Victor Glover Jr. (1976- )
In 2023 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that astronaut Victor Glover Jr. (1976-) would be the pilot on the Artemis II lunar spaceflight. This trip around the moon, scheduled to launch in 2026, would be the first time that humans have left low Earth orbit since 1972. Glover was born in Pomona, California, graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and has been a naval aviator since 2001. In 2021 Glover was promoted to the rank of Captain in the US Navy. In November 2020 Glover piloted the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft to the International Space Station. Glover remained aboard the space station for more than 160 days and performed four spacewalks. In 2024 Glover spoke about his upcoming moonshot: “NASA has been talking about this since 1972. I’m really excited for it — for the agency and for our country, and for the planet — humanity gets to do this…I really think it’s poetic; whenever we do something really big, we call it a moonshot. It’s become a common phrase, but it’s an uncommon action. I really think it’s neat that our generation gets a chance to do this.”
