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On Monday night, President Trump communicated with the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, congratulating them on their historic journey around the moon.
This crew, consisting of four astronauts—three from the United States and one from Canada—achieved a remarkable feat by traveling farther from Earth than any previous humans. Earlier that day, they broke the Apollo 13 record set in 1970 by exceeding a distance of 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous record by over 4,000 miles. Additionally, they became the first people to visually observe certain regions of the moon’s far side without the aid of instruments.
The Orion spacecraft is now on its return trip to Earth, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean scheduled for Friday. Artemis II serves as a vital test mission in NASA’s ongoing efforts to send humans back to the lunar surface, a goal not achieved in over 50 years.
This article is part of an ongoing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.