NASA’s Orion spacecraft breaks Apollo 13 flight record

The Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft has flown a distance of about 401,798 kilometers from Earth, thereby surpassing the previously held record set by Apollo 13 back in 1970.

That point was reached by the spacecraft on November 26 when it flew farther than any spacecraft designed to carry human astronauts had ever before.

Orion spacecraft integration manager Jim Geffre said that Artemis I was designed to stress the systems of Orion, adding that "we settled on the distant retrograde orbit as a really good way to do that", Engadget reported.

"It just so happened that with that really large orbit, high altitude above the moon, we were able to pass the Apollo 13 record. But what was more important though, was pushing the boundaries of exploration and sending spacecraft farther than we had ever done before", Geffre said. 

Earlier this week, Orion completed a flyby of the Moon. After the spacecraft completes half an orbit around the satellite, it will slingshot itself toward the Earth.

NASA expects Orion to splash down off the coast of San Diego on December 11.