Washington: In a moment that blended historic achievement with deep personal emotion, astronauts aboard Artemis II proposed naming a lunar crater 'Carroll' in memory of Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, even as they set a new record for the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth.
Commander Reid Wiseman’s Wife Carroll Passed Away In 2020
The tribute took place during a six-hour observation window on the Moon’s far side, where the crew identified an unnamed bright crater near the Glushko crater. Moved by the moment, the astronauts suggested naming it after Carroll Wiseman, who passed away in 2020 after battling cancer.
The emotional gesture, made from over 4,00,000 kilometres away, brought the crew to tears. Inside the spacecraft, the astronauts shared a group hug, while back on Earth, Wiseman’s daughters, Ellie and Katherine, watched the moment unfold from mission control in Houston.
The proposal will require formal approval from the International Astronomical Union, but the significance of the moment has already resonated widely as a symbol of the human side of space exploration.
Artemis II Astronauts Travel Farthest Ever From Earth
Alongside the tribute, the crew, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, also achieved a major milestone by travelling approximately 4,06,773 kilometres from Earth, surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The record, which had stood for 56 years, was broken at around 11:27 pm IST on Monday, marking a key achievement in NASA’s return to deep space missions.
The astronauts carried out observations from the Moon’s far side, a region permanently hidden from Earth due to tidal locking, documenting lunar features and relaying real-time data back to scientists.
Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since the Apollo era and is seen as a crucial step towards future exploration, including the planned Artemis III landing near the Moon’s south pole.
