Sailboat near NASA's Orion spacecraft carrying Artemis II crew about Splashdown on April 10, 2026

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Insane_Ducky@reddit

I have the view from someone on the boat

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXAITSeD362/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

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Visual-Plant-4814@reddit

Trading tips on the two most expensive ways to travel slowly while worrying about your holding tank.

Looking forward to the debate over who has it worse: fixing a vacuum toilet in zero-G or unblocking a marine head in a four-foot swell.

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WhetherWitch@reddit

I’ll take floating poo over sloshing poo any day.

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Proud-Suspect-5237@reddit

If you over-fill your blackwater tank you can have both, technically.

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I’m a bit of a nut about toilets working well onboard so I can honestly say I haven’t had to do a marine toilet emergency repair. I have ripped out an several land toilets, though. Not fun but at least gravity and velocity aren’t in play.

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Proud-Suspect-5237@reddit

Having bobbed around in wind-less thirty-degree centigrade weather in three foot swells laying on my back disassembling a macerator pump for an hour and a half, please believe me when I say you should count your blessing and continue your good preventative maintenance.

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WhetherWitch@reddit

I just spent over $150 plus tariffs and waited four weeks for two Vetus anti-back flow valves to show up from Spain, which is the only place I was able to source them. Sanimarine only uses that one kind, and I know if I needed one and didn’t have it I’d rip the whole damn thing out and put in the same kind I had on my last boat, which were unbreakable beasts for six years (raritan sea elegance tall freshwater flush)

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Weekly_Plankton_2194@reddit

Starboard!

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teddyone@reddit

Who has the right of way, a sailing vessel on starboard tack, or a small pod of astronauts falling from the moon 🤔

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Ar7_Vandelay@reddit

I think aircraft landing in the water need to give way to all vessels.

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ticeman42@reddit

Depends, how maneuverable is the pod..?

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LameBMX@reddit

about as maneuverable as a falling brick.

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Watersandwaves@reddit

A falling brick with 3 parachutes!

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Proud-Suspect-5237@reddit

My sailboat doesn't have parachutes.

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Federal_Cobbler6647@reddit

It must be landing aircraft.

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ballsack-vinaigrette@reddit

They're not under power so I think it comes down to who is to windward.

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phatbrasil@reddit

Imagine the insurance claim.

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TeaTimeInsanity@reddit

The small pod just became the upwind marker. This boat is obviously banging the corners

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OddRoof5120@reddit

🤣❤️

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C-O-N@reddit

Boats give way to planes. Happens semi regularly in Sydney when seaplanes try and land on your head

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AlaskanAsAnAdjective@reddit

The sailboat. COLREGS 18(e)

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boobs_I_say@reddit

Law of Tonnage says the spaceship crash landing

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mwax321@reddit

Time to update those sailing books.

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isearn@reddit

They’re clearly upwind of the sailing vessel.

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chairman_steel@reddit

Underrated comment!

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sailingtroy@reddit

I mean we're all thinking it. Just imagine the jury room on that protest!

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ReportRemote7010@reddit

What's it rate?

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YT__@reddit

What's the second piece falling in the back with white parachutes?

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just_an_ordinary_guy@reddit

The technical term is "forward bay cover" but it's function has already been explained.

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TheModernCurmudgeon@reddit

The cap that covered the main chutes

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bbcwtfw@reddit

Where's the cap from that one with tinier chutes?

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TheModernCurmudgeon@reddit

It’s just caps all the way down

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Weird1Intrepid@reddit

Always has been 🔫👩‍🚀

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ReeferSkipper@reddit

Anti-gravity device.

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Just_Another_Pilot@reddit

I gotta look this one up in the COLREGS.

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greatlakesailors@reddit

Spacecraft descending under parachute is a seaplane not under command for COLREGS purposes.

Definitions (3) For the purposes of these Regulations, every reference to “vessel” shall, except in subsection 3(1) and section 4, be read to include a reference to a seaplane when it is on or over the water.

Rule 3(f) The term vessel not under command means a vessel which through some exceptional circumstance is unable to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.

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just_an_ordinary_guy@reddit

We've got ourselves a sea lawyer.

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Federal_Cobbler6647@reddit

Now considering it is not under command due desing choices, does that mean that it should be illegal to use vehicle that has such glaring weakness.

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TedwinV@reddit

It would just count as Restricted In Ability to Maneuver due to the nature of her work. Puts her in the same category as Not Under Command.

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Federal_Cobbler6647@reddit

Yeah, that sounds more sensible.

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TedwinV@reddit

I would argue that since nothing was wrong with the capsule, there is no exceptional circumstance. Legally that would mean they could not maneuver because something that would normally allow them to maneuver is not working.

Instead I would say that they are Restricted in Ability to Maneuver due to the nature of their work; the craft is designed to parachute into the water and then drift upright. Which technically puts them in the same category as NUC, so same-same, others shall not impede their passage.

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AlaskanAsAnAdjective@reddit

They could maneuver if they really wanted to. At least a little bit.

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84thPrblm@reddit

This guy COLREGS!

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Consistent_Lie8090@reddit

What a disneyi land ride to be apart of!

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cinemkr@reddit

Regarding comments about "exclusion zones," they direct the capsule to a targeted landing area but once the chutes open -- the prevailing winds kick in. I am sure they even were aware of this boat, had hailed in on the radio and tracked on AID.

It's a freaking Hunter doing 6 knots on a good day. Nothing to worry about.

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Arizona_Sailor@reddit

That leeward marker buoy is moving. Prepare to jibe.

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SVAuspicious@reddit

We can't confirm the validity of the picture and have removed the post. If anyone has a link to an official source e.g. nasa.gov we'll approve the post.

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Candygramformrmongo@reddit

Thank you for protecting the integrity of the sub

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should_be_writing@reddit

https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/dsc-3398/

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SVAuspicious@reddit

Thank you.

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Redwood_442@reddit

Fake

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Successful_Cod_8904@reddit

This image is from Artemis l splashdown 2022

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betelgeuse63110@reddit

Not sure if anyone posted this - in the image I see, there are 4 persistent bright pixels between the parachute canopy and the sailboat. Given the Navy would not allow any boats within miles, my guess is a fake.

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cguess@reddit

It's posted on NASAs site

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FairSeafarer@reddit

Seriously? That's rad. Way to be in the history books!

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kepleronlyknows@reddit

But how is there not an exclusion zone in this area? And if there is, are they violating it?

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IDoStuff100@reddit

Mega zoom lens. Makes it hard to judge distances/perspective. That boat is probably several miles away

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hmspain@reddit

Someone is losing their license....

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Dubbinchris@reddit

License to what?

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VincentAdultman-1@reddit

To party?

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olystretch@reddit

You don't get a license. That is a right that you fight, and some have even died for.

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isearn@reddit

Hey boys, don’t be so beastly.

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notawight@reddit

Just one lonely beastie, I be.

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Nevereverevertuesday@reddit

ill

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Aquaman33@reddit

You don't need a license to sail/drive a private boat that size. Plus, if they got into a perimeter without intentional malice (a sailboat like that is not that fast, they did not sneak in lol) it's on the people setting the perimeter, not them.

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LameBMX@reddit

well... sailboats are quiet and notoriously not radar reflective.

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Aquaman33@reddit

They are absolutely radar reflective lol. Do you think the sails are made out of stealth material?

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LameBMX@reddit

cloth isnt a very good radar reflector. its why the de Havilland Mosquito did as well as it did. fiberglass is also not a good radar reflector. curved metal is not a good radar reflector. its only detects the small area around where it is perpendicular to the radar array. the only thing better than a curve, is to drop a few hundred billion dollars modeling flat surface to intentionally reflect the radar someplace else. but then, if you separated the transmist and recieve units, at proper locations a stealth plane will be super bright.

water is a good radar reflector. all them perpendicular points on all the waves are reflecting radar back where the bulk of the boat is. leaving that thin mast section to provide a radar reflection.

military radar is just waves man and stuff to clean up the signal, combined with stuff that recognizes modern shapes with a metric shit ton of energy available for processing.

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Aquaman33@reddit

Military radar is just waves, but being near the mast cooks you.

A modern shipborne radar (like Australia has) can detect an F-22 with anything less than a clean airframe. Do you think some regular sailboat is stealthier than an F-22 with drop tanks?

Sailboats need radar reflectors because civilian radars are not an active cancer risk, but the military knows where you are.

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LameBMX@reddit

considering 4 of the 6 magnitudes of commonly used radar spectrum is literally the microwave band.. id hope they are cranking out enough energy to cook you.

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Aquaman33@reddit

I don't think you understand the power behind a modern military radar vs a cargo ship or whatever if you are disagreeing with me here.

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LuckyErro@reddit

Which licence and for what reason and by whom?

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shot-by-ford@reddit

I’ll be sure to tell the DSV

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SpiffyNrfHrdr@reddit

seaQuest?

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Fossilhog@reddit

Darwin is going to tell the Orcas to go hit that boat.

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BassWingerC-137@reddit

License, LOL

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TexanaRosanaDanna@reddit

We once had a carrier fleet alter course and sail past/through us. Grey boats shooed the faster offshore fishing boats away, but they didn’t feel too threatened by our 39’ 6knt Beneteau.

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LuckyErro@reddit

I'm not sure who could legally create an exclusion zone in International waters.

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Highlifetallboy@reddit

If you got enough big grey ships you can.

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Weird1Intrepid@reddit

With enough big grey sod you can do what you want, but that doesn't make it legal

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JimmehGrant@reddit

Like…control a strait or something?

Asking for a spilt plate of spaghetti.

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youngishgeezer@reddit

Is that strait wide enough to be international waters without any choke points?

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FairSeafarer@reddit

When Starlink launches new satellites, you actually receive an email like 2 days before, warning clients about a zone over which debris could fall. The zone is usually so huge, like it unlikely you can avoid it without a 5 day detour. Like, I really planned that 3 days ago when I left for an 8 day passage, but thanks. NASA did not email any sailors thought… maybe there were radio comms. Make me wonder.

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O906@reddit

The landing area was much larger than you’re picturing.

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XSCarbon1@reddit

Which vessel is stand-on?

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Bierdaddy@reddit

😆 Well, considering it’s neither a port nor starboard approach, I’d give it to the big hunk of metal dropping from the sky.

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alabamdiego@reddit

Lmao there was someone in the r/SanDiegan sub asking about specifically where the landing zone was going to be bc he wanted to sail out there…I wonder if that’s him

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eigervector@reddit

Which one is the stand on vessel?

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u399566@reddit

Sailboat, she's on starboard.

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Motomikeh@reddit

I watched the entire recovery from Mission Control and there were no sail boats in view

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richbiatches@reddit

Chinese spy ballon.

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Terrible_Stay_1923@reddit

Sailboat has right of way. F@#$ing smokers

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Red_Meat1@reddit

So, I was trying to take a pick of my sailboat and then this space capsule lands right in the shot. WTH, is this the 1960s?

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flyingron@reddit

You scratched my anchor.

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admburns2020@reddit

How cool

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Some_Ride1014@reddit

I was sailing in outer Boston Harbor on my 30 foot boat, early on a Sunday morning. No boats around. Suddenly State Police boat comes over to me, asked me to drop sail and hold position.

Turns out the queen Mary 2 was entering harbor.

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Not to far off from the whale totaling a car in 1970

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