Artemis II Astronauts Fly Around Moon—and Farther Than Any Human

Crew begins a seven-hour lunar observation as NASA returns to the moon’s neighborhood for the first time in decades.

Jack Daleo

Monday, April 06, 2026 at 02:21 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

The Artemis II astronauts captured this fully illuminated view of the moon’s near side as they approached lunar orbit on Monday. [Credit: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

The Artemis II crew (three Americans, one Canadian) has set a new human deep-space travel record, venturing farther from Earth than any previous mission and surpassing the Apollo 13 distance.
The mission involves extensive lunar observation, with astronauts photographing and studying the moon's surface, including the farside, specific craters, and observing phenomena like "Earthset" and "impact flashes."
Serving as a critical test flight for future lunar landings, the crew is conducting various demonstrations, including manual piloting, proximity operations, and testing new crew survival suits and the spacecraft's systems.
The success of Artemis II is crucial for paving the way for subsequent Artemis missions, including the first crewed lunar landing (Artemis III) and the eventual establishment of a permanent moon base.

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Three Americans and one Canadian on Monday traveled farther from Earth than any human has ever ventured.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen—the crew of the Artemis II mission—have entered lunar orbit and are now the only people to have traveled more than 248,655 miles from Earth, a mark set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.