As the eyes of America turned to Artemis II via an array of live newscasts and streaming networks, the astronauts broke NASA’s Apollo 13 record by venturing beyond 248,655 miles from Earth — setting a new standard for the farthest human spaceflight.
“From the cabin of Integrity here, 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, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, said to Mission Control in Houston on Monday, April 6.
“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,” Hansen said.
During their roughly seven-hour lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew — Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist) — swung around the far side of the moon inside their Orion spacecraft Integrity before turning back toward Earth.
Flight Day 6 of their mission featured the Apollo 13 distance record at 1:56 p.m., the moon flyby and a unique solar eclipse created by the alignment of the sun, moon and spacecraft.
“Hello — very special hello — to Artemis II. Today, you’ve made history and made all America really proud. Incredibly proud,” President Donald Trump said in a post-flyby call to the astronauts.
When the Orion first slipped behind the moon, a planned 40-minute communications blackout began between the astronauts and Mission Control in Houston. What happened during that time frame? NASA posted a series of updates:
Moments later, the Deep Space Network reacquired the spacecraft’s signal and restored communications, NASA reported.
In an emotional moment Monday afternoon, the crew provisionally named a moon crater in honor of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman. She died in 2020 after a five-year battle with cancer.
Looking ahead, the Artemis II astronauts’ Orion is scheduled to spend four days trekking back home before splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California, at about 8:07 p.m. EST Friday, April 10.
“Following splashdown, recovery teams will retrieve the crew members using helicopters and deliver them to the USS John P. Murtha. Once aboard, the astronauts will undergo post-flight medical evaluations in the ship’s medical bay before traveling back to shore to meet with an aircraft bound for NASA Johnson (Space Center),” a NASA press release said.
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Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Artemis II astronauts break Apollo 13 spaceflight record, view solar eclipse
Reporting by Rick Neale, Florida Today / Florida Today
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