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“Through You, We All Go to the Moon”

Ed Dwight, the 92-year-old who was the first black astronaut candidate in the 1960s but never got his chance to go to the moon, says he is now living out that once denied dream vicariously through Glover.

“I have a personal attachment and affiliation with Victor because I met him when he was 15 years old, and we had a program where we were trying to encourage young Black candidates to go to pilot training and to get into flying,” Dwight said. “And never in a thousand years did I ever think that Victor would take it to heart and take it to the Moon, which is what he’s done,” the pioneering astronaut told AFP.

A Crew of Firsts

The mission is remarkable, not only because of Glover. Koch will become the first woman to travel to the vicinity of the moon as well. She is a 47-year-old American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. Wiseman will become the oldest person to leave low Earth orbit, whilst Hnasen will become the first non-US citizen to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

The Apollo era produced 12 men who walked on the moon. All of them were white. For decades, the image of what a lunar astronaut looked like only had one face, and tonight that changes.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen – Credit: NASA

The Mission

Artemis II astronauts will first orbit Earth to check out some of the key systems in the spacecraft. Then, they will trace a figure eight path around the moon and back. The entire journey is supposed to take just under 10 days.

“I have a personal attachment and affiliation with Victor because I met him when he was 15 years old, and we had a program where we were trying to encourage young Black candidates to go to pilot training and to get into flying. And never in a thousand years did I ever think that Victor would take it to heart and take it to the Moon, which is what he’s done.”

Assuming all goes well tonight, the crew will fly further from the Earth than the crew of Apollo 13. This will set a new record of approximately 252,000 miles from Earth. If all goes according to plan, the Orion crew capsule will splash down in the Pacific on April 10, moving roughly at 25,000 mph as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.

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This launch comes after some delays in February and March. These were caused by technical issues with the rocket, such as the hydrogen leaks and problems with the helium. But, as of this morning, the launch director has given the official go for tanking. NASA teams have thus begun loading the propellants into the rocket.

What Comes Next

This is not a lunar landing; that will come with Artemis III in 2027. But tonight matters a lot, too. Artemis II is meant to prove the system’s operations that later missions will rely on as NASA works towards sustained human exploration of the moon, and, eventually, Mars.

“The Apollo era produced 12 men who walked on the moon. All of them were white. For decades, the image of what a lunar astronaut looked like only had one face, and tonight that changes.”

“We’re not quite there yet,” he admitted. “We need more women. We have better racial representation now, but the science and tech workforce in this country still doesn’t look like the country.”

Representation remains a top priority for Glover, who wants to see more Black people, especially women, working in STEM and space exploration.

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But tonight, for a few hours, the sky looks a little different. A kid from Pomona is flying to the Moon. And he’s taking all of us with him.

Launch coverage begins at 12:50 p.m. ET on NASA+, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube. Liftoff is targeted for 6:24 p.m. ET.

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