Four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II spacecraft conducted interviews with media on Monday as they prepared for a historic lunar flyby mission that will take humans farther from Earth than ever before.

The crew, consisting of commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, spoke with CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann while approximately 180,000 miles from Earth. The astronauts were preparing for their planned loop around the Moon's far side as part of the Artemis II mission.

The lunar flyby represents a significant milestone in NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions ended in the 1970s. The mission is pushing the boundaries of human space exploration by taking crew members to distances not previously achieved in crewed spaceflight.

The Artemis II mission serves as a crucial precursor to future lunar landing missions planned under the broader Artemis program. The spacecraft's trajectory around the Moon's far side will test both crew operations and spacecraft systems in deep space conditions before more complex lunar surface missions are attempted.