I'm Jason Miles at Johnson Space Center.
We now know the crew of Artemis.
I got a chance to talk
one-on-one with the pilot. Hi,
I'm NASA astronaut Victor Glove,
and I am the pilot for the Arte2
mission with Reed and Christina and Jeremy,
you will be basically driving this ship.
It sounds daunting to me. Well, that's what
we do. This is our profession,
though, you know, I mean,
Artemis 2 is not the beginning
of our astronaut journey.
It's a continuation.
It's a continuation of a lot of things.
But it's a continuation of the
training that all of us have
been doing for at least 10 year.
Christina and I have been
in the office 10 years,
and Reed and Jeremy have
been there since 2009.
And and we train on things
like this all the time.
Do you ever have any qualms whatsoever
about journeying into space? No, never. I
love this.
It's an opportunity that is just so unique.
I really believe no one deserve.
So having this opportunity,
to me, it's really special.
And it motivates me to just do my best
because I it is such a unique privilege,
you know. So for me it's not,
it's not a qualm about it.
I take it as a charge to do my .
Never any fear.
No, but that's listen.
Well, I think I need to settle down on this.
It is not a machismo.
That is not my ego speaking.
We train very hard,
we work with a really competent
team that is all over the planet
and we have a lot of trust.
A high trust, high tempo team.
And so those folks,
when they're ready, we'll be re.
And that's a big part of it,
is the trust that we've built i,
in the systems,
but most importantly,
the people that we work with.
Christine. Christine is getting
attention for being the first
woman on the Moon mission. Yeah.
You're the first person of colo.
Yeah. Does that mean anything to you?
And what do you hope it might
mean to youngsters out there?
Maybe. Yeah. You
know, a big part of my story to getting
to this point was saying a naval officer
in the reserves who look like m.
After turning down the military
several times because I didn't k
I had a place there, when one oy
mentors came to work in his uni,
a professor at Cal Poly, Professor Wallace,
he came to work in his Navy unim
that I was in the Navy a year l,
let's just say.
So I know how important it is.
It it it changed my life to be e
to see someone who looks like yu
doing the things you dream abou.
And so representation matters.
But it the reason that is important to
me is not that I'm a part of this crew.
It's because that concept matte.
And so to be a part of it is really special.
But the fact that our Astronaut
office made it easy,
if you take any four people out
of the office,
the crew would look something like this,
right?
You don't have to work too hard
because our Astronaut Office is
representative of our nation.
What is the most annoying or let
fun part of being up in that capsule?
Oh gosh. Well, you know,
I haven't flown in the Artemis capsule.
I flew in in Dragon.
But being in a capsule,
I think it's just the, you know,
sometimes you, you get to stare
at this beautiful planet in spa.
It's amazing to be above the atmosphere.
But there was a time when I wast
sitting in the cupola watching the Earth
pass by underneath at 17,500 miles an hour.
And so I flew from the East
Coast of Canada to France,
and I looked down at the Bay
of Biscay and it was beautiful.
But I thought, man,
I would love to walk on that coastline,
have my toes in the sand and the surf.
And so sometimes you just want o
be out there and feel some wind,
you know, that environment kindf
always being 72 degrees and dry,
low humidity, you know, it gets,
it gets a little boring.
It's also not for the claustrophobic.
I went into the Brian capsule
over here and I'm claustrophobi.
I can imagine. That's
true. Yeah. It's not going to be very big.
It won't be like the space stat,
which is like the size of a hou.
This is going to be like a
really nice camping tent.
But it'll be like a tent for 10 days. Yeah.
I've heard other astronauts
describe looking down at Earth.
And gaining a whole new perspece
about our existence even. Yes.
And in relation to the vastness out there,
do you have the same experience
that you know that term?
The overview effect is so impor.
I think it connects to this view that you
get from this level though sea level.
Starting and living your life at this
level makes that view just so profound.
When you see the earth as it really is,
with no borders, no labels, no legends,
nothing telling you how far tha,
you just have to figure it out.
And and and so the idea,
I mean I had seen hundreds of pictures
and videos of the Earth from space but
seeing it with your own eyes is is amazing.
And I've seen pictures of Earthm
beyond the moon and it's amazin.
The picture Bill Anders took
in December 1968.
I carry it with me on my phone.
Okay.
And but to see that perspective
even a perspective just similar
to that with my own eyes,
I I look forward to what that's
going to feel like and and and
hugging those other three while
it's happening because.
Like you said,
it's about perspective and a
perspective that can help to moe
humanity in the right direction.
I don't know how much more
time we have, like that's good.
Anything. First a pilot,
Artemis and Orion into space.
Do you like a Top Gun plan?
Wow. I mean, I went
to test pilot school and so I fw
test missions and so testing flg
the first flight of some thingsn
the Navy in F eighteens and the E 18.
That has always been a part
of my aerospace career.
And so to be able to to help dep
the dragon, the Crew Dragon spacecraft,
and now the Orion is just,
it's a professional accomplishmt
that I feel like I don't deserv.
But again, I'm going to put my
best foot forward to to make sue
that it's ready for the next
crew. Your Artemis too would did
you qualify or be selected for
the Blue Landing mission too,
or not necessarily? I
think there are not enough
missions for us to go and repea.
So we're going to do our best tt
that crew set up for success and then
we're going to cheer him on andd
and and maybe help him from the ground.
But I assume that would be something you
would love to do to set it on the moon.
Oh absolutely. I think any of uo
do this as a profession would love to.
But you know I would also love to do this.
I mean any part of this mission being
the Capcom who says your go for trans
lunar injection, your go for Tl.
That would be cool just to make
that call from Mission Control.
So any role in this to me is is is pivotal
one more question as the pilot.
How would you tell a layman what your job is?
The commander runs the entire mission.
The pilot is in charge of
the spacecraft in systems.
And so my job is to know the
system backwards and forwards.
And if I have to make inputs,
you fly the spacecraft.
We will fly the spacecraft at some point.
So yeah, you're going to
pilot the spaceship. Cool.
Excellent.