Four astronauts have become the first humans to travel around the moon since the Apollo era, becoming the first team to set a distance record, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13's crew in 1970 by over 4,000 miles. The Artemis 2 crew reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles from Earth, surpasses Apollo 13’s crew of Apollo 13 in 1970. The mission, named Artemis 2, was part of an initial crewed test flight for the Orion spacecraft, which traced a similar course during the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in 2022. The astronauts were able to make up-close geological observations of the lunar surface during the flyby, which allowed them to see parts of the far side previously unseen by humans. Seattle-area tech workers contributed to the mission, including L3Harris' Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Redmond and Karman Space Systems' Mukilteo facility in Mukiltao, which provided mechanisms for Orion's parachute deployment system and emergency hatch release system. A successful Artemis 2 mission will prepare the way for a lunar lander test flight in Earth orbit as early as next year and potentially lead to the first crewed moon landing since Apollo.