A record-breaking voyage, an earthset in silence, and a total solar eclipse — astronauts on the Artemis II mission experienced sights no human has witnessed in half a century.

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YouTube video by Brian Tyler Cohen

The Artemis II mission has made history by becoming the farthest human spaceflight ever from Earth, surpassing the distance record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970. At precisely 1:57 p.m. ET, NASA’s Orion spacecraft reached 400,171 kilometers from Earth as it executed a dramatic lunar flyby with four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch—on board. As the spacecraft swings behind the moon, communication with mission control will temporarily cease for about 40 minutes. The crew will then witness the far side of the moon directly for the first time in history before entering a solar eclipse phase. Throughout the flyby, they will observe and photograph geological features, including ancient impact craters and lava flows, generating thousands of images for scientific analysis. The astronauts emotionally marked their achievement by requesting permission to name two newly observed craters “Integrity,” after their capsule, and “Carroll” in memory of Wiseman’s late wife. Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who passed away last August, left them a recorded wake-up message congratulating the crew on their historic journey. Over the next several days, the spacecraft will complete its U-turn trajectory and head back to Earth, concluding its nine-day mission with a Pacific Ocean splashdown near San Diego. The Canadian Space Agency emphasized that this milestone builds on decades of international collaboration and generations of research since the Apollo era, reaffirming humanity’s growing capacity to explore beyond our planet.

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NASA’s Artemis II crew shares breathtaking space photos, offering a stunning glimpse of Earth and deep space during their historic mission.