When NASA’s Victor Glover heads to the moon, he will make history as the first Black astronaut to take part in a lunar mission. Glover is a Southern California native, and graduate of Monterey’s Naval Postgraduate School.
Joining Glover on NASA’s Artemis II mission is a diverse crew, including Christina Koch, the first woman to take part in a lunar mission, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — the first non-American Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years. The 10-day trip is planned to launch in November of next year.
Glover will be the mission pilot and navigate NASA’s Orion spacecraft in a lunar fly-by, traveling around the moon, and back to Earth.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Victor Glover (VG): You know, it's interesting because people generally ask…am I excited? But I'm a test pilot and a military officer who's been in combat. I know what this means, the seriousness, the training over the next two years, all the public outreach that's going to be required because we're stewards of public resources. So really the feeling that I had was a little bit of shock... I have to be honest. But also I just felt like, wow, this is big. And I don't know what that feeling is, though, you know, profundity. It just seemed really big.
Jonathan Linden (JL): Can you talk about what will be happening for you between now and and when this lunar mission is planned to launch in November of 2024?
(VG): Between now and launch, we will be training. We have to learn all the spacecraft systems, the ground systems for emergency egress, the booster, the rocket, the space launch system. And we'll learn, obviously, the Orion spacecraft systems, because that's where we'll be living for the entire mission. And so how to fly it, the life support systems, how to exercise and eat and sleep. But also and equally important, we will engage with the teams that make the hardware and software and all the operations teams that will be flying and supporting our mission. That's important because we've been working on some aspects of this for about 20 years and this is the first crew to fly on this hardware. So it's important for them to know, hey, we're counting on you to do your best job so that we can get back safely, which enables the next leg of this relay race to get back to the lunar surface and eventually on to Mars.
(JL): You earned your master's degree in systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School here in Monterey. What is systems engineering and has that influenced where you are at in your career right now?
(VG): Absolutely. I chose to go to Monterey because the program there is so tailored for our modern military officer. I was very busy. I was actually deployed in combat, Operation Iraqi Freedom, when I started graduate school. I originally started with the space systems certificate. And then I eventually got into the master's degree program. So I would say that program was 100% relevant to my work as a naval aviator and test pilot and 100% relevant to what I do here at NASA every day because we are constantly evolving and improving and sustaining systems that the government purchases. So the work that I've been fortunate to do with (SpaceX Crew-1), flying one of the early missions on SpaceX and then flying this first crewed mission of Orion is definitely relevant.
(JL): And so for this Artemis II mission, you'll be serving as the pilot. What will you be doing during the flight specifically when you're launching?
(VG): So the pilot is primarily responsible for the vehicle and vehicle systems, the Orion spacecraft. There is also going to be a very unique opportunity over about a three-hour period where we will fly the vehicle manually by hand. We will test out the ability to control the spacecraft for docking, for example. So we will actually separate from our upper stage and then turn around and pretend to dock to that upper stage and make sure that the vehicle can be controlled precisely enough to dock to a lunar lander or Gateway space station. Then once we're on the way to the moon, most of the work is done by the spacecraft and the ground. But we want to make sure that the emphasis isn't just on these four people that are selected to fly Artemis II to the moon and back. This is a much bigger project. Artemis II is this grand campaign that's going to get us back to the moon sustainably and responsibly and eventually help us to learn to develop the technology, the hardware and the software that are eventually going to get us on that journey to Mars. That is something that we hope everyone can get behind.