Over the moon: Father of Texas astronaut piloting Artemis II celebrates historic achievement
PROSPER (CBSNewsTexas) - The father of veteran astronaut Victor J. Glover was watching Monday as NASA announced that the native Texan will pilot the Artemis II moon mission.
"Obviously I had tears in my eyes. I was wiping the tears away," said Victor Glover, Sr., who kept his son's secret for weeks.
Our #Artemis II pilot is @AstroVicGlover!
— NASA (@NASA) April 3, 2023
Victor Glover is part of our 2013 class of @NASA_Astronauts and was the pilot for NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-1 mission. He’s logged 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft, and will pilot @NASA_Orion around the Moon. pic.twitter.com/P0zJ8pwaeL
"Deep down inside I knew he's going to be a part of something special and so we could not wait until this morning for the word to get out. Now everybody knows, which is pretty cool," said Glover, Sr.
The proud father watched the historic April 3 announcement from his home in Prosper. His son is one of four astronauts who will rocket around the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft on the 10-day Artemis II mission. It's the first crewed flight test and a critical step toward establishing a long-term human presence on the moon. The crew is tasked with confirming all of the spacecraft's critical life support systems are ready to sustain astronauts on longer duration missions ahead.
"We need to celebrate this moment in human history," said Glover, Jr. during the announcement. "It is the next step in the journey that gets humanity to Mars. You can clap for that."
Glover, Jr. served as pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon, named Resilience, which landed May 2, 2021. Known for his humor, and tenacity, he joked during NASA's presentation announcing the Artemis II crew.
"I feel like Denzel should be up here talking to you, but you just got us," Glover, Jr. said. Then added on a more serious note, "I pray that we can serve as inspiration for peace not only to cooperating nations, but to our own nation."
He also served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expedition 64. Glover Jr. contributed to many things, according to NASA, while aboard the station including: scientific investigations, technology demonstrations, growing crops and taking hundreds of pictures of Earth. He completed 168 days in orbit and participated in four spacewalks.
"This is a picture, Victor, Jr. took of the sun coming up," his father shared, adding that he used to get a call from space every Sunday. "He made history with that. He'll make history with this mission. When you hear kids talk about, 'I want to be president. I want to be an astronaut.' I can point to my son and say, well, he did it."