On Friday night, the first Black man to travel around the moon piloted the Orion spacecraft that returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.
In the hours leading up to Artemis II’s high-speed return, there was a nervous excitement as the pilot Victor Glover Jr., Commander Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen returned from the 10-day mission, paving the way for future Moon landings.
On the morning of his son’s return, Victor Glover Sr. said in an interview with CNN that his son is a “picture of success” for “millions of young people around the country and around the world that will … point to him, and look at their mom and dad and say, ‘I can do that.’”
Weeks before the mission, Glover Jr., a U.S. Navy captain and test pilot who has flown 24 combat missions, said in an interview: “It’s about human history. It’s the story of humanity, not Black history, not women’s history, but that it becomes human history.”
Glover was also the first Black man to embark on an International Space Station mission in 2020.
The risky mission marked the first time astronauts had returned to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years. The mission traveled farther from Earth than any human ever has, breaking the Apollo program’s distance record, according to the Associated Press.
Glover, a Southern California native who has completed four spacewalks and has flown more than 40 aircraft during his time in the Navy before NASA, according to Reuters.
The engineer and former college athlete is a father of four, and his daughters and wife, Dionna, joined him at Kennedy Space Center before the crew took off on April 1.
On April 6, after the crew shared images and light-hearted snapshots from space, Glover Jr.’s daughter Maya shared her own video celebrating her father.
Glover Jr. follows in the footsteps of Guion Bluford, who was the first Black astronaut in space; Frederick D. Gregory, who was the first Black man to pilot and command a Space Shuttle mission; and Ronald McNair, Mae Jemison, and Stephanie Wilson.
In an interview, Glover Jr. said he’s hoping society can move past these “firsts.” Yet, he lives in “this dichotomy between happiness that a young woman can look at Christina and just physicalize her passion, or her interest, or even if it’s not something she wants to do, she can just be like ‘girl power.’ And that’s awesome.
“And that young Black boys and girls can look at me and go: ‘Hey, he looks like me, and he’s doing what?’ And that’s great, I love that.”
This article was written by Indiana Capital Chronicle staff.