SoCal native to pilot Artemis II lunar mission set to launch Wednesday

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - NASA's Artemis II mission, the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, is scheduled to launch Wednesday afternoon, with a Southern California native serving as the spacecraft's pilot.   

The mission is set to lift off at 3:24 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the moon and back.

Among them is Victor Glover, who was born in Pomona, attended Ontario High School and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.   

Serving as pilot of the Orion spacecraft, he is set to become the first person of color to take part in a lunar mission.   

Glover spent more than five months aboard the International Space Station in 2020-21, traveling there aboard SpaceX's first full crew rotation flight by a U.S. commercial spacecraft.

"The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars. This is their crew, this is our crew, this is humanity's crew,'' then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in 2023 when announcing the team. "NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, each has their own story, but, together, they represent our creed: E pluribus unum -- out of many, one. Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers -- the Artemis Generation.''

Glover also has extensive ties to Southern California beyond his upbringing, having served as a test pilot at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert and earning a master's degree from Air University at Edwards Air Force Base.

Commander Wiseman, pilot Glover and mission specialists Koch and Hansen arrived at Kennedy Space Center last week to begin final launch preparations.

The Artemis II mission will not land on the moon but will travel thousands of miles beyond it, providing astronauts with views of the lunar far side before returning to Earth.

Once the spacecraft departs Earth orbit, communications will be handled in part by NASA's Deep Space Network, which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

The mission is part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era and eventually establish a sustained presence there.