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NASA

Return Window

As NASA’s Artemis II mission prepares for its high-speed re-entry and scheduled splashdown in the Pacific off San Diego, it marks more than the end of a test flight.

Return Trajectory

The launch of Artemis II is being celebrated as a technological milestone, but its deeper significance lies elsewhere.

2021 Arctic summer sea ice 12th-lowest on record: NASA

Less sea ice melted in 2021 even as the planet as a whole was warmer than usual -- with new temperature records in North America and Eurasia, drought in the US West, and episodes of intense melting on Greenland's ice sheet.