NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. The Portland made it to port in San Diego two days later.

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. The Portland made it to port in San Diego two days later. (Image credit: NASA)

The Artemis 1 is back to terra firma.

The ship that fished the capsule out of the ocean arrived at Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be the location of the spaceship after it leaves the Portland airport on Wednesday.

There are 10 greatest images from the Artemis 1 mission.

The uncrewed Artemis 1 mission will be the first since the launch of the space shuttle.

The shakeout cruise went well, with the SLS sending the capsule to the moon as planned, and the capsule checking off all of its objectives in deep space.

During a close flyby of the moon on Dec. 5, a long engine burn was conducted to prepare the craft for its journey back to Earth. About 100 miles west of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, the spaceship splashed down softly under parachutes.

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft floats in the Pacific Ocean after a successful splashdown on Dec. 11, 2022.

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft floats in the Pacific Ocean after a successful splashdown on Dec. 11, 2022. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Artemis 1 team members will give a thorough assessment of how the spaceship and its subsystems held up in deep space and the harrowing return trip to Earth.

Some hardware from the capsule will be removed for reuse on Artemis 2, the next mission in the Artemis program.

The second Artemis is expected to launch astronauts around the moon in a few years. If the flight goes well, Artemis 3 will attempt to land near the moon's south pole a year or two later.

The south polar region is thought to hold a lot of water ice. Gateway will be a jumping-off point for missions to the surface, both crewed and uncrewed, and will be built by the agency.

The first parts of Gateway will be launched on a rocket in the late 20th century.

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