Four astronauts have returned to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas after travelling around the moon in NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first time humans have made such a lunar journey in more than 50 years.

Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 10 April and arrived in Houston the following day following the 10-day journey that began on 1 April.

NASA used the Orion spacecraft and its Space Launch System for the mission, which was staged as a test for future journeys.

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The Agency plans to land humans on the lunar surface in 2028, and to eventually build a long-term base there.

Artemis II was the first time humans have launched toward the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Journeying to the far side of the moon, the astronauts travelled further from Earth than humans had ever gone before, beating the previous record of the Apollo 13 mission.

Launching after several delays, the spacecraft took three days to travel to the Moon.

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Journeying around the far side of the Moon, the astronauts captured images of the surface and of the Moon’s south pole, which is of interest for future missions as its craters are thought to be filled with ice.

The astronauts became the first to view a solar eclipse from space, using special glasses to view the phenomenon.

During the period in which the Moon was in darkness, they observed the flashes of meteoroids impacting the lunar surface.

NASA said it plans to release further images from the mission, now that the spacecraft has returned to the surface.

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