Who is Victor Glover? The man set to become NASA’s first black astronaut to orbit the moon

NASA is going to send the first-ever black astronaut to the moon.

Victor Glover, 46, was selected to participate in the space agency’s Artemis II mission – the US’s first lunar mission in half a century.

The Pomona, California native will be the first person of color to travel into deep space, hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

NASA officials say the diverse crew assignments represent the cultural shifts that have taken place since the original Apollo missions, which ended in 1972, at a time when white males dominated space exploration.

Glover was also the first black male to ever live on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 and is one of 15 African Americans selected as astronauts.

In his esteemed career since being selected as an astronaut in 2013, Mr. Glover has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.

Mr. Glover grew up in Ponoma, CA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles

Artemis II – due to launch in November 2024 – will see the crew of four in the Orion spacecraft orbit the moon, but not land.

Their goal is to test new technology, including heat shields that will protect Orion as it travels 24,500 mph in 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its way back.

If successful, NASA plans to launch an expedition to land on the moon titled Artemis III. Another success would mean a trip to Mars for NASA.

“I want to thank God for this great opportunity,” Mr. Glover said Monday at another conference.

‘This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate. It’s so much more than the four names that have been announced. We must celebrate this moment in human history.

Artermis II is more than a mission to the moon and back. It’s more than a mission that needs to happen before we send humans to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that will take humanity to Mars.

“This crew will never forget that.”

Mr. Glover was born in 1976 in Pomona, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

The city is far from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, known for its high poverty rate and relatively high crime rate.

He said his parents and teachers served as mentors as he grew up.

“Early in life, it had to be my parents; they encouraged and challenged me and held me to high standards. Outside the house, I had teachers who did the same thing,” he says told USA Today in 2017.

“They all challenged me, and they encouraged me.”

Mr. Glover continued that his teachers and parents urged him to attend technical school and eventually become a test pilot, which led to him becoming an astronaut.

He graduated from Ontario High School in Southern California in 1994 and then attended California Polytechnic State University, before completing his graduate training at Air University and the US Naval Academy.

“I am the first person in my family to graduate from college and graduate with my mother and my father and my stepfather and my little brothers and my grandparents,” he told USA Today.

“That was surreal, that was cool and it was special to me.”

In 1999, he was commissioned as part of the United States Navy. After completing flight training in Corpus Christy, Texas, he “got his wings” and was awarded the title of pilot in 2001.

He then moved to San Diego to learn to fly the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, known as one of the Navy’s more versatile aircraft.

After two years of training in Florida and Virginia, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 for six months.

Mr. Glover was working in the office of the late Senator John McCain as a legislative assistant when he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013.

The newly announced crew will have already begun training for the mission, but their identities have remained top secret until today’s press conference.

NASA has revealed the identities of the four astronauts who will make the first trip to the moon since 1972 as part of the Artemis II mission. Victor Glover (second from left), 46, becomes the first person of color selected for a lunar mission, while Christina Koch (second from right), 44, becomes the first woman. They were chosen alongside Reid Wiseman (left), 47, of Baltimore, Maryland and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, 47 (right)

Each year, NASA selects only a handful of the thousands of people who apply to join the country’s astronaut corps. Out of 348, only 15 black astronauts have ever been selected.

A large majority of the 41 current astronauts have a military background, such as Mr. Glover.

He completed his astronaut training in 2015. Three years later, he was selected to be part of the first-ever operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a reusable aircraft designed by the Elon Musk firm founded in 2002.

As part of that mission, he would be on the ISS from November 17, 2020 to May 2, 2021.

The nearly six-month stay on the station makes him the first black astronaut to inhabit it.

Jeanette Epps, 52, who was selected to become an astronaut in 2009, will become the second African American and first black woman to live aboard the ISS after the launch of Boeing Starliner-1 in 2024 or later.

In 2020, Mr. Glover said it was an honor to be the first black person selected for the ISS.

“It’s something that should be celebrated once we achieve it, and I’m honored to be in this position and be a part of this amazing and experienced crew,” he said at a news conference.

“I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we’re worth all the work that went into getting us ready for this mission.”

In a interview with The Christian Chronicle later that year he said there were qualified black astronauts who should have earned credit for him.

“I’ve had some great colleagues ahead of me who really could have done it, and there are some great people who will go after me,” he said.

“I wish it had already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.”