Fastest Humans in the Galaxy Get New Patch to Prove It
▼ Summary
– The Artemis II crew traveled 406,771 km from Earth and reached 24,664 mph during reentry, making them the fastest people alive.
– The Apollo 10 crew holds the record for highest speed by a crewed vehicle at 24,791 mph, set on May 26, 1969.
– The crew’s peak velocity of Mach 39 was measured, though Mach number varies with altitude, temperature, and air density.
– At sea level, 24,664 mph would equal Mach 32, but the thinner, colder air at reentry altitude allowed for Mach 39.
– The crew debuted a Mach 39 patch on June 5, produced after three weeks by NASA’s supplier A-B Emblem.
The Artemis II crew now officially holds the distinction of being the fastest humans alive in the galaxy, and they have a newly minted patch to commemorate it. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency completed a 10-day lunar flyby in early April. During their journey aboard the Orion spacecraft Integrity, they traveled 52,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth, the farthest any humans have ever ventured. On their return, the capsule reached a blistering 24,664 miles per hour (39,693 kph) during atmospheric reentry.
Only three individuals in history have moved faster. The Apollo 10 crew,Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan,set the all-time record for the highest speed achieved by a crewed vehicle relative to Earth’s surface: 24,791 mph (39,897 kph) on May 26, 1969. Cernan passed away in 2017, Young in 2018, and Stafford in 2024.
“The number that we saw on the displays,and I was very in tune with what Orion thinks it is going to do,was 38.89 as the Mach. But it depends on how you measure that number. It is actually challenging how you measure from space,” Glover explained during the crew’s post-flight press conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on April 16, six days after splashdown.
Mach is a measurement that compares an object’s speed to the local speed of sound, meaning it shifts based on altitude, air temperature, and density. At sea level, 24,664 mph would equate to Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound. However, the Artemis II crew reached their peak velocity in thinner, colder air far above the surface.
Mach 39
“There will be a new [Mach patch] coming out when we figure it out,” Glover said.
It took three weeks for NASA’s embroidered patch supplier, A-B Emblem in Weaverville, North Carolina, to produce the design for the crew. The Mach 39 patch made its public debut on Friday (June 5) in a social media video posted by Wiseman, visible only to those paying close attention to such details.
(Source: Ars Technica)
