Artemis 2 Crew Names Moon Crater for Commander's Late Wife

The four astronauts orbiting the moon last Monday weren't just making history. They were sharing one of the most emotional moments ever recorded in space.

Just after Artemis 2 broke Apollo 13's distance record on April 6, traveling farther from Earth than any crew before them, mission specialist Jeremy Hansen radioed Mission Control with an unusual request. He asked permission to name a moon crater after Carroll Taylor Wiseman, the late wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020.

"There is a feature in a really neat place on the moon, and it is on the near side-far side boundary," Hansen told Mission Control. "It's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll."

The moment had been planned in secret for over a week. Hansen and fellow astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch approached Wiseman during quarantine at Kennedy Space Center before their April 1 launch. The three had discussed it together and wanted to honor Carroll this way.

Wiseman agreed immediately but had one condition. "I can't give the speech," he told them, his emotions already overwhelming him.

Hansen volunteered to make the announcement during their historic moon flyby. When he began spelling out Carroll's name for Mission Control to ensure proper identification, the entire crew lost their composure.

"I looked over and Christina was crying," Wiseman shared during a press conference Wednesday night. "I put my hand down on Jeremy's hand as he was still talking, and I could just tell he was trembling, and we all pretty much broke down right there."

The crater sits on the boundary between the moon's near and far sides, positioned so that people on Earth can see it during certain times of the lunar cycle. It's a lasting tribute visible from home, a bright spot connecting Earth to space.

Why This Inspires

Wiseman called it "the pinnacle moment of the mission" for him personally. Beyond breaking records and making scientific history, this moment showed what human spaceflight is really about: connection, compassion, and carrying our humanity with us even 248,000 miles from home.

"That was where the four of us were the most forged, the most bonded, and we came out of that really focused on that day ahead," Wiseman said. That day included witnessing areas of the moon never before seen by human eyes and viewing a total solar eclipse from beyond the lunar surface.

The crew is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego this Friday evening, returning from a journey that advanced space exploration while proving that our greatest achievements happen when we remember what matters most.