How a SoCal native became one of NASA's most valuable assets

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One of NASA’s most valuable assets is a Southern Californian.Following the space agency’s successful Artemis II mission around the moon last month, Victor Glover — who grew up primarily in the Inland Empire and has spent much of his career at Southern California’s many military and aerospace hubs — is now the only pilot to have flown NASA’s Orion capsule.As the crew finishes its international victory lap before the media, Glover is preparing to put his head down and get to work training the Artemis generation of moon-faring astronauts.“I think Artemis is going to demand us to change the paradigm,” he told The Times.Science & Medicine Victor Glover, who grew up in Pomona, will pilot NASA’s first crewed flight to the moon since 1972.

If successful, he’ll be the first Black person to reach the moon.The International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited by a revolving crew of astronauts in low Earth orbit for over 25 years, has a “very well-worn” training program, he said.But developing a new instructional regimen for complex high-stakes moon missions as the agency tries to aggressively ramp up Artemis launches from once every 3 1/2 years to every six months is a different beast.“Until we get really ramped up and have a solid training program, I think astronauts need to take more ownership of the training and be involved so we can share this experience,” Glover said.As of today, the list of Artemis astronauts is only four people long.

And the list of Artemis pilots has only one name: Victor Glover.Glover, 50, was born in Pomona, graduated from Ontario High School and lived “all over” Southern California’s urban sprawl, including Baldwin Village (which he instinctively referred to by its pre-1988 name, “The Jungle”).He completed his undergraduate studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and received graduate degrees (plural) fr...