The first mission to the moon in more than 50 years will be piloted by a devout Christian.
Victor Glover, a veteran of NASA missions, will take charge of the Artemis II flight set to blast off in November 2024.
The 46-year-old (pictured above), who took a Bible and communion cups to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 amid plans for a “virtual service” in space, immediately stated his need “to thank God for this amazing opportunity”.
He added: “I pray that God will bless this mission, but I also pray that we can continue to serve as a source of inspiration, for cooperation and peace – not just between nations, but in our own nation.
“We need to celebrate this moment in human history.”
The father-of-four, originally from California, is a member of a Houston-based church.
Ahead of his six-month ISS mission, he told The Christian Chronicle: “I want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA. That’s really the thing I think the most about.”
Glover, who joined NASA in 2013, is a former US Navy commander who flew combat missions in Iraq and was a legislative fellow to the late Senator John McCain.
His first spacewalk, in 2021, lasted more than six hours, and he has since helped repair ISS equipment on two further spacewalks.
Also in 2021, US Vice-President Kamala Harris made a video call to Glover in the ISS after he became the first African American to live on the space station. According to NASA, “the conversation ranged from the legacy of human spaceflight to observing Earth from the vantage of the space station, Glover’s history-making stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, and preparing for missions from the Moon to Mars”.
The New York Times reported, ahead of his ISS stay: “Mr Glover’s achievement is notable for NASA, which has worked to spotlight the ‘hidden figures’ in its history, but has so far sent only 14 Black Americans to space out of a total of more than 300. He will not be the first Black astronaut aboard the station. But those who preceded him from NASA were members of Space Shuttle crews during the station’s construction and only made brief stays on the outpost.”
The latest mission, Glover said, is “the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars”.
Artemis II is a 10-day flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, with Glover accompanied by Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
