Their dramatic grand finale fast approaching, Artemis II’s astronauts aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first voyage to the moon in more than half a century.

The tension in Mission Control mounted as the miles melted away between the four returning astronauts and Earth.

All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that has to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the only other test flight of the spacecraft — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were on track to hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 32 — or 32 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s.

They didn’t plan on taking manual control except in an emergency. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, is completely self-flying.

Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six minutes of communication blackout preceding the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew’s arrival, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.

The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II was projected to come screaming back at 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second — or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) — not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.

Artemis II’s record flyby and lunar views

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Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.

Artemis II didn’t land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then, in the mission’s most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.

During the record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the lunar far side never seen before by the naked eye and savored a total solar eclipse courtesy of the cosmos thanks to their launch date. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.

Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8’s first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our blue marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.

“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It’s the first of many trips, and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.

Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain’s King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary;” Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”

Artemis II was a test flight for future moon missions

Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, toilet trouble prevented the crew from using it for No. 1 most of the trip, forcing them to resort to old-time bags and funnels.

The astronauts shrugged it all off.

“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”

Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space, and it’s a doozy.”

Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.

The Artemis II crew’s allegiance was to those next Artemis crews, Wiseman said.

“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.

Real Madrid has stated that rumors on considering incorporating a sports director into its structure are categorically false.

According to Fabrizio Romano’s X post on Friday, the club was quoted as saying, “Real Madrid extraordinarily values the work that the club’s sports management has been carrying out, which has allowed us to live through one of the most successful periods in our entire history with the achievement of numerous titles, including 6 European Cups in ten years.”

It strongly reaffirm confidence in its current sporting management structure.

It also praise the existing leadership, crediting it for one of the most successful eras in the club’s history.

As evidence, they point to major achievements, including six UEFA Champions League titles in the last decade.

Overall, it’s a standard club statement aimed at shutting down speculation while reinforcing trust in their current internal setup.

Madrid have long operated with a distinct organisational model, where key transfer and sporting decisions are primarily overseen by senior executives and trusted football leadership rather than a traditional sporting director structure common in many European clubs.

The club’s denial comes amid continued speculation in Spanish football media about potential internal changes, particularly as elite clubs across Europe increasingly adopt centralized sporting director systems to streamline recruitment and long-term squad planning.

Thousands of Iranians paid tribute on Thursday to the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for nearly four decades until his killing in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the Middle East war.

His son Mojtaba Khamenei has succeeded him but he has not been seen in public since before the war, and it appeared unlikely that he would be present at ceremonies being held across Iran on Thursday.

Images broadcast on state television showed thousands of people taaking part in rallies, many holding portraits of the late revolutionary, including in Urmia in the northwest, Gorgan in the northeast and the capital Tehran.

The national homage began at 9:40 am (0610 GMT), the time at which Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 at his Tehran residence, alongside numerous senior Iranian figures.

The attack marked the start of the Middle East war that rapidly spread across the region, with Iran retaliating against US interests in the Gulf and striking Israel.

Owing to the war, a state funeral has yet to take place for the late leader.

AFP