Cape canaveral: The four crew members of the Artemis II mission have made history by traveling the furthest from Earth ever recorded while preparing to orbit the far side of the moon.

According to Thai News Agency, the four astronauts of the Artemis 2 mission, led by mission commander Reed Wiseman, along with Canadian astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, set a new record yesterday for the furthest distance humans have traveled from Earth. They are traveling under the influence of the moon's gravity, taking them to the far side of the moon, reaching a point approximately 406,776 kilometers from Earth. This surpasses the previous record set by Jim Lovell and the Apollo 13 crew in 1970, which was 400,167 kilometers and stood for over 56 years. They will then orbit the far side of the moon, seeing its dark surface from a distance of approximately 6,437 kilometers, while Earth will appear as a small, basketball-sized object in the distance.

As the spacecraft passed the far side of the moon and set this record, the crew named two lunar craters: Integrity, after the internal designation of the Orion space capsule, and Carroll, in honor of Commander Wiseman's late wife.

The orbit around the moon will expose the Artemis 2 crew to temporary darkness and communication disruptions, as the moon will block signals from the Deep Space Network, a large global communications network used by NASA to communicate with the crew. This orbit will take approximately six hours. During this time, the astronauts will use professional cameras to photograph the moon through the windows of the Orion space capsule, capturing rare and scientifically valuable perspectives.

This event marks a pivotal moment for the approximately 10-day Artemis 2 mission, the first human-crew test flight in NASA's multi-billion dollar Artemis program. Its goal is to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028, ahead of China, and to establish a long-term US lunar base over the next decade as a testing ground for future Mars missions.