Cal Poly alumnus Victor Glover will pilot NASA’s Artemis II mission that will travel around the moon, according to a Cal Poly news release. The mission is planned for November 2024.
Glover graduated from Cal Poly in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in general engineering. He will pilot the Orion aircraft with three other astronauts.
“Cal Poly is the reason that I’ve been able to do some amazing things,” Glover said during his visit to the campus last April.
The mission will be the second space flight for Glover, according to the release. He served as the pilot on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience mission in November 2020 and completed a 168-day stay at the International Space Station. While in space, he gave the fall 2020 commencement speech to Cal Poly graduates.
The Artemis II mission builds on the Artemis I mission, completed in December, as part of NASA’s goal to establish a long-term lunar presence, according to NASA’s website.
The current mission paves the way for the first person of color and the first woman to step foot on the moon between Glover and crewmate Christina Hammock Koch respectively, according to the website.
Glover met his wife Dionna Odom Glover at Cal Poly and their eldest daughter currently attends Cal Poly. He also wrestled and played football for the green and gold, according to the release.
“Even before NASA, I’ve lived what I would call an enchanted journey,” Victor said in the release. “Dionna and I and the girls have been on this really amazing adventure together, and that really started [at Cal Poly.]”
Through Artemis missions, NASA will explore the moon’s surface in more detail than before, according to their website. A series of crewed and uncrewed missions are in place to establish a base on the moon.
The Artemis mission is part of the “Moon to Mars” plan to use the exploration of the moon as preparation for a human mission to Mars. More information is available on NASA’s website at www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars.