HOUSTON: The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission flew on Monday to the deepest point in space reached by any human, sailing along a path of lunar gravitational pull en route to a first-ever crewed flyby over the perpetually shadowed far side of the moon. The Artemis II crew, riding in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, began their sixth day of spaceflight as they awoke at around 10:50 a.m. ET to a recorded message from the late NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who flew aboard the Cold War-era Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 moon missions.

NASA announced Saturday that the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission were closer to moon than to the Earth.

The Artemis II astronauts are more than halfway to the moon.