Artemis II: Moments Around the Moon

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen completed a nearly 10-day journey that took them 252,756 miles from home at their farthest distance from Earth. The first Artemis crew launch at 6:35 p.m. EDT April 1, 2026 and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 8:07 p.m. April 10. They flew 694,481 miles in total during their mission. Their lunar flyby took them farther than any humans have ever traveled before, surpassing the previous distance record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970. As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and lay the groundwork for sending the first astronauts – American astronauts – to Mars.