NASA Cheers First Successful Moon Mission Since 1972

"America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon and bringing them home safely," Isaacman posted minutes after splashdown off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 pm ET.

The international crew traveled a total of 694,481 miles (1,117,658 kilometers) between liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center on April 1 and splashdown this evening. Mission elapsed time was 9 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 15 seconds.

NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen were in great shape after landing. Almost exactly two hours after splashdown they had been helped out of the Orion capsule, which they named Integrity, onto an inflatable raft called the "front porch" and into helicopters for the short trip over to the Murtha. They will remain on the ship as it returns to Naval Base San Diego and then fly back to Houston tomorrow (April 11).