Artemis 2 crew sets new human distance record from earth on historic Lunar Flyby

The crew of NASA’s Artemis 2 lunar mission has travelled further from Earth than any humans in history, the agency announced on Monday.

The four astronauts — Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen — journeyed 406,711 kilometres from Earth, surpassing the 400,171 km record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.

The team lifted off Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the Orion capsule on the Space Launch System rocket. During their mission, they became the first humans to see parts of the far side of the moon with their own eyes and witnessed a solar eclipse as the moon passed in front of the sun.

NASA reported that cameras onboard captured previously unseen lunar features, while Hansen described the experience as “extraordinary,” saying, “When we were on the far side of the moon, looking back at Earth, you really felt like you weren’t in a capsule. You’d been transported to the far side of the moon. And it really just bent your mind.”

Koch, the first woman on a NASA lunar mission, expressed reluctance to return home, saying, “I can’t believe that something this cramped of quarters can fly by and still be fun every single minute.” Glover became the first non-white astronaut on a NASA lunar mission, while Hansen is the first Canadian to join a lunar flight.

During the mission, the crew proposed naming two lunar craters: one in honour of their spacecraft, Integrity, and another to commemorate Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. These proposals will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for approval.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the crew, writing on X that the mission “will be remembered as the moment people started to believe that America can once again do the near-impossible and change the world.”

The Artemis 2 flight follows a figure-eight trajectory around Earth and the moon, covering more than 2.3 million kilometres before the crew is scheduled to splash down off San Diego’s coast on Friday.

This mission also honours the legacy of the Apollo astronauts, who first landed on the moon in 1969, with Neil Armstrong being the first human to set foot on the lunar surface. The last Apollo astronaut to leave the moon was Eugene Cernan in 1972.

The Artemis 2 milestone marks a new chapter in human space exploration, setting the stage for future missions to push the boundaries of space travel.