Artemis II crew sets new distance record on lunar flyby, NASA says

A crew of Canadian and American astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission has reached a new milestone in human spaceflight, travelling farther from Earth than any humans in history, according to NASA.

The four-person crew includes Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch. The agency said the Orion spacecraft reached an estimated distance of about 406,000 kilometres from Earth as it passed near the Moon, surpassing the previous record of 400,171 kilometres set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.

According to NASA, the spacecraft flew approximately 6,500 kilometres above the lunar surface during the flyby. The mission does not land on the Moon but is designed to test systems and gather data ahead of future crewed lunar landings.

Hansen said the Moon appears roughly the size of a basketball from that distance. During the flyby, the crew is capturing images of the Moon’s surface, including ancient lava flows and impact craters, and observing areas that are difficult to view from Earth, including parts of the far side.

NASA said Orion is expected to exit the Moon’s gravitational influence on Tuesday and begin its return journey to Earth. The agency has not reported any technical issues with the mission so far.