break the record by 1%, but also “no, they are not”, then which one is it?

let me point you to this part of my message:

meaningful difference

if an athlete breaks a record by 1%, it is noteworthy, because there was probably lot of effort behind that 1%.

if i say "I BROKE A RECORD TODAY, i went on a hike and walked 10 km today!" someone will ask "don't you do 10km every day?" and i will say "yeah, but usually it is 10000 metres, but today, it was 10150!" the person asking will likely fail to see the difference and why i care so much about some minor distinction.

and this mission while cool (i am not antiscience or anything) is hardly historical. it was historical 60 years ago, when they basically expected the astronauts to die and the fact they did not was unexpected surprise. president had speech prepared for that. i am pretty sure that the current one does not have such speech and it is not only because his vocabulary is stuck in elementary school.

that is why it bothers me, it is the inflation of language, where we use it in a way words are losing their meanings and it has long lasting effects on society. it is the same as when you label every political opponent fascist, then when real fascists get into power, you no longer have language to describe the problem.

Like actual mileage flown as opposed to absolute distance from Earth?

it is the straight distance from earth. currently the record is held by apollo 13 as 400,171 km (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13#cite_note-130), reached because the moon was at the phase of orbit where it is almost most distant from earth (the distance during its orbit varies between 360 and 405 kkm)