Orion currently holds the record as the most human-carrying spacecraft that has traveled far from Earth. After orbiting the moon last week, it then went to a point 432,200 km from earth. The selfie taken shows Orion, the moon and the earth in the same frame.
The previous record was held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft after the mission encountered problems while trying to land on the moon in 1970. Interestingly, this new record was set on the 13th day of the mission since it was launched using the SLS rocket.
The record for the farthest human-made object from Earth is held by the Voyager I and Voyager II space probes that have entered deep space and are estimated to be more than 18 billion km from Earth.
Under the Artemis I mission, the Orion system will be fully tested with it carrying only dummy cargo instead of astronauts. If all goes well, Orion will then power up the rocket to return to lunar orbit before using its gravitational pull to return to Earth. According to the original plan, Orion will land at the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean on December 11, 2022.
On the Artemis II mission, four astronauts will finally board Orion for the first crewed mission. Once again various system tests will be carried out because the time has not yet arrived for the landing on the moon. Even the lunar landing capsule built by SpaceX has not yet been completed after the contract was awarded last year.
