Artemis II breaks record for farthest human travel in space
The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission is set to break the record for the furthest distance ever travelled from Earth by humans, marking a new milestone in deep space exploration. For context, the maximum distance reached by Apollo 13 from Earth was 248,655 miles (400,171 km) on 15 April 1970. At that time, they were approximately 157.8 miles (254 kilometres) from the Moon, having orbited it instead of landing on its surface.
However, the current Artemis II flight is serving as preparation for lunar landings planned to begin in 2028. The last manned mission to land on the Moon was Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis II crew entered the lunar sphere of influence several hours ago. In a recent update from the Orion spacecraft, crew member and astronaut Christina Koch commented on this milestone:
We noticed we entered the lunar sphere of influence about an hour ago, and sure enough, we're now falling to the Moon rather than rising away from Earth. It is an amazing milestone.
The crew will fly around the Moon and head towards the far side before returning to Earth on Saturday. If all goes to plan, they will break the all-time distance record in space in just a few hours. The next live broadcast begins at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 UTC) and will be streamed on platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitch and X.
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