Artemis II crew breaks record for furthest distance humans have traveled from Earth

The crew of the Artemis II lunar mission broke a record Monday when they traveled further than Apollo 13's record of 248,655 miles from Earth.

The crew also began their lunar flyby, which included the first glimpses humans have ever seen of parts of the lunar dark side. The lunar flyby is expected to last six hours and the crew will be divided into pairs to look out of the Orion spacecraft's windows.

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen honored the legacy of the Apollo missions in a message after the crew broke Apollo 13's record. The crew has traveled over 252,000 miles now. 

"From the cabin of Integrity, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration," Hansen said. "We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth pulls us back into everything that we hold dear.

"We challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived," he added.

The crew also revealed that they named two lunar craters. The first is named after their spacecraft, the Integrity, while the other is named "Carroll" after commander Reid Wiseman's late wife, who died from cancer in 2020, according to CBS News.

"Some times of the moon's transit around Earth we will be able to see this," Hansen said of the second crater. "It's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll."

The four-person crew is expected to spend 10 days in space and the journey will be a test for the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems and is important for the crew to practice operations that will be required for the subsequent Artemis missions aimed at planting boots on the lunar surface by 2028, according to NASA’s timeline. 

The astronauts are expected to return to Earth later this week.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.