Artemis II crew sets farthest flight record

(NBC, KYMA) - Monday marks a momentous day in the history of human space flight.

The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission, on board their Orion spacecraft, surpassed the previous record for the farthest distance from Earth that human's have ever traveled.

That mark was perviously set by Apollo 13 in 1970 at 248,655 miles.

On Monday, four astronauts, Cmdr. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, eclipsed that mark at around 1:56 p.m. Eastern as they continued their journey to orbit the moon before returning back to Earth.

The Artemis II mission will eventually reach a total distance of 252,757 miles away from Earth.

As the NASA acknowledged the achievement Monday, Cmdr. Wiseman challenged this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.