Artemis II Crew Breaks 50-Year-Old Deep Space Record

The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission have traveled farther from Earth than any human before them. They surpassed the distance record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970. The milestone occurred as their Orion spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth during a lunar flyby. This maneuver is a key test for future missions aiming to land astronauts on the Moon. The crew—NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen—are not landing on this flight. Instead, their 10-day journey validates spacecraft systems in deep space. Artemis II is a critical step in NASA's plan to return humans to the lunar surface. The program, named Artemis, aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.