Artemis II astronaut honors wife who died of cancer by naming a crater on the moon after her

The world has been fascinated with the Artemis II space mission, and there were many surprising moments along the way, including a touching story about grief. 

© NurPhoto

In the middle of the 10-day mission on April 6, astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed down with a proposal to "honor their mission by naming two craters on the moon.” One of the names was the late wife of Commander Reed Weissman, named Caroll, who died from cancer in 2020 at the age of 46, leaving behind him and their two daughters.

"We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katey and Ellie,” Hansen told mission control, describing the crater as "a bright spot on the moon." "We would like to call it Carroll," Hansen continued.

© NASA

Wiseman and the crew floated together in zero gravity, holding onto each other through the weight of the moment. Fellow astronaut Christina Koch wiped away tears.

© NASA

Caroll was a newborn intensive care unit registered nurse, and the reason Wiseman kept going.  When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, he considered stepping away from his career. But she told him to stay. 

 "I wanted to move us back towards where her family was from. And she's like, 'No, this is where you work. This is the job you love. This is where you work, and this is where our kids are growing up, and we are going to stay right here," he told CBS's Mark Strassmann. 

© NurPhoto

Now, years later, that promise carried him farther than any human has ever been - over 252,000 miles from Earth, surpassing even the Apollo 13 mission. With their new record, Hansen radioed down, “As we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration."

“We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear,” he continued. “But most importantly, we choose this moment to challenge this generation — and the next — to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

© NurPhoto

The mission captivated social media by storm, with people fascinated by the astronauts and their lives on Earth. And the burning question - what brings people to decide to pursue a career that could sometimes not go as planned? 

The single father of 2 opened up about the anxiety his family members feel, telling NBC's Today. “It’d be a lot easier just to sit on my couch and watch football for the weekend, but at the same time, there are four humans that were put in a position to be able to go explore and do something that is very unique and rare in this civilization.”

© NASA

The crew also proposed naming another crater “Integrity,” after their spacecraft, a nod to the mission itself. Both names will eventually be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for official recognition.

The crew completed their lunar flyby on Monday and exited the moon’s gravitational pull on Tuesday at 1:25 p.m. They are set to return to Earth on Friday.

© NASA