WATCH: Artemis II Crew Breaks Space Flight Record Before Naming Moon Crater After Commander’s Late Wife

The crew of Artemis II broke a 56-year-old record Monday when they traveled farther in space than any humans have before.

The crew celebrated their achievement by paying homage to the Apollo 13 mission that set the record in 1970.

“From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration,” said Pilot Victor Glover.

“Integrity” is the name given to the Orion spacecraft capsule the astronauts are traveling in.

“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear,” Glover said. “But we, most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next, to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

“It was a really, really special moment. And another special moment today we just have to share with you,” CNN’s Randi Kaye told viewers. “It is when mission specialist Jeremy Hansen suggested that they name one of the craters that they’re going to find on the moon, that they’re going to observe, after Carroll Wiseman. Carroll Wiseman is commander Reid Wiseman wife, who passed away in 2020 from cancer, and that moment had the crew in tears aboard Artemis II.”

“We lost a loved one,” Hansen said. “Her name was Carroll. The spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Elie. And if you want to find this one, you look at [crater] Glushko, and it’s just to the northwest of that. At the same latitude as home. And it’s a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll. And you spell that C-a-r-r-o-l-l.”

The astronauts could then be seen hugging each other in a touching moment.

Artemis II blasted off from Cape Canaveral on April 2 and is expected to make their closest approach to the moon’s dark side around 7:02 p.m. ET Monday. Then, at 7:07 p.m., the crew will reach their maximum distance from Earth at 252,000 miles away.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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