Tonight at 6:24 p.m. ET, a rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon. And one of them is ours.

Victor Glover Jr. is set to pilot NASA's Artemis II mission, becoming the first Black man to fly around the Moon. Let that sentence sit for a second.

For context: Artemis II will be the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. More than 50 years after the last human beings left the neighborhood, we're going back. And a Black man from Pomona, California is flying the ship.

From Ontario High to the Moon

Born in Pomona, California, Glover graduated from Ontario High School in 1994 before earning a Bachelor of Science in general engineering from California Polytechnic State University. He didn't stop there. He later added three graduate degrees: a Master of Science in flight test engineering, a Master of Science in systems engineering, and a Master of Military Operational Art and Science.

After college, Glover earned his Navy "wings of gold" in December 2001 and went on to fly the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet, and EA-18G Growler, logging thousands of flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, along with more than 400 carrier arrested landings and 24 combat missions.

He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. His first trip to space came in November 2020, when he piloted the SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, becoming the first Black astronaut to complete a long-duration stay aboard the ISS. He spent 168 days up there, conducted four spacewalks, and came home. Then he started training for something much bigger.

Why This Moment Matters

The Apollo era produced 12 men who walked on the Moon. All of them were white. For decades, the image of what a lunar astronaut looked like had only one face. Tonight, that changes.

Glover will become the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit. He will also be part of a crew that includes Christina Koch, the first woman to make the journey, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American to go to the Moon's vicinity. This crew is the first time in the history of spaceflight that the Moon has been this close to this many "firsts" at once.

Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., who became the first Black man to walk in space in 1995, spoke of Glover ahead of the mission, calling him "a remarkable young man" and noting the significance of diverse representation in space. Harris had his own dreams of going to the Moon. Victor Glover is living them.

What Artemis II Actually Does

This is not a Moon landing. That comes next, with Artemis III, which is targeting 2027. Artemis II is a systems validation mission. NASA will use the flight to test the Orion spacecraft's life support systems, navigation, communication links and overall performance in deep space with a crew on board. Think of it as the dress rehearsal before humanity plants another flag on the lunar surface.

The crew will surpass the record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans, previously set by Apollo 13 at 248,655 miles. They will spend a day observing the far side of the Moon before looping back toward Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego after 10 days.

The weather forecast for launch day shows an 80% chance of favorable conditions with a two-hour window opening tonight at 6:24 p.m. ET.

Watch History Tonight

Full launch coverage begins at 12:50 p.m. ET on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.

Glover once wrote on social media that he's just a "regular person, Navy Captain, and NASA Astronaut," and asked his followers to "come help us put humans in space and space in humanity." Tonight, he's doing both. Don't miss it.