NASA
The Orion spacecraft carried the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission where no human had gone before
The Artemis II astronauts made history this Monday, breaking the 1970 Apollo 13 distance record from Earth: 400,000 km. The Orion crew thus reached further from Earth than any human in history — and continues on its way, up to a maximum distance of 407 thousand km.
The NASA mission crew has already moved further from Earth than any human has ever moved, surpassing the Apollo 13 record, at the moment the Orion capsule entered the Moon’s sphere of gravitational influence.
This milestone marks a decisive moment in the agency’s return to manned exploration of deep space, more than five decades later.
The four astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen, from the Canadian Space Agency, surpassed the previous record of 400 mil kmset in 1970, at 1:56 am ET (5:56 pm in Portugal), NASA announced in a social network X.
“This record had previously been set during the Apollo 13 mission, when astronauts traveled 248,655 miles from Earth,” says the post from the American space agency. “The Moon continues to grow larger and larger in the windows of the Orion capsule as the Artemis II mission prepares to observe the far side.”
At 23:02 in Portugal, Orion reaches the point of closest approach to the Moonduring the planned maneuver of lunar flybyincreasing this distance even further — and setting the new record for distance from Earth at around 407 mil km.
The ship passes through a region where the Moon’s gravity overlaps with Earth’smarking a critical phase of the mission, says .
The crew is now carrying out a free return path that will lead the Orion ship to give a trip around the Moon — route that, if all goes according to plan, will naturally lead her back to Earth no additional propulsion.
NASA
Artemis II flight path with checkpoints
In addition to the distance, the mission also recorded a symbolic frame: the teams on the ground sent the will to longest message ever transmitted between two people, highlighting the evolution of human communications in deep space.
Breaking distance records
Artemis II was aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center, beginning a 10-day mission designed to validate Orion’s systems with a crew on board.
After reaching orbit, the capsule performed a translunar injection ignition, who designed it out of gravitational influence from Earth towards the Moon.
Before that, the spacecraft had entered a high Earth orbit, extending about 46,000 miles above the planet, for systems checks before committing to the lunar trajectory.
As Orion approaches the Moon, the four astronauts observe and document the lunar terrain, including so far have never been seen directly through human eyes.
Lighting conditions during the flyby are expected to cast long shadows on the surface, revealing in greater detail geological features such as ridges and crater edges.
The mission will get through a communications blackout lasting around 40 minutes, when Orion passes behind the Moontemporarily cutting contact with Earth. This phase is a known operational limitation and serves as testing the autonomy of on-board systems.
