Nasa astronauts have landed safely back on Earth following their record-breaking lunar flyby which marks a stepping stone towards a future Moon landing and eventual Mars mission.

The Artemis II crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego in California at 1.07am UK time and Nasa said the four crew members – Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – were healthy.

Mission Control’s Rob Navias described their return as “a perfect bullseye splashdown”.

During re-entry, their Orion capsule was expected to hit the atmosphere at around 24,000mph (38,625kph), or about 32 times the speed of sound.

In a critical test for the spacecraft’s heat shield, temperatures outside were set to soar to as high as 2,760C (5,000F).

Following a previous test flight, engineers had altered the descent trajectory in order to reduce the risk of the module burning up.

The intensity of the return meant contact with the crew was cut off for several minutes, prior to the deployment of parachutes eventually slowing the capsule’s fall to just 17mph (27 kph) before hitting the water.

Cheers erupted from the crew’s families watching in Mission Control in Houston when the capsule emerged from the communication blackout and at splashdown.

More than an hour after landing in the Pacific Ocean, the four crew members emerged from the capsule ahead of being taken to the nearby naval ship USS John P Murtha.

Speaking from the ship, Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman said: “This is just the beginning.

“We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon, bringing them back safely and to set up for a series.”

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social the “entire trip was spectacular” while Canadian Prime Minister congratulated the crew on “an historic feat”.

The first manned Moon mission in more than 50 years, which blasted off from Cape Canaveral on April 1, took the three Americans and a Canadian deeper into space than anyone has gone before.

The crew travelled 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometres) from Earth, smashing the distance milestone of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometres) previously held by the Apollo 13 crew for 56 years.

Their epic voyage took them around the far side of the Moon, normally hidden to the human eye, which included a 40-minute communication blackout when they were cut off entirely from their home planet.

Alongside their other duties, it provided the opportunity for the team to take some spectacular pictures of the Moon and Earth, including a total solar eclipse.

The Goonhilly Earth Station, near Helston, in Cornwall, helped track the flight.

The last time Nasa sent astronauts to the Moon was as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The agency is seeking to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China does in about 2030.