Nasa astronauts have landed safely back on Earth following their record-breaking lunar flyby which marks a stepping stone towards a future moon landing and eventual Mars mission.
The Artemis II crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego in California at 1.07am Irish time.
During re-entry, their Orion capsule was expected to hit the atmosphere at around 38,625km/h, or about 32 times the speed of sound.
In a critical test for the spacecraft’s heat shield, temperatures outside were set to soar to as high as 2,760 degrees Celsius.
Following a previous test flight, engineers had altered the descent trajectory in order to reduce the risk of the module burning up.
The intensity of the return meant contact with the crew was cut off for several minutes, prior to the deployment of parachutes eventually slowing the capsule’s fall to just 27km/h before hitting the water.
The naval ship USS John P Murtha and a fleet of military aircraft were standing by to help recover the crew one by one.
The first manned Moon mission in more than 50 years, which blasted off from Cape Canaveral on April 1st, took the three Americans and a Canadian deeper into space than anyone has gone before.
The crew travelled 406,771km from Earth, smashing the distance milestone of 400,171km previously held by the Apollo 13 crew for 56 years.
Their epic voyage took them around the far side of the moon, normally hidden to the human eye, which included a 40-minute communication blackout.
Alongside their other duties, it provided the opportunity for the team to take some spectacular pictures of the moon and Earth, including a total solar eclipse.
The last time Nasa sent astronauts to the Moon was as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The agency is seeking to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China does in about 2030. - PA
