Catch Artemis II splashdown at the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s watch party

Celebrate the anticipated return of NASA’s Artemis II at the San Diego Air & Space Museum on Friday.

The Artemis II mission plans to send humans to lunar orbit for the first time since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The four-person crew is expected to return with a splashdown somewhere off the coast of San Diego on April 10.

The event at the museum starts at 4 p.m. Guests will gather in the museum’s Pavilion of Flight at least one hour before the splashdown to watch the live broadcast of Orion’s return.

Some family fun activities include:

• Chocolate heat shield experiments
• Parachute and safe-landing challenges
• Stomp rocket launches
• Robotics and engineering build
• 3D pen design creations
• Blackout poetry inspired by space communications

Guests can also enjoy a model of the 8.5-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket.