauts were in high spirits as they were transferred to the USS John P. Murtha for a medical evaluation by flight surgeons before their journey to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Artemis II astronauts Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen (top), Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman (left to right). 

Orion's reentry was something NASA was concerned about considering the spacecraft's heatshield which underperformed during Artemis I. In the following days and weeks, engineers will evaluate how the heatshield fared on Artemis II.

What did NASA achieve with Artemis II?

The primary objective of the mission, similar to Artemis I, was data collection; mainly assessing the performance of the Orion spacecraft and its life support systems in deep space with humans onboard. Except for the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), as NASA calls Orion's toilet, all critical elements including the European-made service module that supplied the spacecraft with propulsion, electricity, water, oxygen, nitrogen and thermal control seemed to work just fine.

The toilet reportedly faced problems with venting of water waste, which forced the astronauts to use alternative methods such as the Collapsable Contingency Urinal (CCU), an elongated container like device.

The crew also faced no communication issues with mission control like Artemis I, when Orion went incommunicado for about 47 minutes on its way to the Moon. During a post-splashdown press conference, NASA said that Orion went offline as expected during reentry blackout period and came online as expected, which has enforced trust in the spacecraft.

Any other shortcomings (if any), will be more clear once NASA completes its post-flight assessment.

Artemis II set and broke several records right from the start. Notably, it was NASA's first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972 - when the last Apollo mission - Apollo 17 - launched.

Mission specialist Koch became the first woman to fly on a Moon mission alongside mission pilot Victor Glover - the first person of colour. Besides, mission specialist Hansen is the first Canadian and non-American to launch to the Moon.

The Moon photographed by Artemis II crew during the eclipse.

Artemis II also broke the record of travelling the farthest distance from Earth set in 1970 during Apollo 13. The Orion spacecraft went as far as 4,06,764 km as it looped around the Moon during the flyby breaking the decades-old record of 4,00,171 km. In total, Orion travelled 11,17,684 km from start to finish.

These four astronauts also became the first to see the far side of the Moon - the side which is not visible from Earth. The timing of their launch even enabled them to witness a solar eclipse in space and study the Sun's corona (outer atmosphere) as the Moon blocked the Sun for 54 minutes.

The astronauts also extensively photographed the lunar terrain on the far side which will reveal more about lunar geology and may help select crew landing sites in and around the Moon's south pole for future missions.