Artemis II Crew Requests Moon Crater Be Named in Honor of Flight Commander’s Late Wife

Shortly before beginning their hours-long flyby of the moon on Monday, the crew of the Artemis II mission had an emotional moment as the astronauts asked that a crater be named in honor of the flight commander’s late wife.The crew requested that a previously unnamed crater be named Carroll in memory of Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who died in 2020 after a five-year battle with cancer. She was married to astronaut Reid Wiseman and the couple has two children.Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen appeared to choke up as he made the request. The four members of the crew then joined in a long group hug and the astronauts wiped their eyes.Mr. Wiseman’s late wife “dedicated her life to helping others as a newborn intensive care unit Registered Nurse” according to his NASA biography.“Despite a long list of professional accolades, Reid considers his time as an only parent as his greatest challenge and the most rewarding phase of his life,” the biography continues.Mr. Wiseman posted a selfie with his daughters on Instagram before taking off on the 10-day mission. “I love these two ladies, and I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father,” Mr. Wiseman said in the caption.Mr. Wiseman posted another photo showing the girls had hidden cookies in his luggage for the mission.The crew also asked that a second crater, located near the Ohm crater, be named Integrity in honor of their spacecraft.Mission control in Houston responded with “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.” The ground crew then observed a moment of silence.The crater-naming requests came shortly after the crew set a record by traveling farther from Earth than any other humans. They passed a record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear,” Mr. Wiseman said. “But we most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”The crew was scheduled to take a seven-hour trip around the far side of the moon on Monday evening, during which the crew will lose contact with Earth for about 40 minutes. The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

Artemis II Crew Requests Moon Crater Be Named in Honor of Flight Commander’s Late Wife

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