Artemis II astronauts, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, hold first news conference after lunar mission

NASA's Artemis II crew set a spaceflight record on April 6, 2026, traveling 406,771 kilometers from Earth during their lunar flyby, but astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell determined that their farthest distance from other humans actually occurred about 40 minutes earlier while the Orion capsule was behind the moon and out of radio contact. McDowell's calculations, which accounted for relativistic time differences and orbital mechanics, revealed that China's Tiangong space station was the most distant human outpost from the Artemis II astronauts at 419,643 kilometers, slightly farther than the International Space Station at 419,581 kilometers. The Tiangong crew at the time consisted of Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, who launched aboard Shenzhou 21 in October 2025, while seven astronauts occupied the ISS. The four Artemis II astronauts - commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen - splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, completing a 10-day journey that marked the first human lunar mission in more than 50 years. The crew underwent medical evaluations and debriefings upon returning to Houston, where they were greeted with a jubilant homecoming at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center. Hansen, a 50-year-old from London, Ontario, became the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit and the first person to speak French while en route to the moon. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the mission "hugely inspiring" during a call with the crew while they were in space. NASA confirmed the mission achieved all primary objectives, including testing life support systems, manually piloting Orion, conducting the lunar flyby with unprecedented views of the moon's far side, and completing a safe re-entry and recovery. The Artemis program aims to establish a more permanent human lunar presence and eventually send astronauts to Mars, moving beyond the Apollo-era approach of brief lunar visits. McDowell noted that as more crewed spaceflight occurs, the relevant question will shift from how far people are from Earth to how far apart people are from each other in space, suggesting this distance record may not stand for long.