The Artemis II mission fulfilled the original objective planned during Trump's first term and has origins in prior administrations.

President Trump claimed on Fox News that he initiated the Artemis II program, saying he revived a "totally closed" NASA.

The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a shiny spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the Moon, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

NASA's Crawler-Transporter 2 moved the Artemis II launch tower into the Vehicle Assembly Building, kicking off preparations for Artemis III next year.

Artemis II generates data volumes that old systems cannot handle efficiently Laser communications transmit far more data than traditional radio systems Infrared light enables high-speed space communication across vast distances The sheer volume of data generated during modern lunar missions has rendered old radio systems nearly obsolete.

The Artemis 2 crew carried miniature tissue chips that were created using their own stem cells. This study, called AVATAR, allowed NASA to investigate the effects of 10 days of microgravity and exposure to deep space radiation on each astronaut’s tissues (in this case, only bone marrow was simulated) but on a miniature replica.

Reid Wiseman made touching remarks about his Artemis II crewmates asking NASA to name a moon crater for his late wife.