The four-member crew, NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian space agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, surpassed the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans, set by Apollo 13 in 1970s.
“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear,” Hansen told mission control. “But we, most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
During their 7-hour lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts will take photos and make observations from the Orion spacecraft, dubbed Integrity, which is expected to lose contact with mission control for about 40 minutes as it passes behind the moon. The crew members will also witness a solar eclipse.
The Orion will then be officially on its way back to Earth. The 10-day mission is due to conclude on Friday, when Artemis II makes its re-entry before a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
