Artemis II crew flew fast, earned new patch: Astronauts’ Mach 39 emblem

NASA's Artemis II mission has marked a significant milestone in human space exploration, with its crew achieving speeds that place them among the fastest humans ever. Mission Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, who is affiliated with the Canadian Space Agency, completed a remarkable 10-day journey in early April. During their voyage, they ventured further from Earth than any humans before, reaching an incredible distance of 52,756 miles (406,771 km). On their return trip aboard the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, they accelerated to approximately 24,664 miles per hour (39,693 kilometers per hour) as they re-entered the atmosphere. This velocity puts them in an elite group, alongside only three other astronauts in history who have traveled at such high speeds. The record for the fastest speed achieved by a crewed vehicle relative to Earth was set by NASA's Apollo 10 astronauts—Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan—who reached 24,791 miles per hour (39,897 kilometers per hour) on May 26, 1969. Notably, all three of these astronauts have since passed, with Cernan having died in 2017, Young in 2018, and Stafford in 2024. Glover shared insights during a post-flight press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center, noting, "The speed we saw on the displays—38.89 as the Mach—depends on how you measure it, which can be challenging from space." Mach is a measurement that compares an object's speed to the local speed of sound, which varies with altitude, air temperature, and air density. At sea level, their speed would correspond to Mach 32. In response to their achievement, a new emblem, dubbed the Mach 39 patch, was created to commemorate their record speed. After three weeks of production, including time spent with NASA's patch supplier, A-B Emblem in Weaverville, North Carolina, the patch was publicly revealed on June 5 via a social media video shared by Wiseman. Glover hinted that there may be further developments regarding the Mach patch as they finalize their measurements.