New Delhi, April 11 -- NASA's Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth's atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the Moon in over half a century. NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed "Integrity," parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time, concluding a mission that, four days earlier, took the astronauts 252,000 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before.

Once Navy divers attached a floating collar to stabilise the capsule, the four astronauts, still wearing their orange flight suits, were helped onto an inflatable raf...