Ever since the launch of Artemis II toward the Moon a few days ago, there has been speculation that it would involve humans going their furthest distance from the Earth than has ever been achieved before. Now that the mission has completed its trans-lunar injection (TLI), it can be confirmed that the crew will travel a maximum of 252,757 miles or 406,773 kilometers from Earth.
For comparison, Apollo 13, which set the current record in April 1970, reached 248,655 miles or 400,171 kilometers. The mission has always been expected to break the Apollo 13 record, but it has always been an estimate. The latest data came from Judd Freiling, the ascent flight director of the mission, during a press conference. With the TLI out of the way, these numbers are the most accurate we’ve gotten to date.
The lunar flyby is scheduled for April 6, where it will pass within 4,600 miles or 7,400 kilometers of the Moon’s surface. While there, they will take photos of the Moon, even parts that have never been observed by human eyes in person. After this, it will return to Earth and splash down at 5:21 p.m. PDT on April 10.
Godspeed, Artemis II! pic.twitter.com/lNLtud6ldO
— Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) April 1, 2026
This week, we also got a cool bit of trivia. In a post on X, astronaut Jessica Meir, who is on the space station, shared a video of four of the six ISS crew watching the Artemis II launch from a laptop.
Right now, there are 14 people in space across three spacecraft. There are seven people from the US, France, and Russia on the International Space Station, three Chinese people on the Tiangong Space Station, and aboard Artemis II, there are three Americans and one Canadian. You can find out more about who is in space here.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a successful Artemis II mission!