A father's pride reached its peak at Kennedy Space Center. Victor Glover Sr. watched as his son, former football player and NASA astronaut Victor Glover Jr., piloted the Artemis II mission. He shed tears, not of fear, but of immense joy.

Glover Sr. observed the rocket launch from a designated family area at Kennedy Space Center.

"As the rocket left uh the launch pad, I shed some tears," revealed the proud father. "It was because of such a proud moment and how happy and proud I am of my son and this adventure along with his crew mates."

In fact, he wasn't just proud of his son, words couldn't describe how immensely proud he was.

"Proud just doesn't capture it for me," he said. "It's so much more than that. My chest is poked out all the way to the moon."

Victor Glover Jr.’s journey spans far beyond the football field. A former Cal Poly defensive back in the late 1990s, he went on to earn three master’s degrees and log over 3,500 flight hours as a U.S. Navy aviator.

Selected by NASA in 2013, Glover spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station on his first mission, and now serves as the pilot on NASA’s 10-day Artemis II lunar mission alongside Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.

The father watched his son ascend to the sky while four astronauts inside the capsule started their journey into history. And now, there's one special moment he looks forward to the most.

Victor Glover Sr. Reveals What He's Most Excited For

The first crewed lunar mission after 50 years has taken place through a 10-day moon orbiting mission which four astronauts are currently conducting aboard NASA's Artemis II Orion spacecraft as they travel through deep space.

For Glover Sr., the Day 10 mark holds significant value since that is the day his son will have made it home safe.

When asked about what he'd planned to say to his son, the father revealed exactly how he was feeling.

"For me is is to be honest is is waiting for that splashdown after after day 10, I believe it is," Glover Sr. revealed. "When he actually gets home and I can physically hug him and squeeze him and welcome him back home and then that's when all the questions will come."

The first black man to go beyond the Earth's orbit, Victor Glover Jr. had his own message for folks back on Earth.

"Trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful. From up here, you look like one thing," he said. "Homo sapiens is all of us, no matter where you're from or what you look like. We're all one people."

Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and the Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, will swing around the far side of the Moon before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 11.

Written by

Abhay Bharti

Edited by

Aadesh Dhote