NASA Astronaut tells daughters death plans before Artemis II mission

NASA is days away from its first crewed mission around the moon in 53 years, leaving one astronaut to have a heartbreaking conversation with his daughters.

Reid Wiseman, commander of Artemis II, is set to launch on April 1 alongside NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen for a 10-day lunar flyby.

Before heading to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Wiseman, 50, took his daughters, Ellie and Katherine, for a walk to prepare them for the event of his death during the mission.

‘I told them, ‘Here’s where the will is, here’s where the trust documents are, and if anything happens to me, here’s what’s going to happen to you,” Wiseman said.

‘I actually wish more people in everyday life talked to their families in that way because you never know what the next day is going to bring.’

His wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit, died at the age of 46 in 2020 following a battle with cancer.

Wiseman said that as a single father raising two teenage daughters, they understand the risks of the mission but also share his belief in the importance of exploration and humanity’s drive to push beyond the unknown. 

Not only will Artemis II be the first moon mission in decades, but NASA said it aims to surpass Apollo 13’s record for farthest human distance from Earth, serving as a critical rehearsal for future lunar landings.

Artemis II is currently in the final countdown for the launch window, starting at 6.24pm ET on Wednesday.

NASA reports an 80 percent chance of favorable weather, as the crew prepares for the mission that will see them launch inside the Orion capsule atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

This will be the first crewed flight of the 32-story SLS rocket, which previously conducted an unmanned mission four years ago. Managers said the rocket is doing well following the latest round of repairs.

The crew will be the first people to launch toward the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

‘I think the nation and the world have been waiting a long time to do this again,’ Wiseman said Friday after he and fellow crew members arrived at the Kennedy Space Center. 

‘On behalf of myself, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, we are really pumped to do this.’ 

Wiseman’s two daughters joined him in Florida to watch their father bring America back to the moon. 

Details about Katherine and Ellie are limited, with Wiseman only noting that one is in high school and the other in college, and referring to both as teenagers. 

Wiseman previously spent five months on the International Space Station in 2014, and photos captured the moment he said farewell to his then-little girls. 

He revealed that his daughters told him that they had ‘zero interest’ in his launching again. 

‘We talked about it, and I said, ‘Look, of all the people on planet Earth right now, there are four people that are in a position to go fly around the moon,” Wiseman said. 

‘I cannot say no to that opportunity.’

The next day, he woke up to a batch of homemade moon cupcakes and his daughters’ support, 10 News reported. 

While it is hard leaving his girls, Wiseman said the toughest part is ‘the stress that I’m putting on them.’

The astronaut acknowledges that his going to space is ‘a selfish ask’ of his kids.

‘There’s a very real reason that we still live in Houston,’ he told the Baltimore Magazine. 

‘When my wife started getting sick, I wanted to move towards family. But she said, “No, this is where you work, and you love your job. And we should not give that up for this.”

‘Also, I want my kids to know that you can still achieve and go on and pick yourself up. I think when I said, “This is something that I want to go do, it’s important to me, and I think I can do a good job at this,” they were aligned very quickly.’

Wiseman plans to take letters from his daughters to the moon as personal mementos.