CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The spacecraft that flew four astronauts around the moon is back where its record-breaking journey began.
NASA’s Artemis II capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half-century.
Following its splashdown in the Pacific on April 10, the Orion capsule was trucked from San Diego to Cape Canaveral. Engineers will examine the capsule’s heat shield in more detail along with everything else in preparation for next year's Artemis III docking demo in orbit around Earth. The capsule's electronic boxes will be removed and recycled, along with research equipment.
The capsule, dubbed Integrity by its U.S.-Canadian crew, carried astronauts deeper into space than humans have ever traveled before. Aside from a finicky toilet, the capsule appeared to perform well during the nearly 10-day voyage, according to NASA.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen are finally getting a break after medical exams and other tests that followed their mission.
“Been waiting for this moment,” Wiseman said via X late last week, posting a video of himself relaxing on the beach. “There is a lot in my head that I must process and very little has to do with leaving the planet. Today is my first step. I have never in my life felt peace like this.”
Until Artemis II, astronauts had not flown to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis III will feature a fresh capsule and crew. They will remain in orbit around Earth for docking exercises with lunar landers still in development by SpaceX and Blue Origin. That will set the stage for a moon landing by two new astronauts as early as 2028.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This photo provided by NASA shows the Orion spacecraft arriving at the Kennedy Space Center Multi Payload Processing Facility in Merritt Island, Fla., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (Tiffany Fairley/NASA via AP)
This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows the Orion spacecraft's heat shield underwater after Artemis II splashed down Friday, April 10, 2026. (U.S. Navy via AP
In this photo provided by NASA, Artemis II mission specialist and NASA astronaut Christina Koch hugs the Orion spacecraft aboard the USS John P. Murtha, Saturday, April 11, 2026, off the coast of California. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — One of the directors of Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country, offered a tearful apology Tuesday to the families of the 25 campers and two counselors killed in a 2025 flood, as the camp faced tough questions from state lawmakers about its lack of emergency planning before the disaster and efforts to reopen in May.
Edward Eastland’s words came as dozens of the girls’ family members sat just feet behind him during the second day of a special legislative hearing looking into the devastating July 4 flood. A report of findings is expected later this year.
“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” said Eastland, a member of the family that owns the 100-year-old camp. “I’m so sorry.”
Eastland said he and his father Richard Eastland were on the campsite that night, and that they made a desperate attempt to save the girls when they realized that heavy rain had created a raging flood that ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Richard Eastland died in the flood and Edward survived only after being swept into a tree.
“These girls were our youngest campers and their amazing counselors who we watched grow up,” Eastland said. “The world was a better place with them in it and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe is completely reasonable.”
The apology came at the outset of the hearing before he and several members of the Eastland family were questioned for about four hours by state lawmakers who at times said the family remained unprepared to reopen the camp and repeatedly questioned the lack of emergency training for staff last year. Legislators also questioned several of the decisions made during the flood that delayed an evacuation and ultimately cost lives.
Britt Eastland, another director, said the camp will dramatically improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. Legislative investigators on Monday noted the camp’s previous lack of flood training as a critical problem that contributed to the deaths.
"All of these things should have been being done in the first place,” said Sen. Charles Perry.
The panel pressed the Eastlands on why they didn't make a last-ditch effort to get on the camp PA system and order everyone to head to higher ground.
Edward Eastland said it didn’t even occur to him to leave the girls they were trying to rescue to go back to the camp office and make such an announcement.
“Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said. “If we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”
Camp Mystic’s owners want to reopen in late May and have said they will only use the parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900 attendees this summer. Those plans have angered victims’ families, and some prominent state officials have called for regulators to deny or delay renewal of the camp’s license, which is under review.
Another of the sons, named Richard Eastland after his father, said while the family doesn't plan to open the camp if their license isn't renewed, they would likely appeal if that was the state's decision.
“We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” he said.
But that seemed to spark disagreement among the victims' family members. Britt Eastland quickly interjected that it would be a “family decision.”
The special legislative committee does not control the review of Camp Mystic’s license. Because the camp has applied to renew its previous license, it could reopen while its application is pending. If denied, it still could operate while its case is under appeal.
The Eastland family also said it’s still an open question whether they would eventually try to reopen the river camp. If they do, no campers would be placed in buildings that flooded.
“We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do,” Britt Eastland said.
Several lawmakers questioned how the camp could be ready to reopen this summer.
State regulators last week notified Camp Mystic of 22 deficiencies in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical director, acknowledged Tuesday she has not officially reported last summer’s deaths to state health officers.
“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children,” for camp this summer, asked Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted state agencies have shut down licensed residential living centers for a single death, let alone dozens.
“The license is a privilege to have," Kolkhorst said.
“We are ready,” Britt Eastland said, adding that he believes Camp Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer.”
That drew an audible gasp from some in the room, and several of the victims' family members walked out.
Julie Sprunt Marshall, whose 9-year-old daughter was swept out of her cabin and rescued more than a mile down river, said the survivors continue to suffer trauma. She asked the lawmakers to not let the camp open under the Eastland family “who failed our daughters.”
“The camp will be conducting an incredibly dangerous experiment on children," Marshall said, “testing what will happen with the first drop of rain, the first clap of thunder, at the first time a noise startles them awake.”
FILE - Camp Mystic is shown in Hunt, Texas on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
