Artemis II Passes Apollo 13’s Distance Record on Lunar Approach

When the Artemis II crew passed the Apollo 13 distance record, the milestone came with a request to future explorers: make sure this record is not long lived. The crew of Orion, a spacecraft they named Integrity, passed the mark at 1:57 p.m. Eastern time, 12:57 p.m. Central, on the way to the Moon. Apollo 13's Lovell, Swigert and Haise had set the old record on April 15, 1970, at 248,655 statute miles from Earth. Everyday Astronaut host Tim Dodd followed the lunar approach live, alongside NASA's broadcast, on the day of the flyby. The mission is crewed by Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and Jeremy Hansen.

The record and the words that came with it

A NASA commentator told the crew the target was roughly 252,760 miles from Earth, about 4,150 miles farther than Apollo 13, with confirmation of the numbers to follow. Dodd put it in kilometers: just under 47,000 km beyond the figure for Apollo 13, which he said was just over 400,000 km, so the new record beats the old by only about 1%. NASA's call to the crew noted that the old record had stood for more than 55 years.

From the cabin, the crew said they were honoring the efforts of their predecessors and would continue further into space before the Earth pulled them back. Jeremy Hansen, of the Canadian Space Agency, challenged this generation and the next to make sure the record did not last. Afterward the crew dimmed the cabin lights and prepared for their science objectives.

Two craters proposed for names

The crew then asked to propose names for two relatively fresh, unnamed lunar craters, which they had located with help from the science team and had seen with the naked eye and through the long lens. The first, to honor their spacecraft, would be called Integrity. It lies roughly midway on a line drawn from Oriental up to M on the far side.

The second was named for Carroll, the spouse of Reid Wiseman and mother of Katie and Ellie, who died of cancer a few years ago. The feature sits just northwest of Glushko, at the same latitude as M, a bright spot just on the near-side of the near-side/far-side boundary, so it can be seen from Earth at certain times in the Moon's orbit. The crew asked that it be spelled C-A-R-R-O-L-L. Mission control confirmed it had heard Integrity and Carroll Crater loud and clear, and there was a moment of silence in Houston.

The lunar observation period

The crew photographed with Nikon cameras: two D5s and one Z9, the Z9 a late addition, with an 80 to 400 mm lens. They worked in pairs, one photographing while the other made an ocular assessment and took notes. Windows were assigned roles: window two carried the long lens with a shroud for lunar and solar work, window three was for visual observations, window four for a floater camera, and the docking hatch window was used for mapping. Mission control advised keeping the lens flush with the window to avoid imaging through the panes at an angle, and limiting focal length to 200 mm if shooting at an angle. Memory cards were assigned by position and serial number.

Mission control reminded the crew that negative observations are still valuable science, to note any correlation between structure, texture, color and albedo, and that their eyes would take time to adjust. They were also told that when looking back at home they would be looking directly at Asia, Africa and Oceania. Glushko was the one feature the same pair, Reid and Jeremy, would view twice.

During the observation period Christina Cook reported that Hertzsprung was about the same size as Oriental, a comparison the science team wanted between a much older and a younger basin. She also noted that Earth appeared brighter than the Moon when both were in view, and the crew inferred that Earth as a whole has a higher albedo. Victor Glover described browns and greens around the Aristarchus plateau that faded toward the North Pole and the far side, compared the albedo of Aristarchus with a near-side feature he called Burgess alpha, and said Grimaldi was the darkest feature but showed striations of albedo inside it. The cabin lights were off apart from LEDs that could not be put out.

The crew also asked whether the vehicle could pitch down 5 degrees so the D5 long lens could sit flush with the window. Ground controllers said the spacecraft was pointing the center of the window at the center of the Moon, with two degrees of deadband, and the Moon would drift into position by the start of observations.

Distance, timing and communications

Dodd listed the timeline: the Apollo 13 record pass, the start of lunar observation, a predicted loss of communications of about 40 minutes behind the Moon, closest approach, and the farthest distance from Earth. He said closest approach would be roughly 4,000 miles, about 6,000 to 7,000 km, above the surface, and that the crew would be unable to resolve the Apollo landing sites with a 400 mm lens. Signals take about 1.3 seconds each way at the Moon. The crew was using the Deep Space Network, which Dodd said humans had not used in over 50 years, with the mission capable of up to 100 megabits per second in a laser communication configuration.

Orion has 330 cubic feet of habitable volume, described as about two minivans and 60% more than Apollo. Dodd explained that the mission has no lander and is a flyby, similar to Apollo 8, and that Orion's service module is small. He said the near-rectilinear halo orbit chosen for later missions gives access to the lunar south pole with little station keeping.

Dodd also answered viewer questions: why Apollo 13 set its record (a free return trajectory after the accident), why Orion does not need the Apollo-style barbecue roll (better thermal management, in his explanation), and the crew's IVA suits, which can sustain them tethered to the spacecraft for six days. He said Orion's toilet, the first outside low Earth orbit, had two problems so far, one involving a vent line freezing shut. He criticized AI-generated fake images of the mission.