Artemis II Crew Set to Break Deep-Space Record as Moon Flyby Approaches

The four-person crew of **NASA’s Artemis II** mission is preparing for a historic lunar flyby early this week, marking the first time humans have traveled to the vicinity of the moon in over 50 years. Launched on April 1, the Orion spacecraft is currently performing according to specifications as it transitions into a high-altitude orbit that will carry the astronauts around the far side of the moon. This maneuver is expected to break the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth. Mission control in Houston confirmed today that all life-support systems are stable following a series of successful trajectory correction burns. The crew, consisting of three Americans and one Canadian, has been conducting a battery of tests on the spacecraft’s communication and navigation arrays during the outbound leg of the 10-day journey. While the mission does not include a lunar landing, the data gathered during this flyby is considered critical for the scheduled Artemis III mission, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface. The spacecraft is slated to return for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean later this month.