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Artemis II Astronaut Victor Glover Returns to Earth, Joins Cal Poly
· Confirmed
In Short: Victor Glover, who piloted NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, has returned to Earth and will join Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a full-time leader, the university announced Wednesday.
Victor Glover, who piloted NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, has returned to Earth and will join Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a full-time leader, the university announced Wednesday.
Glover, a Southern California native, will step back from the space agency to focus on his new role at his alma mater.
In his new position, Glover will work on initiatives to inspire the next generation of students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math.
The university’s announcement comes after Glover’s successful mission, which marked the first time humans had orbited the moon since the Apollo era.
The Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon, continues to progress with plans for increasingly complex missions near the lunar South Pole.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston plays a crucial role in astronaut training and mission control for the Artemis program.
NASA is using a combination of in-house and partner motion-based simulators to prepare astronauts and engineering support teams for lunar landings.
These simulators provide astronauts with realistic experiences to ensure they are prepared for the challenges of landing on the Moon.
Glover’s new role at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will help bridge the gap between space exploration and education, inspiring future generations of astronauts and scientists.
What this adds
Victor Glover had piloted NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon and was set to return to Earth.
Background
Victor Glover, who piloted NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, has returned to Earth and will join Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a full-time leader, the university announced Wednesday.
What's confirmed
- “We are so excited to be back on planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station,” Meir said after the landing.
- "Today we're going to be riding the vertical motion simulator and we're working on the Moon lander simulation - and you will feel all of that motion. You'll feel what potential astronauts can feel when they're landing on the Moon," said Haroon Khan, a human spaceflight simulation research integrator at NASA Ames Research Center's Flight and Guidance Simulation Laboratories.
- MORE: Artemis II astronauts on their out-of-this-world mission: 'Adventure of a lifetime' Researchers at NASA Ames are using the simulator and related studies to gather information that could help improve spacecraft systems and astronaut training.
What's still developing
- NASA’s Crew-12 astronauts have returned to Earth after an eight-month ISS mission, splashing down safely off California aboard a Dragon capsule.
- From there, the astronauts are scheduled to travel to Houston, Texas, where the NASA centre responsible for astronaut operations is based.
- The returning astronauts were mission commander Jessica Meir and fellow American Jack Hathaway, along with French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev.
- Four astronauts have returned to Earth after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), completing their mission with a planned splashdown off the California coast on Thursday.
- For more information about NASA’s Artemis program, visit: Jeanne Neal Ames Research Center, Calif.
- Members of the media are invited to tour a new lunar landing simulation at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley on Thursday, Oct.
- In addition to providing economic benefits and advancing scientific discovery through its Moon missions, NASA will establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface and build on the agency’s foundation for the first crewed mission to Mars.
- The SpaceX Dragon capsule Crew 11 returns early to Earth from space due to an astronaut’s medical issue as seen during reentry over Los Angeles, California on January 15, 2026 carrying four International Space Station (ISS) NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
- An astronaut crew that carried out an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station splashed down as planned on Thursday off the coast of California.
- They will undergo initial medical checks on the ship before being transported by helicopter to land, and then fly to Houston, Texas, home to the NASA centre responsible for astronaut operations.
- The spacecraft was then hoisted onto a specialised ship, and the four occupants — Meir, American Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev — were helped out one by one.
- During the mission, Adenot became the first French female astronaut to venture outside the space station for a spacewalk.