But Apollo 13 was never supposed to set a record. The crew were just trying to get home, and their only way back to Earth was the long way around the Moon.

What began as a mission to land on the moon became history’s most harrowing space rescue after a technical failure forced the crew of Apollo 13 into a 200,000-mile race for survival.

The NASA crew, which has temporarily lost contact with mission control, is expected to reach its farthest distance from Earth while seeing parts of the lunar far side never seen with human eyes.