Artemis II sets new record as astronauts travel farthest from Earth than ever before

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 6 Apr 2026 14.19 EDT
First published on Mon 6 Apr 2026 08.12 EDT



In this photo provided by Nasa, the moon is seen in the window of the Orion spacecraft at the end of day five of a journey to the moon. Photograph: AP


Artemis II astronauts broke Apollo 13’s distance record at 1.57pm eastern time on Monday, hugging each other in the cramped capsule as they made history for being the first four humans to travel the farthest from Earth than anyone before them. Before hitting the record, the quartet dimmed the lights in their capsule and positioned themselves by the windows in preparation to set the long-distance record as they fly by the moon without stopping – with plans to ultimately swing around for planet Earth.

The four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the US space agency Nasa; and the Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – will become Earth’s farthest travelled, going 5,000 miles (8,000km) beyond the moon, exceeding the distance record set by 1970’s ill-fated Apollo 13.

They were under instruction to make observations of the Earth’s only moon to make annotations and audio recordings and situation reports on “how the crew is positioned, any missed targets, anything unexpected they saw, lunar target descriptions, and their emotions and reactions as they fly-by the moon”.

Astronauts on the emergency flyby in 1970 – commander Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert – reached a maximum 248,655 miles from Earth before making their turn. Artemis’s crew should exceed Apollo 13’s mission by about 4,000 miles.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/06/artemis-ii-astronauts-record-moon-earth-distance

[hlthe2b]

1. And as a result, they get to see the "Dark Side Of The Moon"...

Pink Floyd' "Dark Side of the Moon" will undoubtedly achieve commensurate new records worldwide.

[AZ8theist]

2. "Matter of fact, it's all dark"

Perhaps THE greatest rock album of all time.

I still have my copy purchased in 1975.

[Cheezoholic]

3. Ha! Been listening to that myself today. Yes, they will be the first to actually see the "dark" side with human eyes

Which I think is important. Of course we have the lunar orbiter which has been mapping the entire moon in very great detail, only our eyes can "see" it with true 3 dimensional vision. Yes the Lunar orbiter can calculate height in very minute details and we can combine those with the visual pictures to come up with a 3D simulation of what it looks like, but only with "biological analog" vision can details be seen in TRUE 3D! People are so soaked into their 2D world of phones, PC screens and HD TV's, we still cannot transfer a true 3D image to our eyes of an object. So this is a big deal as the first humans to finally see the Dark Side of the Moon!

Some may say I'm wrong but I'm not, I'm an Analog Kid

[lastlib]

4. They're not the first to see it.

Every Apollo crew that went to the moon (8, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17) saw the dark side.

[Cheezoholic]

6. Not like these guys have. Apollo was too close (and timing different) to see as much of a sunlit dark side as Artemis II

And there was much they could barely see even at only 70 or so miles above it.
Reference the article from NASA. That was my point. And of course they were farther away than any human prior (Apollo 13) but we knew that would be the case

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-artemis-ii-crew-eclipses-record-for-farthest-human-spaceflight/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRBRQVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFYU0ZWSmcwcFFWQjNEWUd3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHvGkAgmEOL68B1BGEjc_cu88gexgx0lSqaqxTtscFHjbT12my96dfDZkSYbk_aem_eWhXhWwdZqvr4gfUqAhMoA

[Talitha]

5. Been watching it on C-SPAN2.

And am definitely jealous.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. "They were under instruction to make observations of the Earth's only moon..."

That seems like a kind of unnecessary fact to drop into the story. I'm pretty sure that every kid that reaches 4 or 5 knows that the Earth only has one moon.

After all, the book is entitled Goodnight Moon, not Goodnight Moons.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. There is a "quasi-moon" there

Will Earth have 2 moons orbiting it? Astronomers explain the 'quasi-moon'


In this screen grab from a video illustrating orbits, 2025-PN7 is shown near Earth.
NASA

[LudwigPastorius]

9. Does that mean there is also a pseudo-Earth?

Hmm…that would explain where some of the freaks and weirdos come from!

[BumRushDaShow]

13. I think we have been transported to

"ALT-EARTH" in an alternate universe.

[Marthe48]

10. Were they supposed to?

Or getting while the getting's good?

I wish them well on their mission and hope they return safely in better days.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Yes, it was all planned

I spotted they were likely to get the record around the time the unmanned Artemis I went up, and they gave the basics of what Artemis II was planned to do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Another record coming up - the fastest ever humans

NASA estimates that the crew's peak reentry speed will be slightly over 25,000 mph (40,200 km/h), which would beat the reentry record currently held by the Apollo 10 astronauts, who came in hot after burning excess fuel on their return from a lunar flyby in 1969.

https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/farthest-fastest-and-most-diverse-6-major-records-the-artemis-ii-astronauts-will-smash-as-nasa-returns-to-the-moon