Having just looped around the moon in a historic flyby of our nearest neighbor, the Artemis II crew are now on their way back to Earth.
NASA’s Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, along with the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, launched aboard the Orion spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center on April 1, lifted to space by the mighty SLS rocket.
The mission is on course to last 10 days, culminating in a splashdown off the coast of California.
Artemis II is testing out the systems of the Orion in preparation for a crewed lunar landing in the Artemis IV mission, currently set for 2028. Artemis III, which could happen next year, will test a crucial docking procedure that will pave the way for the Artemis IV lunar landing.
With the mission so far going to plan — save for a few issues with the spacecraft’s toilet — and the crew now on their way home, now is as good a time as any to share some of the records set by the Artemis II mission so far.
1 – Farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth: On Monday, the Artemis II crew reached a record 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth before starting their journey home. The previous distance record stood at 248,655 miles (400,171 km), set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.
2 – First humans beyond low Earth orbit in over 50 years: No one has traveled such a great distance since Apollo 17 way back in 1972.
3 – First crewed flight of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft: This is the first time humans have flown on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, which are key to the success of NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to build build a permanent moon base on the lunar surface and also achieve the first human flight to Mars.
4 – First crewed lunar mission of the Artemis program: Artemis I involved a crewless flight for the SLS and Orion, which also visited the moon before returning to Earth. This means that Artemis II is the first human mission of the Artemis era.
5 – First woman to travel to deep space: As part of the Artemis II crew, Christina Koch has become the first woman to leave low-Earth orbit.
6 – First Black astronaut to travel to deep space: Similarly, Victor Glover has become the first person of color to reach lunar distance.
7 – First non-American to travel to the moon region: As a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen has become the first non-U.S. astronaut to participate in a lunar mission.
8 – First time a crew of four has flown to the moon: All of the 10 lunar-bound Apollo missions had three crew members, while Artemis II involves four astronauts.
With these exciting achievements already in the bag, the Artemis program is just getting started, promising many more historic milestones ahead.