According to NASA, Victor Glover, Jr. was selected as an astronaut in 2013 while serving as a Legislative Fellow in the United States Senate. Before being assigned as pilot of NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon, he served as pilot of the Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, which flew to the International Space Station.

NASA has temporarily lost contact with the four astronauts aboard the Artemis II mission as the Orion spacecraft passes behind the moon, a predicted communications blackout that marks a critical phase of the historic crewed lunar flyby.

The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission is about to make spaceflight history as they approach the moon for the first time in more than half-a-century.

Artemis II is one of the first manned space missions where astronauts have had smartphones. NASA issued iPhone 17 Pro Maxes to astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen for the mission.

This marks the first time NASA has allowed each crew member to fly with a personal iPhone for documentation purposes, moving beyond previous limited or unofficial uses of smartphones in space.

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of Earth orbit for the first time since 1972.