NASA astronaut Victor Glover Jr. is making ready to pilot the Artemis II lunar mission in 2024; nonetheless, his extra fast want is to drive house the gravity of the second for a rustic that continues to be drenched within the stain of racial injustice.
Glover will journey additional than any Black particular person earlier than him when the historic journey across the moon commences; however earlier than takeoff, he’s utilizing his highlight to coach each his co-workers in addition to followers of NASA on simply how a lot this all means.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Occasions, the 47-year-old California native stated he likes to start out on the very basis of our nation when elevating the consciousness of those that come to listen to the nationwide hero communicate.
“I like to focus on Article 1, Part 2, Clause 3, the half [of the Constitution] that claims all persons are accounted for the needs of taxation and illustration however all people else is taken into account 3/5 of the particular person—bear in mind, that’s nonetheless in there,” Glover stated of the reference made to enslaved Africans. “I encourage them to learn the Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, the Paranoid Model in American Politics by Richard Hofstadter,” he stated.
Glover’s journey will characteristic astronaut Christina Hammock Koch, who will develop into the primary girl on the moon, in line with the Los Angeles Occasions.
Nonetheless, he is aware of that by advantage of his race, the second reverberates additional and far deeper than another. “The thrilling factor about being a primary is that there’s a prospect of there being a second, a 3rd, and a fourth, and it truly changing into regular,” Glover stated. “I actually sit up for the purpose the place it’s not outstanding {that a} Black man is exploring the photo voltaic system—or operating this nation.”
Glover already made historical past in 2021 when he was the primary astronaut to reside long-term aboard the Worldwide Area Station.
However in a yr that adopted the unjustifiable murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, the load of figuring out that the combat for equality was taking place at a pivotal second in his private life was heavy for Glover. “It might’ve been me” is the message he stated he tried to drive house for his co-workers.
With a deep understanding of the sophisticated house he should traverse—a really actual combat on Earth for Black folks and a momentous event to additional deepen our information of the unexplored elements of our photo voltaic system as a Black astronaut—Glover is navigating it with the previous pushing him ahead.
“I’m the fruit of the labor—and the seed for the subsequent era as nicely,” he stated.
