It’s Official: Artemis II Has Carried Humans Farther From Earth Than Ever Before

The Artemis II mission has officially carried humans farther from Earth than ever before.

At 17:56 UTC on Monday 6 April 2026, the Orion spacecraft Integrity, carrying its four astronauts, surpassed the milestone of 400,171 kilometers (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

NASA says the mission reached its maximum distance from Earth at 23:02 UTC: 406,771 kilometers as the spacecraft traveled beyond the far side of the Moon. That’s 6,616 kilometers past the Apollo 13 record.

For context, the average distance to the Moon is about 384,400 kilometers, meaning Orion traveled tens of thousands of kilometers beyond it.

“As we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration,” mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency said in a statement.

“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

As the craft traveled behind the Moon, contact with Earth dropped for about 40 minutes as the signal was blocked by the Moon itself.

At 23:24 UTC, Integrity emerged, observing a sight few humans have ever had the honor of viewing firsthand: an Earthrise over the limb of the Moon.

Communications with the spacecraft and its four astronauts – mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – have resumed.

All systems, NASA reports, are nominal, an engineering term that means operating within expected parameters.

The record is breathtaking and inspiring, but there’s a lot more riding on Integrity. The mission is one step on the journey to return humans to the surface of the Moon, and as the first crewed flight in the Artemis program, Artemis II is a critical test of the systems that will carry and sustain astronauts along the way.

As the first crewed deep-space mission since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, it will also help mission designers understand the effects of such travel on a human crew that has to live and work together in tight quarters far from home.

So far, the crew has had to demonstrate flexibility in the face of several surprisingly mundane challenges, including Outlook troubleshooting and dealing with toilet issues.

But where there is the mundane, there can also be the sublime. Integrity carried the astronauts to a distance of just 6,545 kilometers from the surface of the Moon as it passed behind the far side.

As they flew past the Moon, the astronauts were also able to discern craters on the surface and proposed new names for two of them. One, they suggest, should be named for Integrity, the Orion spacecraft in which they fly, the other in honor of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. These names will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for consideration.

The astronauts have also observed a solar eclipse as the Moon passed between Integrity and the Sun.

🌞🌕🧑‍🚀

Right now, the Orion capsule is passing behind the Moon, so the Sun is entirely eclipsed from their perspective. During this time, they will view a mostly darkened Moon and will use the opportunity to analyze the solar corona. pic.twitter.com/PWDPfZKxGh

— NASA (@NASA) April 7, 2026

And, of course, there’s the new iconic image of Earth, “Hello, World“, captured by Wiseman as the spacecraft moved away from the planet on April 3, following a translunar injection burn.

It’s the first photograph of the entire planet as a complete sphere taken by a human since Apollo.

The next stage of the program, Artemis III, is currently scheduled for 2027. It will take place closer to Earth, launching crew in the Orion spacecraft on the SLS rocket to low Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial spacecraft intended for future lunar landing operations.

The fourth stage, Artemis IV, is currently targeted for early 2028. NASA says the mission will aim for a crewed landing near the Moon’s south pole, where astronauts would conduct science observations and collect samples.

Related: NASA’s First Moon Crew in More Than 50 Years Is Making History Already

First, however, Integrity needs to bring its crew safely home – arguably the most dangerous phase of the mission, with a high-speed re-entry and splashdown, braked by parachutes deployed in two stages, into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. This is expected to take place on April 10.

“At NASA, we dare to reach higher, explore farther, and achieve the impossible. That’s embodied perfectly by our Artemis II astronauts – Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy. They are charting new frontiers for all humanity,” says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA.

“Their dedication is about more than breaking records – it’s fueling our hope for a bold future.”