Moon Astronaut Victor Glover Now Shaping Future Engineers

Victor Glover just flew around the moon, and now he's bringing everything he learned back to the classroom.

The NASA astronaut, who piloted the groundbreaking Artemis II mission in April 2026, started a new role at California Polytechnic State University on September 1st. As executive advisor to the university president, he's stepping away from active astronaut duty to help shape future leaders in engineering, aerospace, and technology.

Glover's connection to Cal Poly runs deep. He graduated with an engineering degree in 1999, played two sports for the school, and met his wife Dionna there. All four of their daughters have either graduated from Cal Poly or currently attend the university.

"If I wanted to go to space, I would have stayed at NASA," Glover said, explaining his shift in focus. Instead, he's embracing a role where he can multiply his impact by helping develop tomorrow's innovators.

His new position as "astronaut emeritus" means he maintains ties with NASA while working full time at Cal Poly. He'll collaborate with university leadership across departments, from engineering to artificial intelligence to national defense programs. The exact shape of his contributions is still forming, but Glover sees endless potential.

Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" philosophy resonates deeply with Glover's experience. Before joining NASA in 2013, he was a Navy test pilot with 4,000 flight hours and 24 combat missions. At NASA, he learned that building trust matters just as much as building technology.

"At NASA we do some pretty challenging things, pretty risky things, but we have a really strong scientific and technical understanding of what we're doing," Glover explained. That risk informed decision making is exactly what he wants to bring to students preparing for their own ambitious careers.

The Ripple Effect

Glover's transition represents something bigger than one astronaut's career change. By choosing education over additional spaceflights, he's investing in hundreds of future scientists and engineers who will tackle challenges we haven't even imagined yet.

His decade at NASA taught him that hands on experience builds better problem solvers than textbooks alone. Now students at Cal Poly will benefit from insights gained piloting a spacecraft around the moon, combined with practical wisdom about teamwork, innovation, and perseverance.

The university is undergoing major expansion, recently transitioning to a semester system and integrating a maritime academy. Glover arrives at exactly the right moment to help guide that growth while staying connected to the space program that defined his last decade.

One moonshot completed, another just beginning.