Victor Glover: A Classmate’s Insight on His Journey to Becoming an Artemis II Astronaut

Navy Captain Victor Glover to Pilot Artemis II Moon Mission

Navy Captain Victor Glover has been selected to pilot the Artemis II mission, which is set to launch Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Glover, a native of Pomona, is one of four astronauts participating in this landmark journey around the moon.

A longtime friend and high school classmate, Dr. Pamela Larde, expressed pride in Glover’s accomplishments. “You don’t get used to hearing your friend say, ‘I’m going to the moon.’ I’m trying to pinch myself. At the same time, it’s not surprising because Victor has always been shooting for the moon. Highly ambitious,” Larde noted.

She recalled Glover’s aspirations, saying, “We wouldn’t limit what we aspired to do. When he would say, ‘I’m going to be president,’ there was no doubt. In my mind, that’s next. He did say, ‘I want to be president and an astronaut.’”

At 49, Glover has built a distinguished career as a Navy captain and former combat pilot. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013, he previously served as the pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station during Expedition 64.

Although Glover was not alive during the Apollo era, his upcoming mission will take him and his crew farther into space than their pioneering counterparts. The Orion capsule is slated to travel over 200,000 miles from Earth on a 10-day mission, completing a figure-eight trajectory around the moon.

Looking ahead, NASA’s Artemis III mission aims to dock the Orion with a landing craft that will transport astronauts to the moon’s surface, with a projected launch date in 2028. The Artemis I mission, which took place in 2022, successfully tested the necessary technology with an uncrewed flight around the moon.