Furthest voyage ever.

Artemis II has made it's pass of the moon and is headed back to earth.

In doing so, its crew has travelled further from earth than any other human beings - 252,756 miles. The furthest Apollo ever got was 248,655 miles. Statistically significant? Probably not. But it's still a record.

Both missions reached these distances for the same reason, and for different reasons. Same? They were on free-return trajectories that passed behind the far side, but never went into lunar orbit. The other Apollo missions orbited the moon and, thus, were closer to the lunar surface.

Different? Artemis II was intended to follow a free-return trajectory. Apollo 13 did so after an explosion in the service module precluded their intended lunar orbit and subsequent landing.

Reasonable people can disagree on whether the costs and risks of the Artemis program justify its existence. As I've said previously, my own opinions are mixed, and I can see serious merit on both sides.

But can we all at least agree that our species has accomplished something seriously cool? The distance flown by Artemis II is almost 32 times the diameter of the earth at the equator. Not so bad for a species that only learned to fly heavier-than-air vehicles 124 years ago. There is nothing about this that is anything less than mind-blowing.