Overview
- The Artemis II mission, which launched Wednesday, began a 10-day trip to the Moon to test the Orion spacecraft, life-support, suits, and recovery procedures without a landing.
- Pilot Victor Glover is flying Orion toward a planned Monday lunar flyby that, if completed as scheduled, would make him the first Black man to travel around the Moon.
- The crew includes Commander Reid Wiseman, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, and Glover as pilot on NASA’s first crewed voyage beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years.
- Glover earlier piloted SpaceX’s Crew-1 to the International Space Station for a 168-day stay after a Navy test-pilot career and a two-sport run at Cal Poly in football and wrestling.
- Glover has said the milestone belongs to “human history,” a message widely highlighted by outlets such as Fox News and The Daily Wire as the team carries out the deep-space systems test.