The fastest speed ever achieved by a human being is 24,816 mph (39,937 km/h), set by the crew of Apollo 10 on May 26, 1969. The astronauts—Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan—reached this staggering velocity during their return from the Moon as the Earth's gravity pulled their command module, Charlie Brown, into the atmosphere. This record has stood for over 50 years because subsequent missions (like the Space Shuttle or ISS missions) stayed in Low Earth Orbit, which only requires speeds of about 17,500 mph. However, in 2026, NASA's Artemis II mission—the first crewed flight to the Moon in the 21st century—is expected to come close to or even slightly exceed this record during its high-velocity atmospheric reentry, potentially crowning a new "fastest human" for the modern era.