Karlton Johnson, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, released a statement about the high-altitude lunar flyby of Artemis 2 on Monday.

“Each generation has a moment in which they remember where they were when something profound happened, and today’s Artemis 2 lunar flyby is one of those moments,” Johnson said. “The flyby is showing us things previously unseen, such as a human-eye view of the higher and lower latitudes of the lunar farside polar regions.”

The flyby, Artemis 2’s furthest reach into deep space, took place Monday afternoon. As the window opened for the event, the spacecraft surpassed the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, going beyond 248,655 miles from Earth—about 4,000 miles further than the Apollo flight.

“Some ask why we are sending people to the Moon again? There are many reasons, some having to do with science, and others with engineering. Ground simulations cannot fully train us on how to explore places like the Moon and Mars, and value comes from proving that these exploration systems perform as designed when distance, latency, and exposure are real.”

Johnson added, “And then there are the more philosophical answers. We explore because we can, and we must. America is always at its best when stretching to accomplish great things, and these journeys to the Moon are one of those things—perhaps one of the greatest. The Artemis program is inspiring a new generation of young people to enter stem fields and apply their talents toward disciplines that will continue to benefit the United States moving ahead. Few things are more important for our future as a country, as a people, and indeed, as a planet.”