Artemis II's Victor Glover talks about inspiring Black future astronauts
The mission will be the first flight to the moon with humans since the 1970s.
NASA astronaut Victor Glover is in full preparation for one of the most anticipated space missions in decades.
And he's hoping the Artemis II mission, which is slated for next year, will inspire people on the planet to come together and follow their dreams of reaching the stars.
Glover will be piloting the four-person manned mission that will be the first flight to the moon with humans on board in more than 50 years. He’ll be joined by Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Glover also will be the first person of color to go beyond low earth orbit.
"People are excited that we're doing this again. And so for a woman to be on the crew and for a Black astronaut to be on the crew, because that's what our office looks like, to me it is important,” Glover told ABC News' Linsey Davis.
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“I think people need to be able to see themselves in the things that they dream about and not just have to try to color it in in their mind’s eye," he added.
Glover spoke more about his role, ongoing preparation and career with Davis.
ABC NEWS LIVE: What are you doing right now to prepare?
GLOVER: The three basic things that we're doing are training.
We'll do simulators to do things normally and then contingency in emergency scenarios and just kind of building the larger team.
Training is one piece. Testing is another. Our vehicle, this will be the first time humans have flown this spacecraft.
And the last thing is engaging with the public and letting them know that we're trying really hard to be good stewards of your things, of your time and your resources and celebrating the wins.
ABC NEWS LIVE: What made you decide you wanted to be a pilot?
GLOVER: I was in college studying engineering, [and] one of my mentors came to work…wearing his Navy uniform. That opened up something that I never considered. I never saw myself, but because he looked like me, he was one of the few Black faculty members at Cal Poly, Dr. Wallace. Just seeing him in his uniform, changed that for me. And so I joined the Navy about two years later.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Tell me about the 1970 poem, by Gil Scott-Heron, "Whitey on the Moon."
GLOVER: I try to listen to it every Monday as I'm driving in to work. It's a good perspective.
As an ambassador of human spaceflight, I think it's important to understand the people that you're an ambassador to. We have to all work hard to understand America, not just the slice of America that we come from. And that poem, to me, represents a perspective that is not often shared when you hear people talk about Apollo.
You hear people say that Apollo saved the '60s, [and] Apollo 8 saved 1968, and there's a lot of truth in that. But there were a lot of people who weren't cheering.
They were protesting the Vietnam War, and wages, and the price of housing and the challenges to get an education.
And so knowing that that was the America then, we have a duty to know what's America now in its fullness and its breath, so that we can be good stewards of the public's time and resources.
The things that are going on around the country in the wake of George Floyd's murder and Ahmaud Arbery's murder, the nation, the racial protests and the cities that were really struggling with getting those things under control after that, it's just indicative of people being in a place where they may not feel heard and they may not feel like they're being represented.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Many Black people on this planet are ailing, and meanwhile, the investment is going elsewhere.
GLOVER: Yes.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Do you feel that there's still a division, perhaps within the races, as far as going to space and how taxpayer money could be used more wisely, potentially from some critics?
GLOVER: You can't always analyze things at a state and national level. Sometimes you have to go into a community to understand it, to be able to truly empathize.
But sometimes it's just important to listen when people say, “Hey, I've got potholes in my neighborhood and I still have to go to the city to get clean drinking water.”
Marvin Gaye had a song as well, Make Me Wanna Holler, that talks about rocket ships and the cost of rocket ships versus what I have seen out my window.
The investment we make in NASA, between 300 and 700% return on every dollar we spend, creates $3 to $7 of economic and academic activity.
There are a lot of people that think that that poem is anti NASA. And I go, "Well, it's probably still important that we understand why it was written." It makes us better ambassadors of aeronautics in space.
There's no political, economic, [or] demographic division. It's something that I think most people can, can universally latch on to and just go, that's amazing.
Glover’s NASA colleagues agreed.
NASA ASTRONAUT JESSICA WATKINS: I think that is what unites us and makes human spaceflight a worthwhile endeavor. To have this single singular focus, that we can all get around and put all of our resources and expertise together towards to meet this challenge and explore together.
CHRISTINA KOCH: The thing about records [is] it's not about any one individual's success or contribution even... it's about the fact that it marks a milestone... a state of where we are at and where we are choosing to go.
ABC NEWS LIVE: What's the most awe-inspiring aspect of space?
GLOVER: Wow. To me, it is the way people react to it… the astronauts inside the spaceship and the people outside.
It's a really powerful thing to see human beings leave the planet
I'm wearing an American flag, but when I leave the planet, I represent Earth, you represent humanity, and I really take that seriously. We all have a duty to represent humanity.
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