Victor Glover is breaking the glass ceiling for many blacks who have waited for many years to see people like them making great strides, such as flying to the moon, which serves as inspiration for others. The astronaut is one of three chosen to make the first trip to the Moon in more than five decades, following the end of the Apollo missions.
Glover will pilot the Orion spacecraft that will circle the Moon in November 2024, according to Phys.org, making him the first black person to accomplish such a historic feat. Artemis II, he claims, is “more than a mission to the Moon and back.”
“It is the next step that gets humanity to Mars,” he said.
Christina Koch, the first woman astronaut to be assigned to a lunar mission, will be joined by Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen. Koch also holds the record for the longest single female spaceflight.
According to the New York Times, Ed Dwight was the first black person to participate in the astronaut program in the 1960s. Guion S. Bluford Jr. was the first black man in space in 1983, and Mae Jemison was the first Black woman in 1992. Only 20 blacks have joined the program since then.
Glover, a former US Navy test pilot, joined NASA in 2013 and will make his first spaceflight in 2020, according to the BBC. The platform also stated that he was the first black person to spend six months on the space station.
Glover earned a Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering from California Polytechnic State University before enrolling in the USAF TPS program at Air University at Edwards Air Force Base, California, to earn his master’s degree in Flight Test Engineering.
He continued his quest for knowledge and specialization by earning a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2009. He also earned a Master of Military Operational Art and Science from the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2010.
Glover was chosen as an astronaut in 2013 while working as a Legislative Fellow in the United States Senate. His most recent mission was as a pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon, which landed successfully on May 2, 2021.
Glover lives in Pomona, California. He is married to Dionna Odom, with whom he has four children.
