Artemis II astronauts break Apollo distance record on historic flyby of the moon

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are stationed at Orion’s windows with cameras and already taking photos to kick-start the lunar flyby. NASA astronaut Christina Koch is sharing their observations.

“We just had a huge moment realizing that Hertzsprung is about the same size as our incredible Orientale,” Koch said of two large craters on the moon. Hertzsprung is more ancient than Orientale, which is why the science team would like to compare aspects of both features.

“We also are noticing that the moon is still getting noticeably bigger as we go, even when you’re watching it continuously,” Koch noted. “We can actually see the moon and Earth at the same time right now. It’s interesting because the Earth looks way brighter.”

How much will the astronauts actually be able to observe at an estimated 4,000-mile distance from the moon?

Apart from extensive training to observe the moon and its unique features, the astronauts possess one of humanity’s greatest scientific tools: the gift of observation with their own eyes.

“Even from as far as away as 4,000 miles, there are still things that the human eye can pick up with granularity that are important to the science community,” said Judd Frieling, Artemis II ascent flight director.

During the Apollo 17 mission, the final crewed venture of the program to the lunar surface in 1972, NASA astronaut and geologist Harrison Schmitt spotted orange soil and collected a sample.

Once back in orbit, the Apollo 17 crew saw the same orange hue on the lunar surface, which later revealed that volcanic processes were active on the lunar surface for longer than expected, said Dr. Kelsey Young, lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“We’re looking for the crew call out any of those subtle color nuances, especially on the parts of the far side that have never been seen before by human eyes,” Young said. “We’re able to ask more intelligent questions because of what Apollo gave us.”

While the Artemis II crew isn’t landing on the moon, their observations of color variances could shed more light on the origin and composition of the moon, as well as why the lunar near side and far side appear so different from each other.

The Orion spacecraft is seen with the moon in the background before the lunar flyby on Monday.

The lunar flyby has officially kicked off. The Artemis II crew will work in shifts to take images of the moon over the next six hours.

After a briefing to prep for the lunar flyby with Dr. Kelsey Young, lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the crew expressed their gratitude to Young and the entire science team who have helped train the astronauts for months ahead of this major mission milestone.

“I wish you were up here to see all the smiling faces to hear all these terminologies being thrown around, and we are just fired up to get started on this day,” said Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman.

The crew also added how much they’ve already witnessed with the naked eye is “quite impressive,” and they can’t wait for the upcoming views.

Artemis II science officer Kelsey Young works at the SCIENCE console during a training simulation in the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston in January.

It’s a sign that NASA takes the research aspect of this mission very seriously: In mission control, sitting nearby the designated Capsule Communicator that speaks to the crew, will be a lead scientist.

The role, held by Dr. Kelsey Young, is brand-new. Called a “science officer,” she’ll have a whole team of lunar scientists backing her up during today’s flyby.

In the Apollo era, there were scientists gathered to evaluate and discuss research objectives. But they did not have a direct line of communication to mission control, and NASA made a concerted effort to amend that this time around.

“It’s a clear statement that there is a big focus on science,” Jacob Bleacher, NASA Chief Exploration Scientist, told CNN on Monday.

“This is like a precursor to the landing mission,” Bleacher added.

Just down the road from mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston lies SMOR — or the Science Mission Operations Room. It’ll have a designated communicator that speaks to the Science Evaluation Room — which has its own assigned communicator, SERCOM. They speak directly to Young, who is situated directly in mission control.

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft is dominated by a wide, young, fresh crater on asteroid Vesta. Surrounding this crater is its ejecta blanket, a covering of small particles that were thrown out during the impact that formed the crater.

While describing what they see during the lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew may toss out words that sound unfamiliar to the average person.

But Dr. Juliane Gross, the Artemis lunar sample curation lead for future missions, provided a helpful breakdown during NASA’s live broadcast.

Albedo: The reflectiveness of the lunar surface. High albedo, usually for the moon, means bright areas, and low albedo refers to dimmer locations, Gross said. “When you look into the night sky, you can see the high albedo areas are the white parts, and the low albedo ones are the darker areas.”

Ejecta: Impacts are created as space rocks slam into the moon, ejecting out material that then ends up on the surface. “You can see that as sort of rays” expanding out from the site, Gross said. The ejecta may also appear different in color, so the crew may point out if they spot variations in hues.

Exosphere: The almost non-existent atmosphere of the moon. “It’s barely there, but there is dust on the lunar surface that can get lofted up through electrostatic forces,” Gross said. “And when the sun goes behind the moon, it can scatter forward on those dust particles and sort of like, create a little glow on the horizon. And so we’re really excited to excited to see if the crew can actually see that.”

The Artemis II astronauts embrace after naming a crater on the moon after Carroll Wiseman, Reid Wiseman's late wife, on Monday.

After the Artemis II mission surpassed Apollo 13’s distance record, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen offered some remarks — and a poignant suggestion from the crew.

Then in an even more emotional moment, Hansen asked on behalf of his team to name two relatively recent craters on the moon. Both have been visible to the crew with the naked eye.

One, near Ohm crater, will be named Integrity for their Orion spacecraft. The other, near a bright crater called Glushko, they suggested, should be named Carroll to honor Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife. Carroll Taylor Wiseman, a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit, died in 2020 following a battle with cancer.

Hansen’s voice visibly shook as he spoke about Carroll, and as soon as his remarks concluded, the four astronauts hugged while shedding tears. A moment of silence was observed in NASA Mission Control in Houston.

This bright-rayed crater on the lunar farside was photographed from the Apollo 13 spacecraft during its pass around the moon in April 1970.

The Artemis II mission has broken the record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth, which was set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. The Apollo record was 248,655 statute miles from Earth. Artemis II surpassed that marker at 1:56 p.m. ET.

Artemis II is expected to reach about 252,760 miles from Earth, or 4,105 miles farther than Apollo 13.

Orion is expected to reach its maximum distance from our planet at 7:07 p.m. ET.

The nine Apollo missions that ventured away from Earth orbit were limited by what parts of the moon they observed based on which regions were illuminated by sunlight during the missions and the trajectories of their capsules.

Artemis II Post Insertion and Deorbit Prep Training with crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen on January 30, 2025, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

During training ahead of launch, the astronauts did an experiment involving a sandbox. By shining light on the sand at different angles, they identified texture, color and topography — something that can hint at how the lunar surface has evolved.

“We can’t move the sun in this mission, but we can move Integrity,” said Dr. Kelsey Young, lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “By looking at the same targets more than once throughout their flyby, they’ll be able to make observations about the same targets in different illumination conditions that would take some spacecraft days, months, weeks, years to build up.”

Apart from simulations, the crew prepared for the historic lunar flyby in a multitude of ways in the months ahead of launch.

They attended classes with the scientists, blazed through flashcards to understand lunar geography, handled rocks to get a better grasp of geology and even trained like field scientists in the Icelandic highlands — a great lunar analog on Earth.

Reid Wiseman looks at the moon through an Orion spacecraft window ahead of the crew's lunar flyby on Monday.

For the first five hours of the flyby, the crew will split into pairs to handle lunar observations and taking images.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will observe first while NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch are handling other tasks. Then, each hour the teams will swap.

The Artemis II science team is structuring tasks during the flyby this way to ensure that the astronauts allow time for their eyes to adjust as they make crucial lunar observations. The Orion cabin will also be dimmed inside to prevent any glare on the spacecraft’s windows.

The late Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell’s son provided the Artemis II crew with a special item to accompany them on their historic journey around the moon: The Apollo 8 mission patch, which flew with Lovell and his crew to space in 1968.

The crew was also greeted by an encouraging prerecorded message from Lovell to start their day.

NASA’s livestream, which will share the Artemis II lunar flyby with the public as seen as from the Orion spacecraft, has just started.

Ahead of today’s historic lunar flyby, NASA has released a new animation previewing what the experience will look like from the perspective of the Artemis II crew — including a solar eclipse that the astronauts will witness as they fly around the moon.

To power through their seven-hour flyby that begins in just a couple of hours, the Artemis II crew is enjoying a hearty breakfast.

On today’s menu: breakfast sausage, couscous with nuts, strawberries, tortillas, oatmeal with apples and cinnamon, seasoned scrambled eggs, grits and butter, mango salad and a sausage patty.

Fun fact: The dessert menu last night ahead of the flyby included “cosmic brownies.”

Jim Lovell poses for a portrait while training for the Apollo 13 mission in April 1970.

After hearing the opening of today’s wakeup song — “Good Morning” by Mandisa (feat. TobyMac) — just before 11 a.m. ET today, the Artemis II crew was greeted by an inspiring prerecorded message from the late Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, who ventured around the moon twice during Apollo 8 and Apollo 13.

Reid Wiseman, foreground, and Jeremy Hansen practice lunar photography at Johnson Space Center in Houston in November 2025.

The astronauts will spend roughly five hours observing the moon during the flyby.

They will use three Nikon cameras equipped with different zoom lenses to capture varied features like impact basins and ancient lava flows. The crew will also provide live descriptions of what they’re seeing to scientists at Johnson Space Center a few times an hour.

“Just having this crew describe visuals of the moon, visuals of the lunar surface, will give you goosebumps,” said Dr. Kelsey Young, lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “They are absolutely prepared not just to give really scientifically compelling descriptions, but also to bring that experience verbally to us watching here on Earth.”

The far side of the moon is seen to the left of the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the moon’s near and far sides. Everything to the left of the crater is part of the hemisphere we do not get to see from Earth.

The lunar flyby hasn’t even begun yet, but the Artemis II crew has been busy snapping photos. Their latest image of the moon showcases a combined view of the near side, which always faces Earth, and the far side, which has rarely been seen by humans.

But they’ve also shared candid peeks from inside the Orion spacecraft, allowing glimpses of what daily life is like in space.

Victor Glover peers out of an Orion spacecraft window looking back at Earth ahead of Monday's lunar flyby.

Artemis II crewmember sleeping bags are illuminated inside the Orion spacecraft.

Jeremy Hansen enjoys a shave.

The Orion spacecraft is seen with the moon in the distance on Friday.

There are multiple milestones to anticipate during today’s historic flyby, according to NASA.

A view of the moon through the window of the Orion spacecraft on the third day of the mission.

The lunar flyby may not be occurring until the sixth day of the mission, but the astronauts already witnessed unprecedented views beginning on Day 3.

The crew snapped a photo of the vast Orientale Basin, which had never been seen or photographed by humans until Artemis II. The crater, which is 600 miles (965 kilometers) wide, represents a key transition region between the near and far sides of the moon.

The Orientale Basin (far left) had only ever been observed by robotic missions.

“The moon we are looking at is not the moon you see from Earth whatsoever,” said NASA astronaut Christina Koch of the crew’s first glimpses of the lunar far side, which always faces away from Earth.

And many more moments like this are expected to occur during the flyby.