Victor Glover

Did You Know?

• He listens to the 1970 poem "Whitey on the Moon" by Gil Scott-Heron twice a week on his commute to work.
• Glover carried a Bible and communion cups to the International Space Station.
• He was the first Black American astronaut to live aboard the ISS, rather than visit briefly during Space Shuttle assembly missions.

Early life and education

Victor Jerome Glover Jr. was born on April 30, 1976, in Pomona, California, to Cynthia Maxwell, a bookkeeper, and Victor Jerome Glover, a retired police officer. His grandfather served in the Air Force during the Korean War period but faced obstacles that prevented an aviation career. Glover's father encouraged his interest in science and engineering. He graduated from Ontario High School in 1994, where he played quarterback and running back for the football team, received the school's Athlete of the Year Award, and competed in pole vault.

Glover earned a Bachelor of Science in general engineering from California Polytechnic State University in 1999, becoming the first in his family to graduate college. At Cal Poly, he joined Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, wrestled, and played defensive back on the 1996 football team. Between 2007 and 2010, he earned three master's degrees: in flight test engineering from Air University, in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, and in Military Operational Art and Science from Air University. He also holds certificates in space systems and legislative studies.

Military career

Glover began his naval career in 1999, commissioned as an ensign. After primary flight training in Florida, he earned his aviator wings in 2001 and trained on the F/A-18C Hornet in San Diego. Assigned to a Virginia-based squadron in 2003, he sailed on the USS John F. Kennedy’s final deployment during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Selected for the Air Force Test Pilot School in 2006, he graduated a year later and served as a test pilot at China Lake.

In 2011, he joined a squadron in Japan, deploying on the USS George Washington for Western Pacific operations. When chosen as an astronaut candidate in 2013, he was working as a legislative fellow for Senator John McCain. Over his career, Glover has logged 3,000 flight hours across more than 40 aircraft, with over 400 carrier arrested landings and 24 combat missions. His callsign, “Ike,” stands for “I know everything,” given by an early commanding officer.

NASA career

Glover was introduced as a member of NASA's Astronaut Group 21 in June 2013 and completed training in 2015. In August 2018, he was assigned to the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon, serving as a station systems flight engineer on Expeditions 64 and 65 for over six months. He became the first Black American ISS Expedition crewmember to live aboard the station. On December 9, 2020, Glover was selected as one of 18 astronauts for NASA's Artemis Program.

He conducted his first spacewalk on January 27, 2021, with Hopkins, upgrading the Columbus module; a second spacewalk replaced a broken external camera; and a third, with Kate Rubins, began upgrading the station's power system. On February 24, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Glover via video call. On April 3, 2023, Glover was announced as pilot of Artemis II, which launched on April 1, 2026, and flew around the Moon on April 6, 2026, with Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.

Glover is the first African American to leave low Earth orbit and travel around the Moon, and the crew reached the furthest human distance from Earth.