SEATTLE — Generations of families crowded together to watch the end of the historic Artemis II space journey Friday, days after astronauts broke records and traveled the farthest humans have ever been from Earth.
Dozens of people joined a watch party for the splashdown at the Museum of Flight Friday afternoon. Many of them had attended a similar watch party to watch the crew take off.
Joseph Deakin and his son Elijah were in town from California and joined the watch party on their trip.
Joseph recalled the last time humans visited the moon, unsure if he would ever be able to see it happen again.
“I just didn’t think was going to happen in my lifetime, and to see them go back to the moon is really incredible,” he said.
“Being able to watch it in real time, it’s like, wow,” Elijah said. “Space exploration seems so much more advanced and so much closer to my generation and generations behind me than ever before.”
The 10-day journey launched from Florida on April 1. The crew did not land on or orbit the moon, but traveled beyond Apollo 13’s distance record, more than 252,000 miles away from Earth.
At various points during the splashdown, attendees clapped and gasped together.
The splashdown took place around 5:07 p.m. local time and the crowd erupted in cheers.
“When they went to the moon the first time, (I) remember looking at the black and white TV and could barely make out, it was really bad, bad video feed,” Joseph said. “But now, we’re at it again, and the photographs and video are just incredible.”