Victor Glover is changing the way we see space and see ourselves.

 In Black History Month 

   A PHENOMENAL EXPERIENCE 

In November 2020, four flight engineers: Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi launched to the International Space Station. They travelled on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in the USA.

In 1974 the Skylab 4 crew set a record of spending 84 days in space. That record, however, was broken last Sunday February 7, 2021.

“SpaceX’s Dragon Crew to break US record for most days in Space on Sunday,” the Newsroom Post of India said on February 6, 2021.

“US astronauts living aboard the ISS orbital outpost will break the record on Sunday for most days in space by a crew launched aboard a US spacecraft, NASA said.” They will surpass the record of 84 days set by the Skylab crew on February 8, 1974.

The Skylab 4 crew docked their Apollo spacecraft to the Skylab space station 47 years to the day when the SpaceX crew docked to the orbiting lab, the US space authority estimated.

This month, February, is Black History Month “an annual observance originating in the United States of America where it is also known as African American History month.” It has been officially recognized by the governments of the United States and Canada and more recently by the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

On the morning of February 8, 2021, astronaut Victor Glover chatted from space with Al Roker on the Today Show. Glover is a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013 and pilot on the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

He is a Commander in the US Navy where he pilots a F/A-18 and is a graduate of the US Air Force Test pilot school.

Now he is on a six month mission - the first African American to go on an extended mission in space. 

Glover is the flight engineer on the spacecraft which, he reminded Roker, “is our home” for six months. The whole experience has been “amazing” for him – and his first spacewalk - seeing the Earth some 260 miles below - was “a phenomenal experience”. 

Glover grew up in California, USA. While talking with Roker he expressed his thanks to his mother and his father (who is a policeman.) “I owe an immense deal of gratitude to my parents,” he said.

He sent love to his wife and children, and greetings to his high school teacher.

He summed up his amazing opportunity and experiences as all about recognizing our differences as human beings and then working together on something great. 

He has made history and he knows that, but despite all he has achieved, he is still processing the wonder, the phenomenal experience of his first spacewalk.