Artemis II crew names lunar crater for astronaut’s late wife
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen requested, on behalf of his crew, to name two relatively recent craters on the moon. (Source: CNN, NASA)
(Gray News) – The Artemis II crew honored a lost loved one with a special request to Mission Control during their lunar flyby.
After surpassing Apollo 13’s distance record, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on behalf of the crew, requested permission to name two freshly carved lunar craters.
They named the first crater Integrity after the Orion spacecraft they’re using for their historic mission.
The name they requested for the second crater held great sentimental value for the crew.
“A number of years ago we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one. And there’s a feature in a really neat place on the moon,” Hansen said.
Hansen requested that the crater be named after Commander Reid Wiseman’s wife, Carroll, who died in 2020 after battling cancer.
“And so we lost a loved one, her name was Carroll. The spouse of Reid. The mother of Katie and Ellie,” he said, holding back tears.
Wiseman can be seen in the video weeping as Hansen continues with the request.
“It’s a bright spot on the moon, and we would like to call that Carroll,” he said.
Pilot Victor Glover and astronaut Christina Koch then joined Hansen and Wiseman as they all embraced one another in tears.
Hansen said that during some moments in the moon’s transit, the bright crater can be seen from Earth.
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