LIVESTREAMING: UG’s Christina Koch and her NASA Artemis II crew return to Earth

Friday, April 10, 2026, marks the last day of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Artemis II 10-day mission to fly around the Moon, which started on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.

The four NASA astronauts on the mission, including Christina Hammock Koch, an alumna of the University of Ghana, are expected to land on Earth on Friday somewhere in San Diego, California, United States (US).

The crew have broken the record for the farthest any human being has travelled from Earth, which was set more than 50 years ago by the Apollo 17 mission.

They are expected to be in constant communication with the NASA team on the ground as they work to blast their rocket back to Earth.

About the historic Artemis II mission:

As indicated, Artemis II is a 10-day US spaceflight to send four astronauts on a flyby around the Moon and back to Earth.

The mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, with a crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

It is the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft, and the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

According to reports by CNN, the Artemis II mission marks a historic milestone in humanity's return to deep space exploration, more than five decades (50 years) after the Apollo 17 mission. This mission represents a critical step in the broader Artemis Programme led by NASA, aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon and eventually sending humans to Mars.

The significance of Artemis II lies in its being the first crewed mission in the programme, designed to test systems and ensure the safety of future lunar landings.

The reports also emphasise the symbolic importance of the mission, noting renewed global interest in space exploration and the diversity of the crew, which reflects a more inclusive era of human spaceflight.

Watch a livestream of the event below:



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