(CNN) – 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 on April 6.
Artemis II was programmed to reach about 252,760 miles from Earth, or 4,105 miles farther than Apollo 13.
For the first five hours of the flyby, the crew was to split into pairs to handle lunar observations and taking images.
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were the first observers while NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch handled other tasks. Each hour the teams were to swap.
The Artemis II science team structured 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 lighting was dimmed inside to prevent any glare on the spacecraft’s windows.
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.
“When the Apollo missions launched, they prioritized launching into windows where the near side was illuminated because that’s where the missions landed,” said Dr. Kelsey Young, lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “The far side was not illuminated at the time when they were in orbit.”
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 Young. “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.
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