Lockheed Martin built the Orion spacecraft for Artemis II.
The Artemis II crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The Artemis II crew became the farthest any humans have ever traveled from Earth.
Artemis II has traveled farther from Earth than any previous human mission.
The Artemis II crew was scheduled to reach their closest approach to the Moon on April 6.
NASA launched Artemis II on the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening.
The Artemis II crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The Artemis II crew's furthest distance from Earth was scheduled for 23:05 UTC at 406,772 km.
Artemis II will test Orion's autonomous guidance, navigation, and control systems and the redundancy of its inertial and star sensors.
The Artemis II communications outage is expected to last around 40 minutes.
Artemis I and Artemis II will help NASA and ESA make Orion operational for future Artemis missions.
Artemis II has left Earth orbit and has been moving toward the Moon successfully during its early phases.
Artemis II is preparing to fly over the far side of the Moon.
The Artemis II crew reached a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth.
Orion Integrity and the Artemis II crew were due to surpass Apollo 13's distance-from-Earth record at 400,171 km at 17:56 UTC.
Artemis II astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency launched last Wednesday.
Reid Wiseman had trouble opening his Microsoft Outlook email account during Artemis II, but the issue did not affect Orion's critical systems.
The Artemis II crew will study Orientale from close range and from multiple angles.
Artemis II made the four crew members the humans who have traveled farthest into space.
Artemis II is expected to reach its maximum distance from Earth of 252,760 miles at 7:07 p.m. on Monday.