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Watch the closeup moment they opened the Artemis II hatch after splashdown

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Recovering the Artemis II crew from the Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean

When people watched NASA's Artemis II mission return to Earth, they saw helicopter views of little orange-clad figures exiting the spacecraft onto a raft.

But the U.S. space agency has since released a short closeup video of the Navy recovery team as it opened the hatch on Friday, April 10. The trained divers and medical officers entered the tiny 330 cubic-foot Orion capsule, greeted the four astronauts.

From video cameras mounted on the recovery team's helmets, shown in the X post below, it's as if you're right there with them. The team cheers and claps, with shouts of "let's go!" followed by "four green" (a callout that the crew was OK).

"Welcome home," the recovery team said to the Artemis II crew, Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, the first humans to fly around the moon since 1972.

Up close, the spacecraft, dubbed Integrity by the crew, appeared battered and singed as it bobbed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California. The capsule had just plummeted through Earth's atmosphere, a fiery descent that put the crew through a 25,000 mph ride.

During that intense and dangerous phase, the astronauts experienced nearly 4Gs, a pressure pushing against them equal to four times their bodyweight. Without proper training, those conditions, coupled with adrenaline overload, could cause a person to blackout.

But as the recovery team soon discovered, not only was the returning crew healthy, they were in high spirits, smiling as they waited through the procedures to leave the spacecraft. At the end of the video, one of the recovery officials, referred to as "Vlad," said he had something for Wiseman. The clip ends before that "something" is revealed.

"Jesse, Steve, Laddy, and Vlad….such an incredible feeling to welcome you aboard Integrity after a nearly 700,000 mile journey," Wiseman said in a post on X. "Forever thankful for your service to our crew and the nation."

What is clear is that the people who welcomed Artemis II back to Earth seemed just as exhilarated as the astronauts themselves. Before climbing inside the crew's living quarters for the 10-day journey, the team almost forgot to place the seal cover over the bottom edge of the hatch in their haste to see their friends.

Artemis II, which launched April 1, marked NASA's triumphant return of human-led space exploration. It planned the voyage as the critical shakeout cruise for the spacecraft before the agency attempts to land on the moon. During the flight, the Artemis II crew put Orion through its paces, testing everything from propulsion and communications to how well humans can live, work, and make scientific observations far from home.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pointing to the stickers on the Orion spacecraft

The day after Artemis II's splashdown, Commander Reid Wiseman visits the Orion spacecraft in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha.
Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls

Packed with cameras, sensors, and experiments, the mission turned the crew into both test pilots and test subjects, gathering data to shape future Artemis voyages. A successful journey vets the hardware and flight controllers for a moonwalk planned for 2028.

NASA isn't just motivated to get back to the moon for the moon's sake but to practice keeping humans alive in another world for extended periods. That's crucial before sending astronauts on a months-long spaceflight to Mars, perhaps possible in the late 2030s.

A new space race also sets the timeline for the Artemis campaign. The United States wants to land on the moon again before China, which is extremely close to achieving its first human moon landing.

If you thought the splashdown meant Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen could finally relax, you'd be wrong. Just hours after landing, NASA tested the crew's mettle again with an obstacle course.

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The PlayStation 6 could ditch the built-in disc drive

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PlayStation logo on white background

The next generation of PlayStation consoles might not appeal to people who enjoy building physical game collections.

A hardware leaker known as KeplerL2 posted in the NeoGAF forums this week (via WCCF Tech), claiming that the still-unconfirmed PlayStation 6 will not have a disc drive built in.

In a reply to another user's inquiry, KeplerL2 also said the base PS6 would come with just 1TB of storage space on its internal SSD. For reference, that's exactly the same as most PS5 models. Typically, specs like that only get better over time, but it seems like Sony might make a lateral move at best for storage capacity this time around.

That's almost certainly because of the AI-driven global RAM shortage, which was recently rumored to potentially cause the PS6 to miss its intended late 2027 launch date. All things being equal, Sony might be inclined to put a 2TB drive in each base PS5, but that might not be feasible right now.

As for the lack of a disc drive, that's going to ruffle feathers for a multitude of reasons.

Yes, the PS5 has had a no-disc-drive variant since its launch in 2020, but Sony also sells a standalone attachable disc drive unit in case users want one. Obviously, Sony could do the same with the PS6, but we don't know that yet. And while a large majority of video game sales happen in digital marketplaces as opposed to physical retail stores, plenty of people still like to own their games, whether it's out of concern for digital storefronts eventually shutting down, or just to build a nice collection of physical media. And, of course, sometimes you get good discounts on used games.

Needless to say, if this is true, it will be controversial.

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Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 2

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An image of a full moon.

With the Full Moon now passed, each night the moon will start to look smaller. It won't be noticeable at first, but after a few nights you'll see the moon start to fade from the right side. This will continue until we reach the New Moon, where it will appear completely dark.

Keep reading to see how much of it is visible tonight.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Thursday, April 2, the Moon phase is North America is Waning Gibbous, according to NASA's Daily Moon Guide.

There's plenty to see if you have clear skies tonight. Even without visual aids to assist you, you can see the Kepler Crater, Aristarchus Plateau, and the Mare Tranquillitatis. If you do have assistance, in the form of binoculars, you'll be able to spot more features, including the Posidonius and Endymion Craters. Finally, a telescope will give you many viewing opportunities, with the Apollo 11, Caucasus Mountains, and the Schiller Crater appearing the clearest.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.

What are Moon phases?

According to NASA, the Moon takes about 29.5 days to circle Earth, moving through eight unique phases along the way. Although we always see the same side from Earth, different amounts of its surface are lit by the Sun as it orbits, causing it to appear fully illuminated, partially lit, or as a thin crescent. These changing views are called the lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

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Watch NASAs historic Artemis 2 launch attempt live today. Heres how.

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Sun rising on the horizon behind the Space Launch System rocket

NASA is set to send four astronauts on a mission around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, and viewers can watch the launch countdown live on April 1.

Artemis II is a test flight of the U.S. space agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. The mission follows Artemis I, the successful uncrewed inaugural voyage of the spacecraft in 2022.

NASA will stream the launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its website, social media, and its YouTube channel. Live coverage of filling the rocket's tanks with fuel is expected to begin at 7:45 a.m. ET Wednesday on Youtube. Viewers can watch the event on NASA+, the space agency's free streaming service, starting at 12:50 p.m. ET.

The broadcast will track the four-person crew — Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen — as they board Orion. The actual two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.

This mission is designed as a roughly 10-day deep space excursion that will loop around Earth before slingshotting around the moon and returning home. If successful, it would mark a major step toward future missions that aim to land astronauts on the lunar surface and establish a moon base there.

The flight also carries historic milestones. Koch is set to become the first woman to travel to the moon, and Glover the first Black astronaut to do so. Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, would be the first non-American assigned to a lunar mission. Their journey's estimated distance of 248,700 miles also could set a new record for farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.

Watch the launch livestream here beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1.

NASA's live coverage typically includes real-time updates from the firing room, views from the launchpad, and commentary explaining each stage of the countdown. The agency will also provide rolling updates on its official Artemis blog.

The forecast so far shows an 80 percent chance of good weather conditions for launch day. Mission managers are mostly concerned about cloud coverage and high winds.

If the launch attempt is called off for weather or technical issues, the agency could try again any day through April 6. There is one other launch opportunity at the end of this month on April 30. NASA has declined to provide future launch windows beyond April to the public.

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