Artemis II Crew Passes the Moon and Breaks Apollo 13’s Distance Record

The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft flew around the far side of the moon on Monday and traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history. At their greatest distance, about 252,756 miles from home, they surpassed the record of 248,655 miles that Apollo 13’s crew set in April 1970, NASA and NBC News reported.

The record came during a planned loss of contact. NBC News said communication dropped around 6:43 p.m. Eastern as Orion went behind the moon and resumed after about 40 minutes, when Earth reappeared in the view. CBS News reported the closest approach, about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface, came around 7 p.m. Eastern. The crew, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, had passed the old record earlier in the day, NASA said.

For roughly seven hours beginning at 2:45 p.m., the crew photographed and described lunar features, NBC News reported. NASA said they became the first people to see some parts of the moon’s far side with their own eyes. CBS News reported that the flyby was the first time humans had seen the Orientale basin in full and that the crew reported at least four meteor impact flashes on the lunar surface; those two details are from CBS News alone.

Later, the sun passed behind the moon as seen from Orion, giving the astronauts a solar eclipse that lasted far longer than one seen from Earth because of how close they were. NBC News put the eclipse between 8:35 and 9:32 p.m. Glover said it “just looks unreal,” according to CBS News alone, and Wiseman called it “an absolutely spectacular, magnificent experience,” according to NBC News.

The crew also made a request to the International Astronomical Union. They proposed naming one lunar crater “Integrity,” after their spacecraft, and another “Carroll,” after Wiseman’s late wife, NASA and CBS News reported; the names are provisional. The proposals will go to the union after the mission, NASA said.

Hansen used the moment to look forward. NASA said he told the next generation he hopes the record “is not long-lived.” Koch said that whatever else the mission accomplishes, “we will always choose Earth,” NBC News reported. CBS News reported, without a second outlet confirming, that President Trump spoke with the crew Monday night and called them “modern-day pioneers.”

The trip home takes about four days. CBS News said Orion was due to leave the moon’s sphere of influence Tuesday afternoon, and NASA and CBS News both put splashdown off San Diego on Friday, with the USS John P. Murtha as the recovery ship; CBS News said the landing site could shift for weather. The crew will be flown by helicopter to the ship for medical checks before traveling to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, NASA said.