The four astronauts aboard Artemis II have reached the farthest distance from Earth ever recorded by a human crew.
Travelling in the Orion capsule, the crew surpassed the long-standing record set during Apollo 13 in 1970, reaching more than 252,700 miles from Earth as they journeyed toward the far side of the Moon.
The mission, which launched last week, represents the first crewed lunar voyage in over 50 years and a critical step in NASA's broader Artemis program, aimed at returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade.
During the flyby, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent several hours observing and photographing the Moon's far side, a region never directly seen by humans from Earth.
The moment carries symbolic weight as well. The crew awoke to a recorded message from Jim Lovell, whose Apollo-era mission previously held the distance record.
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