The four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans on Monday, surpassing a milestone set more than half a century ago by the Apollo 13 crew in April 1970.

The record fell at 1:57 pm on Monday (Tuesday, Beijing time), as the Orion spacecraft exceeded the 400,171-kilometer mark set by the Apollo 13 mission. The Artemis II crew reached their maximum distance of 406,771 km from Earth at around 7:02 pm.

The four crew members — NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — have completed the mission's lunar observation period and begun the return trip home. The spacecraft would exit the lunar sphere of influence at around 1:25 pm on Tuesday.

The mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, beginning a 10-day journey. The crew spent about 25 hours in Earth orbit before Orion departed on Thursday evening. Early on Monday, they entered the lunar sphere of influence, where the moon's gravitational pull exceeds that of Earth.

During the flyby, the spacecraft reached its closest approach to the moon, passing within 6,550 km of the lunar surface. The lunar observation period lasted nearly seven hours, during which the astronauts had the opportunity to study the moon's terrain, including features of the far side that are blocked from Earth and have rarely been observed by human eyes.

As the spacecraft passed behind the moon from Earth's perspective at around 6:44 pm on Monday, the crew experienced a communications blackout with mission control. The blackout, expected as the lunar surface blocks radio signals from an Earth-based communications system, lasted about 40 minutes.

As with Apollo 13, Artemis II follows a free-return trajectory around the moon. The Apollo 13 crew was forced onto that path after an oxygen tank rupture aborted their planned lunar landing.

The Artemis II mission does not include a lunar landing. The crew is expected to return to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The mission aims to demonstrate a broad range of capabilities required for deep space exploration, including validating Orion's life-support systems and allowing astronauts to practice operations critical to future lunar missions.