Victor Glover: First Black Lunar Astronaut Sees Artemis 2 as Symbol of Unity

Victor Glover sits in the pilot's seat of a spacecraft that will carry him farther from Earth than any Black man has ever traveled. At 46, the California-born astronaut is about to command the Orion capsule on Artemis 2, a mission scheduled to launch in late 2024 that will return humans to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. He will not be alone. Beside him will be Christina Koch, a mathematician and physicist who will become the first woman ever to fly to the lunar orbit. Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian, will join them as the first non-American to reach the Moon. And commanding the entire crew is Reid Wiseman, who until recently led NASA's astronaut corps. It is a mission constructed from historic firsts, and Glover understands the weight of what he carries.

Only 24 men have ever traveled to the Moon, and all of them were white. Glover's selection breaks that pattern in a moment when the country remains fractured along lines of race and ideology. "We're still divided in the United States, and I hope this mission can be an example of peace and cooperation between countries, but also between groups within my own country," he said in an interview. The symbolism is not lost on him, nor is it incidental. Glover comes from a family of modest means—his father was a local police officer, his mother an accountant—and he was the first to attend university, where he studied engineering and science. He became a Navy pilot, flew combat missions over Iraq in 2003, and eventually earned his place as a test pilot, the traditional pathway to the astronaut corps. NASA selected him in 2013. In 2020, he became the first African American to spend an extended period aboard the International Space Station, humanity's only inhabited outpost beyond Earth.

Glover carries history with him in another way. Fifty-five years ago, on the very day of his interview, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. In 1969, when Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center, the Black community gathered there to protest—not to celebrate. They questioned why NASA spent billions sending men to the Moon while their own neighborhoods lacked resources, opportunity, and dignity. The reverend who succeeded King in leading the coalition organized those protests at the space center. But something shifted before the launch. That same group ended up praying for the astronauts. "There was a sudden change," Glover reflected. "They became attached to them and supported them. It's a lesson about how we should think about this new mission. Our society needs every moment of reconciliation we can give it."

The old criticism persists. Why spend vast sums on space exploration when poverty, healthcare, and inequality plague the nation? Glover does not dismiss the question. He listens to Gil Scott-Heron's poem "Whitey on the Moon," which catalogs the struggles of those left behind while resources flow skyward. "It's true, we have many problems," he acknowledged. "And many people are tired of hearing about the benefits of going to the Moon. Sometimes it's important to just listen." But he also insists on context. NASA's annual budget is roughly $30 billion. That investment generates economic activity—jobs, research, partnerships between American companies, scientists, and their counterparts abroad—that multiplies into hundreds of billions of dollars in broader returns. Americans spend about $4 billion annually on chewing gum alone. Healthcare is expensive and everyone deserves access. "NASA cannot solve all the problems in our societies," Glover said, "but the money we spend on space exploration certainly can help improve many of them."

During Artemis 2, Glover will perform a task no human has attempted before: he will manually pilot the Orion capsule in space. After the rocket—the most powerful ever built—carries the crew beyond Earth's gravity, they will enter orbit. There, Glover will take the controls. The final stage of the launch vehicle will be floating nearby. He will separate Orion from it, rotate the spacecraft to face it, and execute docking maneuvers as though connecting with a lunar lander. These tests are essential for future missions. Once the systems are verified, Orion's engines will fire once more, propelling the crew across 380,000 kilometers to the Moon, around its far side at a distance of 10,000 kilometers, and back to Earth—all within ten days, guided by the capsule's software unless Glover must intervene.

As a father of four daughters, Glover thinks in generational terms. "The first person who will travel to Mars is alive today," he said. "They're one of those kids going to school and high school right now. They'll command an Artemis mission—I don't know which number. I'll probably still be alive when that happens. And it will be amazing to sit down with them and explain what I learned on this mission." The Artemis program, he believes, will endure for decades. It is not a single achievement but the opening of a sustained human presence beyond Earth, a project that will outlive the people who begin it and inspire those who will complete it.