Victor Glover Piloting Artemis II Launch, Former CFB Player Among 4 Astronauts on NASA Moon Mission

The crew for the Artemis II NASA moon mission features a former college football player.

Victor Glover, who played football and wrestled at Cal Poly, was among the four astronauts on board when the ship blasted off on Wednesday. He's also the first Black man to pilot a flight around the moon.

Glover, 49, attended Cal Poly in the late 1990s, playing on the football team in 1996 as a defensive back in addition to his role on the wrestling squad. In his sole season with the Mustangs, they finished 5-6 under head coach Andre Patterson.

While he didn't make it to the NFL, it's fair to say Glover has been successful.

He's attained three master's degrees from three different universities and is a Naval Aviator, logging over 3,500 flight hours.

In 2013, he was selected as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class, completing his training in 2015. He has since held multiple positions for NASA and had his first spaceflight mission in 2018 aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and as an Expedition 64/65 Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station, where he spent 168 days in space.

In 2023 was selected to be a pilot for Artemis II, the first mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The mission, which is set to establish a long-term presence for science and exploration, is set to take around 10 days. Joining him on the mission are NASA's Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen.