India, April 7 -- The lunar flyby of Artemis II represented a remarkable feat in human space exploration. In less than seven hours, the Orion spacecraft transported four astronauts further into space than any other humans since the mid-1970s, traveling a distance of 406,778 kilometers (252,760 miles) and surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by 6,606 kilometers (4,105 miles).

Launch Date & Mission Start

Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center and marking NASA's first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17. The ten-day flight carries four astronauts around the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft, testing systems and trajectories for future Artemis missions aimed at returning humans to...