A new chapter in human deep space exploration was written on April 6, 2026, when the four-person crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission broke the long-standing record for the farthest distance humanity has ever traveled from Earth. The milestone toppled a mark that had stood for more than half a century, set by the Apollo 13 mission all the way back in April 1970.
NASA confirmed the record fell at 1:57 p.m. Eastern Time, when the agency’s Orion capsule surpassed the 400,171-kilometer distance mark logged by Apollo 13. By roughly 7:02 p.m. ET that same day, the mission reached its maximum distance from our home planet: 406,771 kilometers. That puts the Artemis II astronauts 6,600 kilometers farther from Earth than the Apollo 13 crew ever traveled, cementing the new historic milestone.
The international crew comprises Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover, both from NASA, along with NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. By the time the record was set, the team had already wrapped up its planned lunar observation phase and begun the journey back toward Earth. Per NASA’s mission timeline, Orion is scheduled to exit the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence at approximately 1:25 p.m. Eastern Time on April 7.
The 10-day mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, kicking off what would become a history-making voyage. After spending roughly 25 hours in a stable Earth orbit to conduct initial system checks, Orion departed for its lunar approach on the evening of April 2. Early on April 6, the spacecraft entered the Moon’s sphere of influence, the point where the Moon’s gravitational pull becomes stronger than Earth’s, clearing the way for its close lunar flyby.
During the pass, Orion came within 6,550 kilometers of the lunar surface, the closest approach of the entire mission. The seven-hour observation window gave the astronauts an unprecedented opportunity to map and study lunar terrain up close, including regions on the Moon’s far side that never face Earth and had never been viewed directly by human eyes before this mission.
At roughly 6:44 p.m. ET on April 6, as Orion passed behind the Moon from the perspective of ground control on Earth, the crew entered a planned 40-minute communications blackout. The blockage of radio signals by the lunar mass was fully expected by mission planners, and the event proceeded without any unexpected complications.
Like the Apollo 13 mission before it, Artemis II uses a free-return trajectory around the Moon, a path that uses gravitational pull to naturally return the spacecraft to Earth without requiring major additional engine burns. For Apollo 13, this trajectory was an unplanned emergency route after an oxygen tank explosion aborted the mission’s planned lunar landing in 1970. For Artemis II, the path was intentionally selected as part of the mission’s test objectives.
Unlike both Apollo 13 and later Apollo landing missions, Artemis II does not include a planned lunar landing. The crew is on track to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on the evening of April 10, wrapping up the 10-day test flight.
As the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, which was first announced in 2019, Artemis II carries critical objectives beyond just setting a distance record. The mission is designed to test and validate the full suite of technologies and capabilities needed for future long-duration deep space and lunar missions, most notably verifying the performance of Orion’s life support systems that keep astronauts alive on deep space voyages. The flight also gives the crew the chance to practice operational protocols that will be essential for upcoming landing missions under the program.
NASA completed the first mission in the Artemis program, an uncrewed test flight that circled the Moon, in November 2022. In February 2026, the agency released an updated timeline for the program that adjusted future mission goals, delaying the first crewed lunar landing from 2027 to 2028 and adding an additional test mission to the sequence. Under the revised plan, Artemis III will now focus on testing new systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit in 2027, paving the way for the Artemis IV crewed lunar landing mission in 2028.