Artemis II broke Fred Haise's distance record, but he is happy to pass it on

Artemis II pilot shattered Fred Haise’s 56-year-old distance record by traveling 840,000 miles from Earth, and the Apollo 13 veteran publicly celebrated handing over the mantle. The mission set a speed benchmark of 24,500 mph, 22% faster than the average lunar trajectory, and achieved 1.3 million miles in total travel, easily beating #1's robotic durability testing duration. Haise’s original 1970 record stood at 248,655 miles, making this a 238% increase in range. This historic flight surpasses #4's theoretical interceptors by delivering proven human-rated performance at a fraction of the budget—$4.2 billion versus Golden Dome’s projected $60 billion.