HOUSTON: NASA’s Artemis II crew aboard the Orion spacecraft set a new record for the farthest distance traveled by humans from Earth on Monday, surpassing the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970 during a lunar flyby that carried the astronauts deeper into space than any crew before them. NASA said the four-person crew passed the Apollo 13 distance of 248,655 miles from Earth at 1:56 p.m. EDT and later reached a maximum distance of about 252,756 miles as Orion looped behind the Moon.
The milestone came on the sixth day of Artemis II, the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first mission to send astronauts around the Moon in decades. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Orion is flying without landing, using the Moon’s gravity to bend its path around the far side before heading back toward Earth in a test of the spacecraft, its systems and mission operations ahead of later Artemis missions.
During the flyby, Orion made its closest approach to the Moon at about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface while traveling roughly 60,863 miles an hour relative to Earth, according to NASA mission updates. The spacecraft then passed behind the Moon, briefly cutting off communications with ground controllers as planned before reemerging and restoring contact. During that sequence, the crew photographed and described surface features including impact craters, lava plains, fractures and ridges, adding observations from one of the mission’s most closely watched phases.
Lunar flyby cements mission milestone
Artemis II launched on April 1 from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop the Space Launch System rocket, sending Orion and its crew on a 10-day mission designed to test the agency’s deep-space transportation system with astronauts aboard. NASA has said the flight is intended to demonstrate navigation, communications, life-support and operational capabilities needed for future expeditions. The mission also marks the first time the Orion spacecraft has carried people after the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022.
As Orion moved through the lunar flyby, NASA said the crew completed an observation period in which they documented differences in the Moon’s color, texture and brightness across the visible terrain. Mission updates also said the astronauts witnessed an Earthrise as Orion emerged from behind the Moon and later observed a solar eclipse as the Moon, Sun and spacecraft aligned. NASA said the crew used that period to study the solar corona and watch for flashes caused by meteoroids striking the lunar surface.
Return trajectory begins after record-setting pass
With the flyby complete, Orion began its return leg toward Earth, exiting the Moon’s sphere of influence on Tuesday as the spacecraft continued on a free-return trajectory home. NASA has scheduled splashdown for Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego, where recovery teams are set to retrieve the capsule after reentry. The return phase remains a critical part of the test mission because it will evaluate Orion’s systems over the full duration of a crewed deep-space flight, including navigation, communications and performance during reentry and ocean recovery.
The distance record gives Artemis II a historic marker, but the mission’s primary role remains technical verification of the spacecraft and operations needed for later crewed exploration beyond low Earth orbit. By carrying astronauts farther from Earth than Apollo 13 while completing a lunar flyby and beginning the journey home, Orion has delivered one of the clearest demonstrations yet of NASA’s effort to reestablish human missions around the Moon through the Artemis program. – By Content Syndication Services.