Wave Staff and Wire Reports
WASHINGTON — A Southern California native was selected April 3 as one of four astronauts who will fly on a historic trip around the moon next year as part of NASA’s ambitious Artemis program to establish a lunar base as an outpost for future deep-space missions.
Victor Glover, who was born in Pomona and attended Ontario High School and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, will become the first person of color to take part in a lunar mission. He will serve as pilot of the mission and will be joined by commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Glover, Wiseman and Koch are all NASA astronauts, while Hansen is with the Canadian Space Agency. Koch will be the first woman and Hansen the first Canadian to serve on a trip to the moon.
“The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew, this is our crew, this is humanity’s crew,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, each has their own story, but, together, they represent our creed: E pluribus unum — out of many, one. Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers — the Artemis Generation.”
The mission will be Glover’s second space flight. He spent more than five months aboard the International Space Station in 2020-21, traveling there aboard SpaceX’s first full crew rotation flight by a U.S. commercial spacecraft.
As a flight engineer, he contributed to scientific investigations, technology demonstrations and participated in four spacewalks.
Glover has been an astronaut since 2013. He was serving as a legislative fellow in the U.S. Senate when NASA chose him.
He holds a bachelor degree in general engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a master of science in flight test engineering from Air University at Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale, a master of science in systems engineering from Naval Postgraduate School, and a master of military operational art and science from Air University in Montgomery, Alabama,
Glover is a former Naval aviator and was a test pilot in the F/A‐18 Hornet, Super Hornet and EA‐18G Growler. He and his family have been stationed in many locations in the United States and Japan and he has deployed in both combat and peacetime.
He has accumulated 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, recorded over 400 carrier arrested landings and 24 combat missions.
The 10-day Artemis II mission, expected to launch in late 2024, will be the first manned flight as part of the Artemis program, and will test the capabilities of the new Orion spacecraft’s capabilities not only for spaceflight, but for supporting humans on long-term voyages.
It will mark the first time in more than 50 years that NASA has sent a spaceship to the moon, although the craft will not actually land on the lunar surface. The Artemis I mission was an un-crewed flight in December.
The Artemis program is ultimately envisioned as establishing an outpost on the lunar surface, and in orbit above the moon. The base is seen as a stopover for future long-range human missions into space, most notably to Mars.
