Four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission have set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.

While flying in the Orion capsule behind the Moon, communication with Earth was lost for about 40 minutes due to signal blockage. Contact was restored once they re-emerged, reconnecting with mission control in Houston.

At their farthest point, the crew reached approximately 406,788 kilometers (252,760 miles) from Earth—surpassing all previous human spaceflight records.

The earlier record was set during NASA’s Apollo 13 mission in 1970, when astronauts traveled about 400,171 kilometers (248,655 miles) from Earth.

The Artemis II crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch from NASA, along with Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.

During the mission, the astronauts also observed a total solar eclipse from space, describing the experience as surreal.

This 10-day mission does not include a Moon landing but marks the first time since 1972 that humans have traveled beyond Earth’s orbit. NASA aims to use Artemis missions to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, with plans to land astronauts near the lunar south pole by 2028.