How a SoCal native became one of NASA’s most valuable assets

One of NASA’s most valuable assets is a Southern Californian.

Following the space agency’s successful Artemis II mission around the moon last month, Victor Glover — who grew up primarily in the Inland Empire and has spent much of his career at Southern California’s many military and aerospace hubs — is now the only pilot to have flown NASA’s Orion capsule.

As the crew finishes its international victory lap before the media, Glover is preparing to put his head down and get to work training the Artemis generation of moon-faring astronauts.

“I think Artemis is going to demand us to change the paradigm,” he told The Times.

The International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited by a revolving crew of astronauts in low Earth orbit for over 25 years, has a “very well-worn” training program, he said. But developing a new instructional regimen for complex high-stakes moon missions as the agency tries to aggressively ramp up Artemis launches from once every 3 1/2 years to every six months is a different beast.

“Until we get really ramped up and have a solid training program, I think astronauts need to take more ownership of the training and be involved so we can share this experience,” Glover said.

As of today, the list of Artemis astronauts is only four people long. And the list of Artemis pilots has only one name: Victor Glover.

Glover, 50, was born in Pomona, graduated from Ontario High School and lived “all over” Southern California’s urban sprawl, including Baldwin Village (which he instinctively referred to by its pre-1988 name, “The Jungle”). He completed his undergraduate studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and received graduate degrees (plural) from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.

He cut his teeth as a test pilot at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, in the Mojave. After NASA selected him as an astronaut, he learned to fly SpaceX’s Dragon capsule at the company’s then-headquarters in Hawthorne before riding it to the ISS.

Glover particularly misses those test pilot days, when he was pushing the limits of the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet in China Lake while completing a master’s degree on the side.

“That was actually maybe one of the best times of my career. We had our fourth daughter while we lived in China Lake,” he said. “I was … working really hard but having a ton of fun at a house full of kids.”

In one of Glover’s favorite pictures, snapped by his wife, he is sitting at his desk in his tan desert flight suit, focused on graduate school work while holding one of his daughters.

Glover sees himself as just one example of how the Golden State’s deserts and coastal cities have left a lasting mark on America’s space program.

“Southern California is very uniquely postured to help NASA,” Glover said. “Southern California has the combination of culture and technology — and it doesn’t hurt to have Hollywood” to help share NASA’s mission and values.

(Glover fondly recalled his joy seeing the “Iron Man” production crew, including actor and rapper Terrence Howard, roll through Edwards Air Force Base during his tenure.)

Glover, who now lives in Texas near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is focused on bringing that SoCal sensibility and invaluable experience piloting the Orion capsule to the agency’s astronaut training program.

When asked if he hopes to fly again on an Artemis mission, he gave a simple answer: “No.”

There was one other thing on his to-do list, though.

“Tell L.A. I love them and all of Southern California — and I can’t wait to get back out there and visit my home state and my hometown.”