IT·Science News

Artemis II crew flies farther from Earth than any humans, breaking Apollo 13’s 1970 record

NASA’s four Artemis II astronauts became the humans to travel farthest from Earth on Monday 6 April, passing the record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970, according to an AP report carried by The Korea Times. During a six-hour lunar flyby, the Orion crew passed behind the Moon for a 40-minute communications blackout. It is NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, PBS NewsHour notes. The crew are Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen.

AP says the crew asked to name two newly observed craters: “Integrity”, after their capsule, and “Carroll”, after Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020. The day began with a recorded wake-up message from Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who died in August 2025. Science targets included the Orientale Basin, the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites and the edge of the south polar region, a candidate area for future landings.

“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now.” — Jeremy Hansen, via PBS NewsHour

How each outlet framed it

• The Korea Times — the AP account: the record, the crater names and the next missions, Artemis III next year and a south pole landing on Artemis IV in 2028.
• Gulf News — the AFP angle: the crew would see areas of the Moon never seen before with the naked eye.
• CTV News — the Canadian story: Hansen, who launched on Wednesday 1 April from Kennedy Space Center, as the first non-American astronaut sent on a moon mission.
• PBS NewsHour — the human moments: Lovell’s “Welcome to my old neighborhood” message and the crew’s reactions.

Where the numbers differ: AP gives a peak distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 km), beating Apollo 13 by 4,101 miles (6,600 km); AFP put the expected margin at about 4,105 miles (6,606 km) and the peak at about 252,760 miles (406,778 km). Both describe a Pacific splashdown planned for Friday.