Victor Glover: First Black Astronaut to Orbit the Moon on Artemis II Mission

NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, marking the first crewed mission to travel around the moon since 1972. The spacecraft will be piloted by Victor Glover, a Southern California native who is set to become the first Black person to reach the moon.

The mission involves a lunar flyby, meaning the crew will not land on the moon or enter lunar orbit. Glover, 49, previously made history in 2020 as the first Black person to serve on an International Space Station expedition. His assignment to Artemis II continues a trajectory of breaking barriers within the space agency.

Glover was born on April 30, 1976, in Pomona, California. Before joining NASA, he served as a Navy test pilot for 15 years. During his military career, he accumulated 3,500 flying hours in more than 40 aircraft and served in 24 combat missions. He attended test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base and served with the Navy’s Dust Devil test pilot squadron in China Lake, California.

In 2013, Glover was selected as one of eight astronauts for NASA’s 21st class. He was assigned as the pilot for the Artemis II crew, which also includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Hammock Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Koch is set to be the first woman to reach the moon, and Hansen is set to be the first non-American to do so.

Historical Context and Representation

Glover’s achievement has drawn attention to the historical lack of diversity in long-duration spaceflight. Livingston Holder, a former manned spaceflight engineer with the Air Force and space shuttle payload specialist, expressed surprise when he first learned Glover was the first Black astronaut to serve on a full ISS expedition.

How can we go two decades without flying a Black astronaut on a full mission to the station? How can that possibly be?

Livingston Holder

Holder noted that while several Black astronauts stayed aboard the space station for several days during space shuttle missions to help build it, none had lived aboard for months as an expedition crew member until Glover. Glover was not originally supposed to hold that title either; in 2018, astronaut Jeanette Epps was scheduled to join a Russian Soyuz mission to the ISS, which would have given her the distinction. However, five months before the mission, NASA removed her from the flight without explanation.

For Glover, the title of “first” carries complicated feelings. During media interviews, he has acknowledged the responsibility he feels toward the next generation of Black astronauts he hopes to inspire. At the same time, he often reframes his role into NASA’s greater mission and points to the many Black trailblazers who came before him.

I don’t think he really wanted to emphasize ‘I’m the first.’

Livingston Holder

Training and Social Consciousness

The Artemis II mission comes at a time when space exploration continues to intersect with social issues on Earth. The Apollo program began during the peak of the civil rights movement, and many critics at the time viewed the program as a distraction from domestic problems. During training for his moon mission, Glover listened to the poem “Whitey on the Moon” by the late Black poet and jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron every week on his morning commute. The poem articulates arguments regarding the cost of space exploration versus the needs of everyday Americans.

Glover has stated that space exploration is an opportunity to lift all Americans and invest in technology that creates hope for a better future. Holder, whom Glover has pointed to as a mentor, is now a co-founder of the spaceflight startup Radian Aerospace. On a recent trip to Australia, Holder visited one of the stations that will help the astronauts communicate with Earth to send Glover a message ahead of the launch.

Through you, we all go to the moon.

Livingston Holder

Early Life and Education

Glover’s parents, a police officer and a bookkeeper, encouraged his curiosity from a young age. He also looked up to his grandfather, who enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War but was told he could not fly because of his race. When a young Glover watched a space shuttle launch on television, he immediately wanted to drive the spacecraft.

His first attempt to leave Earth was through sports, specifically pole vaulting. Throughout his time at Ontario High School and California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Glover also played football and became best known for his wrestling prowess. After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering, Glover enlisted in the Navy in 1998. He earned multiple master’s degrees during his service.

One of his commanding officers bestowed on him a call sign that has stuck through his NASA days: “Ike,” meaning “I know everything.” Glover is a family man with four daughters. On Artemis II, he will not be the only historic first on the capsule, but his presence marks a significant milestone for Black Americans in space exploration. For Black parents in Pomona and beyond who see the next generation of NASA astronauts in their children, Glover’s example is considered deeply meaningful.