Artemis II Crew Sets Record and Names New Crater

Just before 2 PM ET on Monday, the Artemis II crew achieved a remarkable milestone, surpassing a record set 56 years ago by the Apollo 13 mission. They traveled over 248,655 miles, marking the farthest distance from Earth ever reached by humans. To celebrate this achievement, the crew held a naming ceremony for two craters on the Moon, embracing each other in lunar orbit.

The crew chose to name the first crater after their spacecraft, Integrity. The second name held a deeper significance. “A number of years ago, we started this journey and our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” mission specialist Jeremy Hansen shared during a livestream. “Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie.”

Hansen described a crater that shines brightly on the Moon and announced, “We would like to call it Carroll.” As he finished, the crew gathered in Integrity for a heartfelt hug. Carroll Wiseman, the wife of commander Reid Wiseman, passed away from cancer in 2020 at the age of 46.

Both crater names will need approval from the International Astronomical Union, the body responsible for naming features on planetary surfaces.