Their dra­mat­ic grand fi­nale fast ap­proach­ing, Artemis II’s as­tro­nauts aimed for a splash­down in the Pa­cif­ic on Fri­day to close out hu­man­i­ty’s first voy­age to the moon in more than a half-cen­tu­ry.

The ten­sion in Mis­sion Con­trol mount­ed as the miles melt­ed away be­tween the four re­turn­ing as­tro­nauts and Earth.

All eyes were on the cap­sule’s life-pro­tect­ing heat shield that has to with­stand thou­sands of de­grees dur­ing reen­try. On the space­craft’s on­ly oth­er test flight — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred ex­te­ri­or came back look­ing as pock­marked as the moon.