9 highlights from Artemis II's epic journey around the moon

With a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening, the epic Artemis II moon mission came to an end.

Americans have been tracking the progress of the four astronauts — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — as they looped around the moon, pushing deeper into space than anyone ever has before.

Here are nine highlights from that groundbreaking trip. 1. Artemis II mission blasts off from FloridaThe rocket lifted off Wednesday, April 1, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p. m. ET.

The spectacular launch marked the first piloted moonshot since the end of the Apollo program 53 years ago. The Orion capsule and NASA's Space Launch System rocket had never flown with people aboard, and had made just one unmanned test flight.

But the launch was picture perfect. 2.

Orion crew spends first day in spaceThe crew woke up to a busy first day, spending about 24 hours orbiting the Earth while they put their Orion capsule through its paces before NASA could give them the go-ahead for their trip around the moon.

Glover also got a chance to test out the manual controls on the capsule ahead of future missions. About 90% of the Orion capsule's life-support system had never been tested before in space. "We are going really, really far away.

And that one 24-hour orbit gives us time to check out all of our environmental control, life support systems. ... Can it scrub our carbon dioxide? Can it keep us alive? Can we drink water? " Wiseman told CBS News before the launch.