Artemis II preps for Friday night re-entry, splashdown astronauts describe ‘unbelievable’ lunar eclipse
Commander Wiseman gets emotional tribute of Carroll Crater to honor his late wife
As NASA’s Artemis II crew heads back to Earth from the moon, the astronauts have marked the mission with a deeply personal tribute, asking to name two lunar craters — one for their Orion capsule, Integrity, and another for Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.
The request came earlier this week during the crew’s lunar flyby, when Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to the moon, asked mission controllers for permission to use the names. Wiseman, who said he was too emotional to make the request himself, later described the moment as one of the defining experiences of the mission.
“Just for me personally, that was kind of the pinnacle moment of the mission for me,” Wiseman said from space Wednesday night in a rare space-to-Earth news conference with the media.
Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.
The gesture echoed an earlier moment from the Apollo era. During Apollo 8’s historic 1968 mission around the moon, astronaut Jim Lovell named a lunar peak Mount Marilyn after his wife. That mission was humanity’s first journey to the moon, and Marilyn Lovell was waiting for him back in Houston.
Artemis II’s four-person crew — three Americans and one Canadian — are the first astronauts to travel to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Their crater-naming request stunned scientists and flight controllers on the ground.
“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”
Before launch, Mission Control lead scientist Kelsey Young quietly worked with the Artemis II crew to identify two bright, relatively young craters. Once the astronauts neared the moon, they were able to spot them using zoom lenses and with the naked eye.
Wiseman said the idea originated with his crewmates while the team was in quarantine just days before liftoff.
“Absolutely, I would love that, I think that’s just the best. And I said, ‘But I can’t give the speech, I can’t give the talk,’” he recalled during a crew news conference.
The proposed Carroll Crater sits near the moon’s left limb, along the boundary between the near side and far side, and can occasionally be seen from Earth. According to Watkins, it is about 3 miles, or 5 kilometers, across and relatively shallow. Integrity crater is slightly larger and lies fully on the far side of the moon.
The naming request came shortly after the crew surpassed Apollo 13’s long-standing distance record for human spaceflight. All four astronauts cried and embraced after the moment.
“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed, his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”
Mission Control was silent for nearly a minute before answering.
“Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”
For NASA officials, the exchange stood apart from the more stoic tone often associated with the Apollo moon missions, whose all-male test pilot crews were generally less outwardly emotional.
“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we’re seeing just a more human aspect.”
After returning to Earth later this week, the Artemis II crew is expected to formally submit the proposed names to the International Astronomical Union, which oversees official naming of planetary features.
It took nearly 50 years for the IAU to formally approve Mount Marilyn, which it did in 2017.
The union’s Ramasamy Venugopal said a decision on Carroll and Integrity could come in about a month, which he described as typical “for straightforward requests.”
The IAU has already approved 81 astronaut-given lunar feature names, including Apollo 16’s Baby Ray and Gator, as well as Apollo 17’s Lara, named for the lead female character in the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago.”
Not every Apollo nickname made it into the official record. Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan informally called a split boulder “Tracy’s Rock” after his daughter in 1972, while Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad dubbed his 1969 landing area “Pete’s Parking Lot.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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