In April 2026, Victor J. Glover piloted the Artemis II mission and became one of the first four people to travel near the Moon since 1972, as well as one of the four humans who have traveled the farthest from Earth.
Nearly a decade has passed since NASA astronaut Glover received the 2017 BEYA award at the 12th annual Stars and Stripes dinner in Washington, D.C.
The United States Naval veteran group of BEYA Stars and Stripes honored Glover for his significant contributions to the STEM community and for representing the Navy’s values of honor, courage, and commitment.
Retired Vice Admiral Walter J. Davis, co-founder of the Stars and Stripes Mentoring Program, and retired Vice Admiral Anthony L. Winns, chairman of the BEYA Stars and Stripes Committee, made the presentation.
"It is a very humbling experience, and I am extremely grateful," Glover told the Navy. "I can't help but think that there is an officer out there keeping the nuclear reactor online on a carrier or submarine, keeping the intercontinental ballistic missiles on the sub safe, or just standing the watch far away from their family. I would love to have them here to witness and experience this conference. It will be them that I will think about when I receive the award."
Mentorship has played a major role in Glover’s journey, both in education and his career. He credited his mentors for shaping him into the leader he is today.
"I chose engineering after one of my mentors in elementary school, Mr. Hargrave, [inspired me]," Glover recalled. "He looked at me and said, 'If you work hard, you will make a great engineer.' I joke about it because I didn't even know what an engineer was."
Glover jumped into engineering, facing challenges without hesitation.
"The biggest challenge actually was not having a parent or big brother or someone close to me that has already done it," he said, reflecting on his time in various schools and classes. "So I figured out to innovate on my own through having to ask a lot of questions, stumble, and bump my head and restart."
Through all his achievements, Glover understood the value of staying positive and always moving forward.
He logged over 2,000 hours flying the F/A-18C Hornet and the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, completed 400 carrier arrested landings, and flew 24 combat missions. As a test pilot, he flew more than 40 different aircraft. In 2013, he was chosen as one of eight members of NASA's 21st astronaut class and finished training in 2015.
In 2019, Mary Jackson, born April 9, 1921, along with fellow “Hidden Figures” Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Christine Darden, received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor, for their work.
At that time, Glover was one of two astronauts working in space and became the first African American to serve on the International Space Station for an extended mission.
In an interview, Glover said that all the astronauts and cosmonauts on that mission were part of an incredible legacy of human spaceflight. He felt honored by the achievements of those who came before and did his best to live up to that legacy. Glover looked forward to the future of human space flight.
NASA astronauts recognized at BEYA include Guy Bluford, the first African American to fly in space and 1991 Black Engineer of the Year; Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel into space; Bernard Harris, the first African American to perform a spacewalk; Glover, the first African American to serve a long-duration mission on the International Space Station; and Jeannette Epps, who was assigned to the first operational crewed flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner Spacecraft.
When talking about his first spacewalk, Glover said the advice he received beforehand helped him prepare. "One of my colleagues said, 'Keep your world small. Focus on what's right in front of you, and slowly broaden your worldview.' That really helped. The first time that I looked down at the Earth, I just wanted to do that for the rest of the seven hours that I was outside. It was pretty amazing, but we had a lot of work to do. So it was also very busy. Busy and beautiful.”
Glover is a former F/A-18 pilot and a graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School. In 2020, he piloted the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Glover served as a flight engineer on Expedition 64 and became the first Black American astronaut to live aboard the ISS.
In April 2026, Glover piloted the Artemis II mission and became one of the first four people to travel near the Moon since 1972, as well as one of the four humans who have traveled the farthest from Earth.