In April 2026, four Artemis II astronauts flew farther from Earth than any humans in history, reaching 406,771 kilometres from home — breaking a record Apollo 13 had held since 1970, without Artemis II ever landing on the Moon.

In April 2026, four Artemis II astronauts flew farther from Earth than any humans in history, reaching 406,771 kilometres from home — breaking a record Apollo 13 had held since 1970, without Artemis II ever landing on the Moon.

Artemis II did not land on the Moon. It did something quieter but historically precise: it carried four people farther from Earth than any humans had ever travelled, then brought them home. On 6 April 2026, during the mission’s lunar flyby, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, passed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in April 1970. NASA’s post-flyby update re…