LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Piloted by a Southern California native, NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday, sending four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the moon and back.
The Orion spacecraft, powered into space by a Space Launch System rocket, launched just after 3:30 p.m. California time, beginning a journey that will carry the astronauts farther from the Earth than any other previous mission. The astronauts will also travel closer to the moon than any human has been in more than a half-century.
Among the astronauts aboard 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 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. That work made him the first Black crew member to ever serve on the ISS.
“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, ultimately serving as a base assisting in the effort to send humans to Mars.
Artemis II is expected to provide NASA with a wealth of scientific data, assisting in planning for an anticipated landing on the moon in a few years. That data is expected to include information about the effects of deep space travel on the body and mind, along with photographs and geologic analysis about the far side of the moon that is always facing away from Earth.
The current program schedule calls for the Artemis III launch sometime next year, testing lunar landers being developed by Hawthorne-based SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Artemis IV is expected to launch in early 2028, marking the return of astronauts to the lunar surface using a lunar lander.
Artemis V, another lunar surface mission, is expected to occur in late 2028, with additional missions planned roughly once a year after that.
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