Four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission have made history, travelling farther from Earth than any humans before them while getting a breathtaking look at parts of the moon that even the Apollo astronauts never clearly saw.
On Monday, the Artemis II crew surpassed the previous distance record of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) set by Apollo 13 back in April 1970 and kept going. By the time the flyby was complete, Mission Control expected the crew to have beaten that old record by more than 4,100 miles (6,600 kilometers), with NASA estimating the maximum distance from Earth would exceed 406,000 kilometers.
As they broke the record, the crew asked permission to name two newly seen lunar craters, suggesting "Integrity," after their capsule, and "Carroll," in memory of commander Reid Wiseman's late wife.
The moment was emotional, with Wiseman in tears as Hansen made the request, and the crew embracing.
Commander Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, pilot Victor Glover, and Christina Koch came as close as about 6,550 kilometers to the Moon. Their Orion spacecraft flew past it, made a U-turn and then started heading back to Earth.
The astronauts also received a wake-up message recorded by Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell before his death last year.
