‘Han Solo Wants to Be Me’: Artemis II’s Victor Glover on Flying the Orion
Even if you’re 250,000 miles from Earth, sleep is important. However, despite all the survival equipment aboard the Orion spacecraft, the capsule was short on bedrooms, leaving Artemis II’s four-person crew with a truly bizarre sleeping arrangement.
“I slept really close to an air vent. And so I would wake up and see this big piece of metal,” Glover told CNET in a video call. “And it was like, ‘Oh, I’m in space. I’m weightless.'”
Sleep wasn’t just a way for astronauts to recharge; it also grounded them during their historic journey. Glover explained, “What really stood out to me is that we’re humans too. It’s like camping, and it’s a very important part of this journey.”
Watch this: Artemis II’s Victor Glover chats with CNET
Artemis II was the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. He followed Artemis Ia 2022 uncrewed mission that was the first for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The goal of Artemis II was to have a crew test the spacecraft, life support systems, SLS rocket, and procedures needed for future lunar missions that will involve landing on the Moon and eventually build a base there.
Glover, the Orion pilot, along with Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, made up the Artemis II crew. The mission made a lot of history. This is the first time that a woman, a black man or a Canadian has visited the moon. The four Artemis II astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, further than any other human being, surpassing the record set by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.
This image from NASA’s Orion spacecraft was taken with a camera mounted on its solar wings.
This wasn’t Glover’s first time in space. In 2020, with a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff, he piloted the Crew Dragon capsule to and from the International Space Station for NASA SpaceX Crew-1 missionspending more than 167 days in space. But Artemis II gave Glover the opportunity to be the first to pilot the Orion, a new vehicle designed for Artemis missions. For most of the nearly 10-day journey, Orion was on autopilot. But Glover had several opportunities to take manual control of the spacecraft to test its manipulation.
“It was such a treat and such a joy,” Glover said of the Orion’s flight. “It was a test pilot’s dream to fly a new spacecraft for the first time by hand.”
Even after spending time training to fly in a simulator on Earth, he was surprised by the responsiveness of Orion’s hand controller and the clarity of the cameras, used to maneuver the craft around the temporary cryogenic propulsion stage that holds fuel for the upper takeoff stage. He said the view provided by the cameras and monitors was like “looking out the window.”
Astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover wears an orange flight suit.
When I asked Glover if he felt like Han Solo when he piloted the Orion, he replied, “Han Solo wants to be me when he grows up!” Throughout my interview, Glover was personable, passionate and funny.
“I can do cooler things than Han Solo. I mean, just the fact that it’s realIt’s better.”
Although a moon landing was not planned for this trip, the Orion crew traveled approximately 4,000 miles beyond the moon, allowing them to see parts of the moon that had never been seen before. For comparison, the Apollo missions flew about 70 miles above the Moon to make landings, limiting the amount actually visible.
Sunset captured through the window of the Orion spacecraft at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon.
The images of the moon taken by Glover and the crew were breathtaking. Shots like Earthset reminded us how beautiful our planet is and our place in the solar system. Astronauts even witnessed a total solar eclipse as they circled the far side of the Moon. But none of the photos they took compared to what they saw, according to Glover.
“I could see the curvature of the moon. Depth is just one aspect you can’t see in the images. But here’s the other thing, the images lack scale.”
When the Artemis II flew past the terminator, the crew declared that this boundary between day and night was “anything but a straight line,” according to NASA.
For the lunar flyby, Orion was moving fast: 60,863 mph relative to Earth, but only 3,139 mph relative to the Moon, according to NASA. The speed meant that the shadows on the surface were constantly changing into different shapes. Glover was particularly enamored of the moon’s terminator, where the light and dark sides of the moon meet. The terminator is not fixed and depends on the position of the moon relative to the sun. As Orion moved, he transformed into various shapes that resembled letters of the alphabet.
“People know, I fell in love with the terminator when I got to see the real one up close. I saw the terminator go from the letter C to the letter D, which means there was a moment when the moon was half light, half dark. It was pointing straight at me.”
Artemis II astronauts take a selfie with eclipse glasses using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The Artemis II lunar flyby was a trip highlight for many of us on Earth, in part because we were able to watch it in real time on streaming services like Netflix. Almost the entire mission was livestreamed on NASA’s website and YouTube channel, making it feel like a reality show. One minute you’re watching the crew eat, train, take photos of the moon; the next, there’s a random jar of Nutella floating near one of the cameras. I asked Glover if he felt like he was on a TV show while aboard the Orion.
“From my side, it didn’t feel like a reality show,” Glover said. “So you can see the science and hear us describe the moon, and see us fly the spacecraft by hand, and see bedtime and bath time and teeth brushing, that’s what it looks like. The mission was all of those things.”
Glover was thrilled to hear how I and others felt so connected to the crew during their mission. He said it was important for NASA to inform the world about everything it took to send four people a quarter of a million miles.
“I think maybe one of the most special things about this mission is how much you got to see,” Glover said with a smile. “It makes me feel good that you feel like you’re here.”
Watch this: Getting personal with the crew of Artemis II | Technology today
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