The crew will also be the furthest any human being has ever travelled in space
3-MIN READ3-MIN1BloombergPublished: 10:55pm, 6 Apr 2026A Nasa crew of four astronauts will fly by the moon on Monday at the closest distance they will get to the lunar surface during their mission and the nearest any human has got to the moon in more than 50 years.
The historic moment is set to occur just after 7pm New York time on Monday, part of a several hours-long fly-by where the astronauts will snap images of the moon’s far side – a vantage that is never seen from Earth.
The close approach is the pinnacle moment of Nasa’s Artemis II mission, which launched to space on April 1, sending Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, en route to the moon.
The mission serves as an elaborate dress rehearsal meant to test vehicles that will be used to help land humans on the lunar surface in potentially two years.
As they approach the moon on Monday, the Artemis II crew will also break the record for the farthest distance any humans have travelled in space, surpassing the distance travelled by the crew of the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.
That moment is set to occur around 2pm New York time, before the fly-by.
