HOUSTON, Texas (Diya TV) — Humanity has traveled farther from Earth than ever before. The four-person crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission broke a distance record Monday that had stood for more than half a century, surpassing the mark set by the Apollo 13 astronauts during their harrowing emergency return from the moon in 1970.
At 1:57 p.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen exceeded the distance of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) from Earth, the previous record set in 1970 by Apollo 13 astronauts James Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise.
Artemis II will reach a maximum distance of about 252,760 miles (406,778 kilometers) from Earth, making this the farthest any human being has ever traveled from home.
The moment carried deep personal weight for the crew. Moments after breaking Apollo 13’s record, the astronauts asked permission to name two fresh lunar craters already observed. They proposed Integrity, their capsule’s name, and Carroll, in honor of commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife who died of cancer in 2020. Wiseman wept as Hansen put in the request to Mission Control, and all four astronauts embraced in tears.
The day began with a message from the past. Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who recorded a congratulatory message before his death last August, was beamed up to the crew from Mission Control. “Welcome to my old neighborhood,” Lovell said. “When Frank Borman and Bill Anders and I orbited the moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity’s first up-close look at the moon, and got a view of the whole planet that inspired and united people around the world. I’m proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the moon and lay the groundwork for missions to Mars. It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view. Good luck and Godspeed.”
The crew took up with them the Apollo 8 silk patch that accompanied Lovell to the moon, and showed it off as the crucial flyby approached. “It’s just a real honor to have that on board with us,” said commander Reid Wiseman. “Let’s go have a great day.”
Artemis II is using the same free-return lunar trajectory that Apollo 13 used after its oxygen tank explosion wiped out any hope of a moon landing. This no-stopping-to-land route takes advantage of Earth and the moon’s gravity, reducing the need for fuel. It is a celestial figure-eight that will put the astronauts on course for home once they emerge from behind the moon.
The Apollo 13 mission set the record only out of necessity. On the third day of that mission, when the astronauts were some 205,000 miles from Earth, an explosion took out one of the oxygen tanks in the service module. NASA had to scramble to bring the crew home safely, determining that the capsule could slingshot around the moon using its gravity to boost the astronauts’ return. That decision saved the crew’s lives and, apparently unbeknownst to anyone at the time, bagged them the record for the farthest distance humans had ever traveled from Earth.
The six-hour lunar flyby is the centerpiece of the mission. The crew passed as close as 4,070 miles (6,550 kilometers) to the moon’s surface as their Orion capsule whipped past it and hung a U-turn back toward Earth. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed from the spacecraft: “It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable.” He challenged “this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
During the flyby, the crew witnessed views of the moon’s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them. A total solar eclipse also awaited them as the moon blocked the sun, exposing shimmering corona. NASA geologist Kelsey Young, their moon mentor, expected thousands of pictures from the mission. “People all over the world connect with the moon. This is something that every single person on this planet can understand and connect with,” she said.
As the crew passed behind the moon, they entered an expected 40-minute radio blackout on the dark side, during which the lunar surface blocked all radio signals.
Glover reflected on the significance of flying to the moon during Holy Week. Earth, he said, is an oasis amid “a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe” where humanity exists as one. “This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we’ve got to get through this together,” Glover said, clasping hands with his crewmates.
The crew is expected to travel a total of 695,081 miles from launch to splashdown, with a return to Earth scheduled for Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT.
Artemis II is NASA’s first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon’s south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.
For now, four human beings are farther from home than any people in history, looking back at a crescent Earth through the windows of their Orion capsule, with the moon filling the view ahead.
