Today, four astronauts achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first humans to orbit the moon since the Apollo missions, marking a pivotal moment in the Artemis program. The crew of Artemis 2 reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles from Earth, exceeding the previous Apollo 13 record by over 4,000 miles.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch made history as the first woman to travel beyond Earth’s orbit during this mission. Alongside her, Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to visit the moon, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen represented the first non-U.S. astronaut to partake in this journey. The primary goal of this 10-day mission is to conduct a crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which had previously completed a similar mission uncrewed in 2022.
The Artemis 2 mission is designed to lay the groundwork for future lunar exploration, including a potential crewed moon landing in 2028. Key contributions to the Orion spacecraft came from Seattle-area technology firms, including L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne and Karman Space Systems, which developed critical systems for the spacecraft.