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252,756 miles from Earth. No human had been that far in 56 years, not since \
Apollo 13 limped around the Moon in 1970. On April 6, 2026, at 12:56 p.m. CDT, four astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft broke that record while most of Earth was at work on a Monday. Today, August 28, they walk into the Johnson Space Center in Houston to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Trump: the highest honour in American spaceflight.

The Apollo 13 record stood for 56 years not because no one tried to break it, but because no one went back. Every human spaceflight from 1973 onwards stayed in low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles up. Shuttles, space stations, commercial crew: all close to home by lunar standards. Artemis II was the first crewed mission to leave low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
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Credit: NASA. Orion approaches the Moon on April 5, 2026, one day before the \
crew broke the human spaceflight distance record.

The crew did not land on the Moon. They did not need to. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen flew a free-return trajectory: a path that used the Moon's own gravity to slingshot them deeper into space, then back toward Earth, without any powered burn required. The Moon was at a point in its elliptical orbit that put it further from Earth than usual. That geometry, not extra fuel, carried them 4,102 miles beyond where Apollo 13 had been.
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At their closest the crew came within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface. They spent \
seven hours at the Orion windows during the flyby, photographing the Moon below. They returned more than 7,000 lunar surface images to scientists on the ground: the most detailed photographic survey of the Moon since Apollo.

The mission lasted 9 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 15 seconds. Total distance: 695,081 miles. Re-entry speed: 25,000 miles per hour. Orion splashed down in the Pacific off San Diego on April 10, recovered by the USS John P. Murtha.
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https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-welcomes-record-setting-artemis-ii-moonfarers-back-to-earth/
NASA: Artemis II splashdown press release, April 10, 2026
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[icon:STAR] Launch | April 1, 2026 at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Pad 39B, KSC
[icon:TARGET] Farthest point from Earth | 252,756 miles (406,773 km)
[icon:CHART] Previous record | 248,655 miles, Apollo 13, April 1970
[icon:BOLT] Record margin | 4,101 miles farther than any prior human
[icon:CLOCK] Closest lunar approach | 4,067 miles above the surface
[icon:TRENDING_UP] Total distance flown | 695,081 miles
[icon:FIRE] Lunar photos returned | over 7,000
[icon:USERS] Historic firsts | first woman (Koch), person of color (Glover), Canadian (Hansen) beyond LEO
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https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-ii/
NASA Artemis II official mission page
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:QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Jared Isaacman. NASA Administrator]
Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, welcome home, and congratulations on a truly historic achievement.
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Credit: NASA. Commander Reid Wiseman looks out an Orion cabin window at the \
Moon on April 6, 2026, the day the crew broke the distance record.

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is America's highest recognition for spaceflight achievement. The Artemis II crew are only the fourteenth set of recipients since the medal was created in 1969. Previous recipients include Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride, and the Apollo 13 crew, whose record these four just erased.

Today's ceremony begins at 11 a.m. EDT at Johnson Space Center. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will attend alongside the crew.
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The record-breaking run also opens a harder question: what comes next. Artemis III, \
targeting 2027, will test rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin in low Earth orbit. The first crewed landing on the Moon is now assigned to Artemis IV, targeting 2028 near the lunar south pole.

The crew who flew 252,756 miles and did not land will be the ones who made that landing possible.
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https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-artemis-ii-crew-set-to-receive-congressional-space-medal-of-honor/
NASA: Artemis II crew to receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor, August 21 2026