The Artemis II mission has officially carried humans farther from Earth than any previous mission, surpassing the Apollo 13 record set in 1970. At its furthest point, the Orion spacecraft Integrity, with its four astronauts, reached 406,771 kilometers (248,655 miles) from Earth, tens of thousands of kilometers beyond the Moon.
Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen stated, "We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back... But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived."
During the mission, the crew experienced a radio blackout for approximately 40 minutes while behind the Moon. Upon emerging, they witnessed an Earthrise, a sight few humans have seen. Communications have resumed, with all spacecraft systems reported as nominal.
This deep-space milestone is a crucial step in NASA's Artemis program, aiming to return humans to the Moon. Artemis II is testing critical systems for future long-duration space travel and studying the effects on the human crew.
Commander Reid Wiseman captured the iconic "Hello, World" photograph, the first image of Earth as a complete sphere taken by a human since the Apollo era. The mission is scheduled to return the crew to Earth on April 10th.