NASA and Canadian Space Agency astronauts made history as they surpassed the Apollo 13 distance record of 248,655 miles from Earth, which was set in 1970
© NASA via Getty Images
The
Artemis II mission has made history, with its crew traveling farther
from Earth than any humans before, surpassing a record that stood for
more than half a century.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor
Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on Monday surpassed the Apollo 13 distance
record of 248,655 miles from Earth, which was set in 1970.
Artemis
II has now exceeded that mark by more than 4,000 miles (6,437 km),
reaching a maximum distance of approximately 252,757 miles from Earth.
The achievement marks a symbolic turning point in NASA’s renewed push
toward deep space exploration and its long-term goal of returning humans
to the Moon and eventually sending missions to Mars.
Speaking after the milestone, one of the astronauts paid tribute to earlier generations of explorers. “We surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth,” the crew member said, according to the BBC. “We do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration.”
The astronaut added that the journey is not over yet. “We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything we hold dear,” they said, while encouraging future explorers “to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
NASA
is expected to release further updates as the crew continues its
mission, which is seen as a key step in paving the way for future lunar
landings under the Artemis program.
NASA launched Artemis II, its
first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years, last
Wednesday. As part of their ten-day journey, the astronauts will circle
the Moon and return to Earth in an Orion capsule.
Orion is set to circle the Moon on April 6.