On March 3, 2023, NASA announced the four astronauts who will make history with a trip to the Moon. One of which, has ties to Prosper, Texas.
Astronaut Victor Glover will be a pilot for the Artemis II flight. According to NASA, his father, Victor Glover Sr., lives in Prosper with his wife.
“Watching the announcement this morning I had tears running down my face because [I was] excited and emotional at the same time,” Glover Sr. told NBC 5.
Victor J. Glover, Jr. was selected as an astronaut in 2013 while serving as a Legislative Fellow in the United States Senate. He recently served as pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon, named Resilience, which landed on May 2, 2021. During that year Glover Jr. became the first Black astronaut to complete a long-term stay aboard the International Space Station.
Three Americans and one Canadian will be on the crew of Artemis II, a 10-day mission. The flight is expected to occur no earlier than the end of 2024 and will travel around the Moon before going back to Earth. Artemis II is the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to “establishing a long-term presence on the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis.”
The rest of the four-person team is Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
The flight, set to build upon the uncrewed Artemis I mission completed in December 2022, will include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon through the Artemis program. The goal is to pave the way for future long-term human exploration missions to the Moon, and eventually Mars.
“These astronauts and what they do inspire a whole generation of kids to want to be where they are,” Glover Sr. said.
