Victor Glover Just Flew to the Moon, What He Said When He Returned About God and Love Is a True Signal in a World Full of Noise
One of the 4 astronauts on the Artemis II crew is a devout Christian. What he said after traveling farther from Earth than any other human being in 53 years cuts through every headline, every algorithm, and every feed. In a media landscape that is almost entirely noise, this is signal.
Victor Glover is a Navy test pilot, F/A-18 fighter pilot, combat veteran with 24 missions in Iraq, and NASA astronaut. He has 3 master’s degrees, over 3,000 flight hours across more than 40 aircraft types, and 400 carrier landings. On April 1, 2026, he became the first Black astronaut to fly to the moon.
He attends the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, not far from Johnson Space Center. He brought a Bible on the mission. During his first spaceflight in 2020, he arranged for communion cups to be delivered to the International Space Station. He once told The Christian Chronicle, “There are no atheists on top of rockets.”
He’d been holding onto this moment since April 3, 2 days after launch. He carried it through the entire 10-day mission, through the lunar flyby, through the moment crewmate Jeremy Hansen named a crater after their commander’s late wife, through 40 minutes of silence on the far side of the moon, and through splashdown. When he finally stood in front of the cameras on April 11 at Ellington Field in Houston, this is what came out.
I’m gonna keep it brief because I, I don’t, I’m afraid to start talking. I have not processed what we just did, and I’m afraid to start even trying. When this started on April 3rd, I wanted to thank God in public. And I want to thank God again. Because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude. Of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with. It’s too big to just be in one body. And I wanted to thank our families for everything that he just said. So great words, great words, great words. I love you. But not just those five beautiful cocoa skinned ladies right there. All of you. And I want to thank our leadership. And it’s changed since we were here in April of 2023. But the qualities haven’t. And we are fortunate to be in this agency at this time together. And so I’m gonna sit down. Thank you also to our air operations for this facility and for our ride home from San Diego. And I love you. Thank you.
On Easter Sunday, while orbiting the moon, CBS News asked if he had a message to share. He wasn’t prepared, but he answered anyway: “You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special. But we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me: you are special.”
Then, just before the Orion spacecraft went into a 40-minute communications blackout on the far side of the moon, he said: “As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth. And that’s love. Christ said in response to what was the greatest command that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”
Glover was born in Pomona, California. His mother is a bookkeeper. His father is a retired police officer. He played quarterback and running back in high school, earned his engineering degree at Cal Poly, and met his wife Dionna there. They’ve been married over 20 years and have 4 daughters: Genesis, Maya, Joia, and Corinne. The “5 beautiful ladies” he mentioned at the podium were Dionna and the girls, sitting in the front row.
NASA aerospace engineer Naia Butler-Craig met Glover before the mission and told him she was walking the same path. She recalled his response: “Most people worry about making the right choice. Make the choice right.”
This post was written by Rebecca Simon, author of Let Go, Trust God.