Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP / Getty Images
Victor Glover is set to make history tonight.
NASA is targeting a 6:24 p.m. ET launch on Wednesday, April 1, for Artemis II, the agency’s first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years. If all goes as planned, Glover will become the first Black astronaut to travel into deep space and around the Moon.
The launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida is expected to send four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency — on a roughly 10-day mission aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft. Artemis II will not land on the Moon, but it is designed to test the spacecraft, its life-support systems, communications, and crew operations ahead of future lunar missions.
As of 2:31 p.m. ET, NASA said the Artemis II crew was boarding Orion and beginning communication checks ahead of launch. NASA has also said the mission has a two-hour launch window opening at 6:24 p.m. ET, with weather 80% favorable.
Glover, a California native and U.S. Navy captain, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and previously piloted NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. NASA says he is currently assigned as the pilot of Artemis II.
This mission carries several historic firsts. Along with Glover becoming the first Black astronaut to fly beyond low Earth orbit toward the Moon, Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to make the journey, and Jeremy Hansen the first non-American to do so.
The moment is especially significant given how long it has taken to get here. Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed trip beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Reuters reported that the mission is expected to travel about 252,000 miles from Earth, potentially setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have flown from the planet.
NASA has framed Artemis II as the critical next step in its broader effort to return astronauts to the lunar surface and build toward longer-term deep-space exploration. For Glover, that means tonight’s launch is not just another milestone in his own career. It is also a history-making moment in a space program that, for generations, left Black Americans out of its most iconic images.
Launch coverage is already underway on NASA’s platforms, including NASA+, with the mission set to lift off later this evening if conditions hold.
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