The cosmos is almost incomprehensibly vast. Even after Artemis II's record-breaking flight, our nearest neighbor reveals how little of the void we have crossed.
// Both size and distance rendered to the same scale. Each pixel = ~1,200 km.
Orbiting at just 408 km above Earth's surface, the ISS completes a full orbit every 90 minutes. At true scale, its orbit would be nearly invisible — a thin ring just 3.2% above Earth's radius. It represents the outer limit of permanent human presence in space since 2000.
NASA's Artemis II carried four astronauts on a free-return trajectory — a single smooth loop that swung ~7,600 km past the Moon's far side. Gravity did the work: no engine burn was needed to bring Orion home. The first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in 1972, the crew didn't orbit or land — just a sweeping arc around the far side and back. In doing so they broke the 56-year-old Apollo 13 record for the furthest humans have ever travelled from Earth, returning safely on April 10, 2026.