Artemis II astronauts set new human distance record from Earth

On April 6, 2026, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, consisting of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, broke the human spaceflight distance record previously held by Apollo 13 since 1970. Traveling in the Orion capsule, the astronauts reached a maximum distance from Earth estimated between 400,171 and 406,778 kilometers, surpassing the 1970 record by approximately 6,600 kilometers. The mission includes a flyby of the lunar far side, where the crew observed meteor impact flashes on the surface. During this phase, the spacecraft passes approximately 4,000 miles above the moon, which obscures communications with NASA’s Deep Space Network. The Artemis II mission is a nearly 10-day test flight intended to establish a foundation for a long-term lunar presence and potential future missions to Mars by 2028. The mission hardware, including the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, involves contractors Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin.