Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell left a message that Artemis II crew heard during record moon mission

Before etching their names in spaceflight history, the four Artemis II astronauts got some posthumous words of encouragement from Jim Lovell, one of NASA's greats.

The longtime resident of Lake Forest, where for years he operated the restaurant Lovell’s of Lake Forest, flew on two Apollo-era missions, in 1968 and 1970. He died last year. But he left behind a message that he recorded for the Artemis crew, which they heard before they became the first humans to fly near the moon in more than 50 years.

On Monday, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency flew by the moon in a mission similar to the Apollo 8 flyby of which Lovell was a part.

And, in a bit of serendipity, it wasn't long before a nearly seven-hour period of lunar observations began that the Artemis II crew broke one of Lovell's own records: surpassing the distance from Earth that the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission reached under Lovell's command.

Artemis II is the first human spaceflight under NASA's Artemis program, the main objective of which is to return humanity to the surface of the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

But the Artemis campaign is far from a reprise of the Apollo era. This time, NASA is aiming for humans not to simply leave but to remain to set up a moon base toward the lunar south pole ahead of what are planned to be the first crewed expeditions to Mars.

Lovell, a Cleveland native, was selected for two moon missions during NASA's Apollo era.

The first was Apollo 8, which sent Lovell, Frank Borman and Williams Anders on a six-day trip orbiting the moon in 1968. As with Artemis II, the mission served as an important prelude to a moon landing, helping test systems, hardware and procedures before astronauts stepped foot on the surface during Apollo 11 in 1969.

Lovell also was the commander of the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 mission, which in 1970 was meant to be the third human moon landing.

But an oxygen tank that exploded on the service module transformed the spaceflight into a life-or-death situation recounted in the hit 1995 movie “Apollo 13,” in which Tom Hanks played Lovell. Relying on backup life-support systems on the Apollo Lunar Module meant to transport them to the moon's surface from orbit, the astronauts used primitive methods of celestial navigation to make their way back to Earth.

Lovell was 97 when he died last Aug. 7, so he wasn’t around to witness humanity's return to the moon's vicinity with the April 1 launch of Artemis II from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But he recorded a message in advance for the four astronauts selected for the mission that they were able to hear Monday.

"Welcome to my old neighborhood," Lovell said in the messageshared by NASA, which was played aboard NASA's Orion crew capsule as the astronauts prepared for a historic lunar flyby.

Referring to his Apollo 8 mission, Lovell said he and his crew were treated to "a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world."

"I’m proud to pass that torch on to you," Lovell told the Artemis II astronauts. "It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be. But don’t forget to enjoy the view."

Lovell concluded: "Good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth.”

The Artemis II crew got the message while on the cusp of making spaceflight history during their lunar flyby. Before a nearly seven-hour observation period even began, the Artemis II astronauts already had traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, surpassing a record set in 1970 during Lovell's ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. That mission, which required an emergency return, reached a distance of 248,655 miles from Earth.

The Artemis II astronauts passed that milestone, then went thousands of miles farther, reaching a maximum distance from Earth of 252,756 miles, setting a record for human spaceflight, according to NASA.

Swooping around the moon's far side, the Orion vehicle carrying the Artemis II astronauts came no closer than 4,067 miles above the lunar surface during the historic rendezvous. That altitude allowed the crew to see the full disk of our celestial neighbor as the astronauts witnessed lunar sights that no other humans before — not even the Apollo crew — have experienced in person.

The Orion capsule is due to make a water landing Friday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, after which five orange airbags will inflate around the top of the spacecraft and flip the capsule into an upright position. After the landing, the plan is for the crew to exit the vehicle onto a Navy recovery vessel within about two hours.

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