Nearly six decades after three NASA astronauts raced home from the Moon at almost 40,000 km/h, no human space mission has surpassed their speed. The crew of Apollo 10—Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan—still holds the record for the fastest journey ever completed by astronauts, a milestone achieved during their return from lunar orbit on May 26, 1969.
The record was set during Apollo 10, the final dress rehearsal for the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing. Despite major advances in space technology since then, no crewed mission has traveled far enough from Earth to challenge the speed reached during Apollo 10's return.
