With the moon looming ever larger, the Artemis II astronauts raced to set a new distance record Monday from Earth on a lunar fly-around promising magnificent views of the far side never seen before by eye.
The six-hour flyby is the highlight of NASA’s first return to the moon since the Apollo era with three Americans and one Canadian — a step toward landing boot prints near the moon’s south pole in just two years.
A prize — and bragging rights — awaits Artemis II.
Less than an hour before kicking off the fly-around and intense lunar observations, the four astronauts were set to become the most distant humans in history, surpassing the distance record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.
Mission Control expected Artemis II to surpass that record by more than 4,100 miles.
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