5:10 PM PT -- It was a picture perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean ... right on time at 5:07 PM PT. The capsule floated down to the water under 3 deployed parachutes, just minutes after it was speeding through the air at more than 23,000 MPH!

Naval boats are speeding toward the capsule to recover the Artemis crew.

Artemis II is wrapping up its historic mission after nine and a half days ... and it’s all coming back down to Earth in a big way, which you can watch on the livestream here.

Astronauts -- Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Commander Reid Wiseman -- are set to make a Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego at around 8:07 PM EDT.

NASA says a U.S. Navy helicopter will track the Orion capsule as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, with boats set to recover the crew once they’re down.

The mission already made history with its closest flyby of the Moon -- marking the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.

The whole purpose of the project is to lay the groundwork for humans not just to visit the Moon again, but to eventually live and work there.