Artemis II Crew Achieves Historic Lunar Flyby and Distance Record

NASA's Artemis II mission has successfully completed a lunar flyby, marking the first crewed journey to the Moon's vicinity in over five decades. The four-person crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—launched aboard the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026.

On April 6, the mission achieved a significant milestone by surpassing the Apollo 13 mission's distance record of 248,655 miles, reaching a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth. This accomplishment makes the Artemis II crew the farthest-traveled humans in history.

During the flyby, the crew conducted detailed observations of the Moon's far side, including geological features such as impact craters and ancient lava flows. These observations aim to enhance scientific understanding of the lunar surface and inform future missions targeting the Moon's south pole.

The mission also provided the crew with a unique vantage point to observe a solar eclipse from space, as the Sun disappeared behind the Moon for nearly an hour. This event allowed for the analysis of the solar corona—the Sun's outermost atmosphere—as it appeared around the edge of the Moon.

Artemis II serves as a critical step in NASA's broader Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon and lay the groundwork for future missions to Mars. The successful completion of this mission paves the way for Artemis III and IV, which are designed to return astronauts to the lunar surface.