NASA Artemis II Crew Names Newly Found Moon Crater After Carroll, Astronaut’s Deceased Spouse
“To the Moon and Back”: Astronauts Commemorate Departed Loved One by Naming Moon Crater
“To the moon and back” is a well-known expression of “I love you,” but for the team of NASA’s Artemis II, it was a literal sentiment. The four astronauts recently orbited the moon and took the opportunity to honor one of their own by naming a newly identified crater after Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman’s deceased wife, Carroll.
The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—successfully concluded their 10-day mission on Saturday, April 11, becoming the first humans to journey to the moon and return since the Apollo missions. Throughout their undertaking, they transmitted several messages back to Earth from within their Orion spacecraft.
Upon finding “relatively fresh craters on the moon,” the crew captured a message suggesting new names for two of them. The first, Integrity, serves as a tribute to the spacecraft that brought them there. Hansen mentions in the video, “If you were to examine Orientale on the far side and then draw a line straight up to Ohm on the far side, relatively in the middle is an unnamed crater which we would like to propose be called Integrity in the future.”
The second crater holds special significance and is situated in a “really neat” location near a boundary that makes it visible from Earth at certain times. Hansen shares that when their “close-knit astronaut family” began planning their journey years ago, they experienced a profound loss. He states, “Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie.” Hansen explains they would like to name the second crater after her and characterizes it as a “bright spot” on the moon at the same latitude as Ohm.
You can witness Wiseman getting emotional as Hansen speaks, and the two embrace, followed by Koch and Glover joining in for a group hug. The touching video exemplifies how closely the four astronauts bonded during their mission.
Wiseman’s biography on NASA’s website notes, “Carroll devoted her life to assisting others as a Registered Nurse in a newborn intensive care unit. She is survived by their two children. Despite an extensive list of professional honors, Reid views his time as a single parent as his greatest challenge and the most fulfilling phase of his life.”
In celebration of the Artemis II mission, the crew named two newly discovered craters on the moon. One is in honor of their spacecraft, Integrity, while the other is named for Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. The Carroll crater is characterized as a “bright spot” on the moon.