Humanity Just Flew Around the Moon for the First Time in 53 Years

Elena Martinez

2 hours ago

On Monday, April 6, NASA's Artemis II crew completed a historic lunar flyby, bringing the next era of human space exploration roaring into focus.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human, reaching 252,756 miles, surpassing Apollo 13's record of 248,655 miles.

The ancient, heavily cratered terrain of the Moon fills the frame in this close-up captured by the Artemis II crew. Every crater tells the story of billions of years of cosmic collisions. Credit: NASA

During a planned 40-minute loss of signal as Orion passed behind the Moon, the spacecraft and its crew made their closest approach at 7:00 p.m. EDT, flying just 4,067 miles above the surface. For nearly an hour, mission control had no contact with the crew as they ventured to a place no human had been since Apollo 17 in 1972.