Artemis IIÂ astronauts made history Monday as they took a trip around the moon and reached a maximum distance from Earth of 252,756 miles, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by over 4,000 miles. The Orion spacecraft’s four-person crew has traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history.
The astronauts also became the first humans to see some parts of the far side of the moon with the naked eye. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon was 4,067 miles.
The crew briefly lost contact for about 40 minutes during a planned loss of signal when they flew around the moon’s far side, regaining contact with Mission Control at 7:24 p.m. ET. The crew was later able to observe a solar eclipse, which astronaut Victor Glover said “just looks unreal.”
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