Artemis II Astronauts Set New Human Spaceflight Record During Historic Lunar Flyby

The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission set a new human spaceflight distance record on Monday, April 6, 2026, traveling more than 406,000 km from Earth during their flyby of the Moon — the furthest any human beings have ever ventured into space. The crew, consisting of NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, completed the first crewed flight around the Moon since 1972. The four astronauts are now on their way back to Earth, with their Orion capsule scheduled to splash down off the coast of California on Friday, April 10. U.S. President Donald Trump called the crew to offer congratulations, telling them they had made history and made "all of America truly proud, incredibly proud." The mission broke the previous distance record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970, surpassing it by approximately 6,000 km, according to NASA.

The Artemis program is NASA's effort to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era. The last crewed lunar flyby before Artemis II was Apollo 17 in 1972. The Apollo 13 mission in 1970 had previously held the record for the greatest distance traveled from Earth by humans, reaching 400,171 km after an oxygen tank explosion forced the crew to alter their trajectory. All Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972 carried exclusively white American men. The iconic "Earthrise" photograph was taken by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968, the first humans to orbit the Moon.

Historic firsts for Koch, Glover, and Hansen The Artemis II mission achieved multiple historic milestones in a single flight, with three of the four crew members making history in their own right. Christina Koch became the first woman to fly over the Moon, and upon completing the flyby she declared: „"We will return. We will be sources of inspiration, but we will always choose Earth."” — Christina Koch via AFP Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to participate in a lunar mission, describing the view from the spacecraft windows as the crew observed a double crater that resembled a snowman. „We see a very beautiful double crater. It looks like a snowman. It's really hard to describe. It's incredible.” — Victor Glover via AFP Jeremy Hansen, a Royal Canadian Air Force colonel, became the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit. The crew spent nearly seven hours observing the Moon from an altitude of 6,500 km — far higher than the approximately 110 km altitude at which Apollo astronauts had flown — giving them a broader and more complete view of the lunar surface than any previous crew.

Crew names crater for commander's late wife At the moment the spacecraft surpassed the Apollo 13 distance record, the crew paused for an emotional tribute. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen announced during the live broadcast that the crew wished to name a lunar crater "Carroll," in honor of Carroll Taylor Wiseman, the late wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020. Hansen described the crater as sitting "in a beautiful place on the Moon, on the border between the visible side and the far side," and noted it would be visible from Earth at certain times during the lunar transit. Reid Wiseman broke into tears at the announcement, and his crewmates embraced him. The crew also named a second crater "Integrity," the name they had given to their Orion spacecraft. According to a NASA spokesperson in Houston, the Artemis team will file a formal request with the International Astronomical Union to confirm the names of both craters.

Earthrise, solar eclipse, and 40 minutes of silence During the passage behind the Moon, the crew experienced a 40-minute communication blackout — a planned interruption identical to those endured by Apollo crews — during which they witnessed phenomena seen by only a handful of humans in history. They observed an Earthset and an Earthrise, and Victor Glover described a solar eclipse caused by the Moon blocking the Sun as worthy of "science fiction." The crew had intended to photograph the Earthrise in a deliberate echo of the famous image captured by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968. Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons, who served as the crew's communications handler from NASA's control room in Houston, told AFP that some of the far-side features the crew observed and described had never been seen by human eyes before. „Some of the features that Artemis II observed and described today, no human eye had ever seen. It's the first time that the most sensitive cameras in the world, namely human eyes, have been able to observe them.” — Jenni Gibbons via AFP The entire flyby was broadcast live in high definition on platforms including Netflix and YouTube, using GoPro cameras mounted on the exterior of the spacecraft. Kelsey Young, the mission's lead scientist, said at the close of the day: „I cannot overstate the magnitude of what we learned today.” — Kelsey Young via AFP

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