Artemis II Crew Shatters Apollo 13 Distance Record

Humans Have Never Been Farther From Home

Four astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft have officially traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history. On Monday, April 6, at 1:57 p.m. EDT, the Artemis II crew surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 — and kept going. By the time they reached their maximum distance, the crew had flown 252,756 miles (406,773 km) from Earth, eclipsing Apollo 13's mark of 248,655 miles by more than 4,100 miles.

It is the first time humans have ventured beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972 — a gap of more than 53 years.

A Record Born From Triumph, Not Tragedy

The comparison with Apollo 13 carries a bittersweet irony. That mission's distance record was an accident — the result of a catastrophic oxygen tank explosion that forced NASA to swing the stricken spacecraft around the far side of the Moon on an emergency free-return trajectory. The crew of Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise never intended to set any record; they were fighting to survive.

Artemis II, by contrast, achieved its milestone by design. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 aboard the Space Launch System rocket. Two factors pushed the distance beyond Apollo 13's mark: the Moon's orbital position at the time and Orion's trajectory, which brought the spacecraft within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface.

A View No Human Has Ever Seen

During the flyby, the crew became the first humans to observe portions of the Moon's far side with the naked eye. They captured over 10,000 images, witnessed a rare solar eclipse visible only from their vantage point, and even detected at least four meteorite impact flashes on the lunar surface. Pilot Victor Glover described the experience as something that "just looks unreal."

The crew also proposed naming two lunar craters — one called "Integrity" after their spacecraft's call sign, and another "Carroll" in honor of Commander Wiseman's late wife.

A planned 40-minute communications blackout occurred as Orion passed behind the Moon, temporarily cutting contact with Mission Control in Houston. Hansen reflected on the milestone: "We do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration."

Homeward Bound

On Tuesday, April 7, the Orion spacecraft exited the lunar sphere of influence at approximately 1:25 p.m., at a distance of 41,072 miles from the Moon. The crew is now on a coast back to Earth, with splashdown expected on Friday, April 10, at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. The USS John P. Murtha will recover the crew by helicopter before they undergo post-flight medical assessments.

What Comes Next

Artemis II is a critical stepping stone in NASA's broader Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. The mission validates the Orion spacecraft and its life-support systems with a human crew — a prerequisite before future Artemis missions attempt a lunar landing. As Dr. Lori Glaze of NASA noted, the crew is "charting new frontiers for all humanity" in support of that promise.

For now, the world watches four explorers glide homeward through the void — having been farther from everything they know than any person who ever lived.