NASA's Artemis 2 pilot Victor Glover listens to 'Whitey on the Moon' every Monday. This is why.

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NASA's Artemis 2 pilot Victor Glover listens to 'Whitey on the Moon' every Monday. This is why.
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Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.

'An incredible privilege and responsibility': Artemis 2's Christina Koch is ready to become the 1st woman to fly around the moonNASA's Artemis 2 moon astronauts are 'fortunate' to have a private space toilet — Apollo crews pooped in plastic bagsThe Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's marchers line up near the gates to the Kennedy Space Center prior to a demonstration on July 15, 1969.

In the background is a mock up of a Redstone rocket with a Mercury capsule on top.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsSign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books.Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us!Space.com's Sci-Fi Reader's Club. Read a sci-fi short story every month and join a virtual community of fellow science fiction fans!Once at a space conference I attended in Colorado Springs, NASA astronaut Victor Glover — the pilot of NASA's upcoming Artemis 2 mission to the moon — said something that caused a bit of a stir., a lunar flight that will make him the first person of color ever to visit the moon. Glover was there at the Space Symposium conference with other astronauts to talk about, well, space. But he also told a group of reporters about his weekly tradition: Every Monday, he listens to"Whitey on the Moon" on the way to work at NASA's 'We work for them, too': Artemis 2 moon mission is for everyone, NASA astronaut Victor Glover says 'I hope they forget all about Artemis 2': Moon astronauts are taking the long view Glover happens to be Black. And now he's going to the moon. NASA is targeting April 1 for the launch of"It's funny, because that Space Symposium caused me a lot of grief in the next months because people tried to quote me out of context," Glover told me in an interview last September."And it ain't about racism. It's about the human condition." "Whitey on the Moon" is a spoken-word poem by Gil Scott-Heron published and set to music in 1970. It recounts the challenges of doctor bills, taxes and high rent for Black Americans at a time when the U.S. was spending billions to send astronauts to the moon and beat the Soviet Union during the Cold War space race.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands'We're all on this journey together:' Who are the Artemis 2 astronauts launching to the moon?. People were struggling," Glover said."Some people were like, 'These bills and these potholes, like my condition hasn't been improved byGlover, 47, who grew up in Pomona, California and has four daughters with his wife Dionna. He started listening to Scott-Heron's song and poem as a way to keep a perspective that many people out there aren't space-loving cheerleaders, and as a way to share that perspective with his colleagues. "That song reminds me that, at that time, that community, which is very similar to the community I grew up in, they didn't feel heard," Glover told me."And so it's a reminder to me that there are more perspectives and more stories out there than you'll hear from the people cheering for NASA on a regular basis."of Glover's"Whitey on the Moon" tradition may have given him some grief, but it was hardly the first time he'd shared personal opinions about social justice.In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by then-police officer Derek Chavin in Minneapolis, Glover took to what was then Twitter to share his feelings. "My heart is low, my head is level, and my faith is high. So much to process, if you're struggling, that's OK,"One critic, in a post that has since been deleted, asked why Glover couldn't just stick to space.."As we address extreme weather and pandemic disease, we will understand and overcome racism and bigotry so we can safely and together do space. Thanks for asking." But getting back to"Whitey on the Moon," Glover said the perspective from the poem is important because, for some, there has never been any other way to look at life.while speaking with Axios "I live in the America that sent me to space, told my grandfather he couldn't fly during the Korean conflict when he was enlisted," Glover added."We live in a very complicated country." The SpaceX Crew-1 members seated in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft during crew equipment interface training.. From left, Mission Specialist Shannon Walker, Pilot Victor Glover, Crew Dragon Commander Michael Hopkins – all NASA astronauts – and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi"When I came to NASA, they said, 'Hey, we hired you because of who you are,'" Glover told Axios."Okay, cool. You get all of it."After the assasination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, his successor, Ralph Albernathy rallied some 500 demonstrators, mostly Black, to protest the"The NASA administrator went down himself and talked to him," Glover said of Abernathy and then-NASA Administrator Thomas Paine."And by the end of that conversation, that group of people that was at a protest prayed for the safety of those astronauts in that mission, because they had a human moment."and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of thefrom the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to theArtemisInterstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be nearly 12 billion years old — so ancient its star system may no longer exist

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