Artemis Two Breaks Apollo Record, Honors Past

0:00It's April 7th. Welcome to Tampa Bay News today, powered by AI. I'm Cory with the story. The Artemis II crew smashed a 54-year-old space record this week, traveling farther from Earth than any humans before. On Monday, April 6th at 1.57 pm, their Orion spacecraft hit 248,655 miles out, topping. The mark set by Apollo 13 back in 1970. They're pushing toward a max of 252,752 miles during this 10-day lunar fly by mission. That old record came from Apollo 13. The 7th crewed Apollo flight meant to land in the Moon's From Hour region. But about 200,000 miles from home, an oxygen tank exploded, killing power, air, and water supplies. Commander Jim Lovell, Jack Swiggart, and Fred Hayes turned it into NASA's famous rescue op. Folks still quote levels line, Houston, we have a problem, whenever things go south,

1:00it's pure pop culture gold. Ground teams in the crew improvise like pros, looping around the Moon to slingshot back safe. They splashed down in the Pacific near Samoa, on April 17, 1970, after three brutal days of cold and rations. NASA calls it a successful failure, with lessons that shaped every mission since, from safety checks to backup systems. Now Artemis 2 builds on that, testing tech for future Moon landings and Mars trips. As these astronauts loop the Moon, they're proving we can go farther, safer, honoring Apollo's grit while charting the next frontier.