On April 6, 2026, the Orion spacecraft officially took four astronauts farther from Earth than any human has gone before. While the Artemis II mission did not include a Moon landing, it did involve making a pass around the Moon (in addition to making the world cry over naming a Moon crater after the late wife of one of the astronauts).

But how far did they go, exactly? We can look at the historic number of miles the Orion flew from Earth, approximately 252,756, but that distance is a little tough for us to visualize. Thankfully, Professor Anu Ojha’s scientific demonstration at The Royal Institution makes it a lot easier.

The Moon is farther than most people think

First, Ojha explained that the distance between the Earth and Moon varies because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical. But very roughly speaking, he said, the Moon’s orbital distance from the Earth is equal to 10 circumferences of the Earth.

He held up an inflatable globe to represent Earth and explained that he had wrapped a piece of string around it 10 times. At the end of the string, he attached a ball that was the correct scale compared to........

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