NASA has announced the four-person crew who will travel around the moon on Artemis II and one of the astronauts is a Southern California native.
Victor Glover was born in Pomona and graduated from Ontario High School.
In 2020, he became the first Black astronaut to live on the International Space Station as part of a long-duration mission and he’s now set to become the first Black astronaut to orbit the moon.
“This is well beyond my wildest dreams,” he exclaimed on the KTLA 5 Morning News. “My first flight to the International Space Station was beyond my wildest dreams and this is really well beyond anything I deserve. I’m going to treat this as special as it is and do my best to make this successful.”
While many humans have been to the moon, this mission is more than that. Glover explained Artemis’ is “humanity’s mission to eventually get us on Mars” and to “explore the solar system.”
“Artemis II is going to get us in the vicinity, but it’s also going to open the door to Artemis III and for docking to a space station, or to a lander, to get us down to the surface,” he revealed. “Those efforts to get us back to the moon responsibly and sustainably, so that we can use the resources like the ice at the poles of the moon to create rocket fuel. Water can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen, which is the rocket fuel in our core segment, that enables us to have the resources on the moon to continue our journey on to Mars.”
The mission to space is an amazing one, but for Glover, he hopes that it will not only bring countries together but the United States as well.
“We are a crew, the crew of Earth, and we share this rock together. We’re going through space on this journey and I just hope this mission can continue to inspire peace and cooperation because the world needs that. It needs us to treat the planet better, but more important to treat each other better,” he continued.
To learn more about Victor, his crew and the Artemis II Mission go to Nasa.gov or you can follow Victor on Twitter or Instagram.
Gayle Anderson first reported on the accomplishments of astronaut Glover November 12, 2020 as he prepared for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission. The launch happened scheduled for 7:49 p.m. EST Saturday,
The Crew-1 flight carried Mission Specialist Shannon Walker, Pilot Victor Glover, Crew Dragon Commander Michael Hopkins, all of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station for a six-month science mission. Pilot Glover was the first African American to travel and work about the ISS.
