We usually talk about rockets going up, but the most dangerous part of space travel is coming back down. In this extended double-update, we cover Flight Days 7 and 8 of the Artemis II mission. The crew has successfully cleared the lunar far side, and the tone of the mission has officially shifted from exploration to survival. We break down the physics of exiting the Moon’s gravity, a historic interstellar phone call, and the intense preparations happening inside the capsule before it hits Earth’s atmosphere at 38,000 kilometers per hour.