Reid Wiseman

Reid Wiseman (born November 11, 1975, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American astronaut who was the commander of the Artemis II mission (April 1–10, 2026), the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. During the mission, Wiseman and his crewmates set the record for the farthest distance traveled by humans in space: 406,771 km (252,756 miles). Artemis II is intended to pave the way for the Artemis IV mission, which is planned to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028.

Early life and education

Wiseman’s love of space was evident at a young age. As a 10-year-old he built rockets at the local hobby shop, added engines and started launching them in the Baltimore suburbs where he grew up. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in computer and systems engineering and was commissioned in the U.S. Navy. He flew missions during the Iraq War. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, in 2004, and received a master’s degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2006.

NASA and family tragedy

Wiseman was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2009. His first spaceflight was on Soyuz TMA-13M to the International Space Station in May 2014. He made two space walks, and his photos of Earth taken from orbit were popular on Twitter (now X). He spent 165 days in orbit before returning to Earth in November 2014. From 2020 to 2022 Wiseman was chief of the astronaut office.

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In 2015 Wiseman’s wife Carroll Taylor Wiseman, a pediatric nurse practitioner, was diagnosed with cancer. Reid and Carroll Wiseman married in 2003 and have two daughters, Ellie and Katherine. In 2020 Carroll Wiseman died, and Wiseman admitted that he struggled being an astronaut and a single parent. His NASA biography states he “considers his time as an only parent as his greatest challenge and the most rewarding phase of his life.”

Artemis II

In 2023 Wiseman was selected as the commander for the Artemis II mission, which is the first crewed flight in the Artemis program. The crew also consists of pilot Victor Glover, Jr., and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The four astronauts flew around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft. One of the most touching moments during the 10-day mission came when Hansen announced to Mission Control that the astronauts wanted to propose a name for one of the craters they had discovered. His voice quavering, Hansen said:

It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.

The four crew members then hugged and Wiseman could be seen wiping away a tear.

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