Artemis II Flight Day 9: Last Full Day in Deep Space — Crew 147,337 Miles Out, Reentry Preparations Complete

Flight Day 9 was the final full day in deep space for the Artemis II crew. The crew awoke to the song 'Lonesome Drifter' by Charley Crockett — a tradition of mission-specific wakeup songs dating to the Apollo era — with the spacecraft at approximately 147,337 miles from Earth and closing at increasing speed as Earth's gravity pulled Orion home. All final preparations for re-entry and splashdown were completed. The crew reviewed emergency procedures, verified life support systems, secured loose items in the cabin, and prepared their Orion Crew Survival System suits for donning prior to re-entry. Mission controllers verified the spacecraft's heat shield status and confirmed the modified skip-reentry trajectory — the critical mitigation developed after the Artemis I heat shield anomaly — was precisely calibrated. Orion's reentry skip trajectory would bring the capsule into the atmosphere, skip out briefly, and then arc back down for final deceleration and parachute deployment. Splashdown was confirmed for April 10 at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT off the coast of San Diego, California, with the USS John P. Murtha positioned in the recovery zone.