‘I wanted to thank God in public’: Fighting tears, Victor Glover gives legendary speech on return to Earth

NASA’s Victor Glover showed once again why he represents some of the best of what the United States has to offer.

After Glover and the Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, the pilot almost broke down in tears while delivering his first remarks since returning to dry land.

‘It’s too big to just be in one body.’

The crew members were in Houston, Texas, following their successful lunar orbit when Glover was asked by Commander Reid Wiseman to give a few words. Glover, who has been revered for providing on-the-spot wisdom before and during the mission, was at first at a loss for words.

“I have not processed what we just did, and I’m afraid to start even trying,” Glover began.

Fighting back tears, he powered through.

“When this started on April 3, I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again,” he said, as he became visibly emotional. “Because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with — it’s too big to just be in one body.”

The audience at NASA’s Johnson Space Center erupted in applause as the pilot then thanked his wife and four daughters, whom he referred to as “those five beautiful cocoa-skinned ladies.”

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“I love you … all of you,” Glover continued. He then turned his attention to NASA staff and leadership.

While the leadership has changed since 2023, he remarked, “the qualities haven’t. And we are fortunate to be in this agency at this time together.”

Wiseman wasn’t short on wisdom, either. The crew leader fought back tears of his own when he had the microphone, mostly talking about the worry and anxiety the astronauts’ families had ahead of mission launch.

“This was not easy being 200,000+ miles away from home. Like, before you launch, it feels like it’s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you’re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends.”

Wiseman concluded by noting how special it is to be human and how grateful he feels to be on planet Earth.

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Danielle Villasana/Getty Images

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) took the podium soon after to thank the Artemis II crew on behalf of America. The congressman stated that the United States, as well as the world, “desperately needed this.”

Cloud said the mission reminded him of Psalm 8, affirming that “even as we look to the night sky and as we look at creation, and behold the stars and the moon, we begin to think about what is mankind from God’s perspective.”

The Artemis II crew reached a point 252,756 miles from Earth and set a new human record for the maximum distance away from the planet.

Artemis III is set for mid-2027, while Artemis IV is targeted for early 2028 and is expected to land humans on the moon.

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