on April 6, a record will be set for the distance of a person from the Earth

Astronauts of the Artemis II mission heading to the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft are set to set a new record for the maximum distance of a human from the Earth in the coming days. This was announced by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacson.

According to him, during the flight near the back side of the Moon, the crew will be at a distance of 406,773 kilometers from the Earth. This is more than 6 thousand kilometers more than the previous record set in 1970 by the astronauts of the Apollo 13 mission.

Isaacson noted that within the next 24 hours, the crew will be on the opposite side of the Moon and will surpass the historic achievement of the Apollo program. Thus, Artemis II will become a new milestone in manned flights beyond Earth’s space.

The mission was launched on April 2: an SLS rocket with an Orion spacecraft was launched from the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Christina Cook and Victor Glover, as well as a representative of the Canadian Space Agency Jeremy Hansen.