Meet the US Navy divers who welcomed the Artemis 2 astronauts home from the moon

Four U.S. Navy divers were the first faces to greet NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts when they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after their historic journey around the moon this month. The dive medical team — Lt. Cmdr. Jesse Wang, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Laddy Aldridge, Chief Hospital Corpsman Vlad Link and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Steve Kapala — became the first people ever to enter NASA's Orion spacecraft at sea to assist a returning lunar crew. Operating from the USS John P. Murtha, the dive team served as the critical first point of contact between spaceflight and recovery. They were tasked with opening the Orion spacecraft — which the Artemis 2 astronauts named "Integrity" — making initial medical assessments of the crew and helping them exit the capsule safely and efficiently, according to a statement from the U.S. military's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS). The divers' role marked a new step for Artemis missions. While Navy divers have long supported astronaut recoveries dating back to the Apollo program , Artemis 2 introduced a dedicated dive medical team trained to enter the Orion capsule itself. Each corpsman was assigned to one of the four astronauts — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency 's Jeremy Hansen — providing immediate health checks and helping guide them out of the spacecraft. "Jesse, Steve, Laddy and Vlad ... …