Artemis II tracker: See where the mission is today, April 6

Today is the big day.

The crew in the Artemis II mission just broke the record for longest distance traveled by astronauts then they will orbit the moon, seeing parts of it never seen before by human eyes, said NASA.

The mission is about 249,000 miles away from Earth, traveling at a velocity of 1,069 mph as of 2:31 p.m. ET April 6. The crew is roughly 4 days and 19 hours into the 10 day mission.

At approximately 1:56 p.m. ET, the spacecraft broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human, surpassing the mark of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in April 1970, during its emergency return to Earth.

Then there's the lunar flyby.

As the moon continues on its orbit, Orion and the onboard crew's paths will meet. Around 2:45 p.m. ET, the seven-hour flyby will begin said NASA. The crew to make detailed observations of geologic features on the lunar surface.

Then at 7:07 p.m., the Artemis II mission will have reached its furthest point, traveling a total of 252,760 miles from Earth.

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Artemis II's flyby will be much further away from the moon compared with the Apollo missions

Since Apollo missions were so close to the moon's surface the poles were not visible. For the Artemis II mission the moon will appear about the size of a basketball to the astronauts.

One point of interest the crew will look at is the Orientale Basin. According to NASA, its multiple rings formed about 3.8 billion years ago and one study theorizes that the basin’s largest ring is three times the width of Massachusetts.

Here's where Artemis II is right now and what will happen next

Artemis II is about 235,000 miles away from Earth as of Tuesday April 7, 11:48 a.m. ET.

This mission, which successfully launched at 6:35 p.m. ET April 1, is the second in a program that will ultimately land astronauts on the moon's surface and construct a base there.