The four Artemis II astronauts, returning from the world’s first crewed moon voyage in over ​half a century, hurtled back toward Earth on Friday aboard their gumdrop-shaped Orion spacecraft, headed for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. The finale to NASA’s celebrated 10-day mission was expected to begin with separation of Orion’s crew capsule from its service module, followed by a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and a six-minute radio ​blackout before the capsule parachutes ‌into the sea.