NASA’s Artemis II mission has made history by breaking the 56-year-old record for the farthest humans have ever travelled from Earth. On April 6, 2026, the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft reached a distance of 252,757 miles from Earth, about 4,102 miles farther than the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
The record was officially broken at 1:57 PM ET. Inside the capsule, the crew, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, celebrated by hugging each other. They are now the farthest humans in history, venturing roughly 5,000 miles beyond the Moon during their lunar flyby.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen described the view of Earth and the Moon as “unbelievable.” He challenged the next generation to keep pushing the boundaries of space exploration. The crew spent several hours observing and photographing the far side of the Moon, an area rarely seen up close.
Artemis II is an important test flight before NASA sends astronauts back to the lunar surface under the Artemis program. The mission demonstrates NASA’s progress toward sustainable human presence on the Moon and future journeys to Mars.
This new record highlights how far human spaceflight has come since the Apollo era and inspires renewed excitement for deep space exploration.
