Astronaut Christina Koch and Artemis II crew splash down after historic Moon mission

Ghana's favorite NASA astronaut, Christina H. Koch, and her three crewmates splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in their Orion capsule on Friday, 10 days after the Artemis II mission launched on a historic journey into deep space and a flyby of the moon's far side.

Ms. Koch's crewmates aboard the spacecraft were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Mission Commander, and Victor Glover, Mission Pilot, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist.

Artemis II, NASA's first crewed test flight in the Artemis campaign, launched on April 1, 2026.

The 10-day mission was designed to confirm that the spacecraft's systems operate as intended in the deep space environment.

The mission also served to prove that Orion's life support systems are ready to sustain crews on future missions, allowing the quartet to practice operations essential to the success of Artemis III and beyond. The Recovery Team arrived to extract the Crew a few minutes after the Orion capsule splashed down.

Many Ghanaians followed Astronaut Koch's space exploits closely following her 2019 post on X (formerly Twitter) reflecting on her time as an exchange student at the University of Ghana.

During her time at Legon in the 1999/2000 academic year, she studied History of Ghana, History of Africa, Twi for Beginners, Music and Rural Sociology—an experience she described as life-changing.