# Farthest human into space other than moon landings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256 "2019-10-04T13:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TaoPilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TaoPilot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaoPilot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/1 "2019-10-04T13:10:36Z")
What is the farthest a human has gone from Earth where there was no moon landing involved? For instance, Michael Collins went as far as the moon and didn’t land on it himself, but his mission involved others landing on the moon, so he wouldn’t count as an answer to this question. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/2 "2019-10-04T13:27:51Z")
The [Apollo 13](https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_13a_Summary.htm) astronauts set the record for farthest distance traveled from Earth at 248,655 miles; that mission did not involve a moon landing, although that was not by choice. The Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 astronauts also traveled to beyond the far side of the Moon; neither of those missions–by design–included a _landing_ on the Moon. If all of those are excluded, the record goes to [Gemini 11](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-081A) at nearly 854 miles. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/3 "2019-10-04T13:28:17Z")
Are you counting Apollo 8 and 10? Those missions went around the moon with no intention of landing on it, but they were in preparation for Apollo 11 which did land. After that, I think Skylab had the highest orbital altitude at 270 miles. Mir, ISS, all of the Soviet Salyut missions, and the Chinese Tiangong missions all had lower altitudes than that. I can’t think of any missions other than Apollo that went above the altitude of low-earth orbit. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/4 "2019-10-04T13:56:42Z")
Ah, I finally found the “max distance from Earth” for the two non-landing Apollo missions (other than Apollo 13). Looks like [Apollo 10](https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-10/apollo-10.html) beat [Apollo 8](https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-8/apollo-8.html) handily, 399,194 kilometers (not quite 248,048 miles) to 376,745 kilometers (234,098-and-a-half miles). Of course Apollo 8 was _first_, and Apollo 13 was _farthest_ (as stated, about 248,655 miles), so Apollo 10’s “record”–farthest distance from Earth for a mission that was never _intended_ to include a Moon landing–is pretty esoteric. ---
**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/5 "2019-10-04T14:37:59Z")
Apollo 10 as mentioned above. Excepting Apollo spacecraft, it would have to be STS-62 which flew to an altitude of about 330 nautical miles in order to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/6 "2019-10-04T14:44:40Z")
> [@MrFloppy](#): > > Apollo 10 as mentioned above. Excepting Apollo spacecraft, it would have to be STS-62 which flew to an altitude of about 330 nautical miles in order to service the Hubble Space Telescope. > > Wouldn’t it? As mentioned above, the Gemini 11 mission got quite a bit higher, maxing out at 853 miles (1300 km). More info: > **[Gemini 11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_11)** > > Gemini 11 (officially Gemini XI) was the ninth crewed spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966. It was the 17th crewed American flight and the 25th spaceflight to that time (includes X-15 flights over 100 kilometers (54 nmi)). Astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Richard F. Gordon Jr. performed the first direct-ascent (first orbit) rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle, docking with it 1 hour 34 minutes after launch; used the Agena rocket eng ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/7 "2019-10-04T15:56:31Z")
> [@MrFloppy](#): > > Apollo 10 as mentioned above. Excepting Apollo spacecraft, it would have to be STS-62 which flew to an altitude of about 330 nautical miles in order to service the Hubble Space Telescope. > > Wouldn’t it? Nitpick: it was STS-61 that was the first service mission to Hubble. Its apogee was 576 km/358 mi. However, of the six missions to Hubble, the highest one was STS-31 which put the telescope in orbit in the first place. That one had an apogee of 615 km/382 mi. The second highest one was STS-103 which reached 609 km/378 mi. AFAIK, these two were the highest Shuttle missions, but I haven’t verified that by checking all their apogees. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/8 "2019-10-04T17:23:45Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Nitpick: it was STS-61 that was the first service mission to Hubble. Its apogee was 576 km/358 mi. > > However, of the six missions to Hubble, the highest one was STS-31 which put the telescope in orbit in the first place. That one had an apogee of 615 km/382 mi. The second highest one was STS-103 which reached 609 km/378 mi. AFAIK, these two were the highest Shuttle missions, but I haven’t verified that by checking all their apogees. They likely were. The Shuttle’s max altitude was about 380 miles, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farthest-human-into-space-other-than-moon-landings/841256/9 "2019-10-04T18:50:59Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > As mentioned above, the Gemini 11 mission got quite a bit higher, maxing out at 853 miles (1300 km). More info: > > [Gemini 11 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_11) Interesting that both crew members, Conrad and R. Gordon, later flew together on Apollo 12 with Conrad landing on the Moon. So within a small margin both are among the top distance people for both 2 man and 3 man crews.