When compiling our list of interviewees for “The Greatest Leap,” we knew we wanted to talk not only with the celebrities who made Project Apollo a reality 50 years ago, but also with modern-day astronauts. After all, the NASA we have today owes its existence to the space race of the 1950s and 1960s, and in many ways it’s still the same agency that put humans on the moon. (Although, since we’re all here on Earth without a moon base overhead, it’s clear the agency is missing the follow-up that many people have been expecting.)
We were exceptionally fortunate to sit for an hour or so with Victor Glover, an accomplished aviator and test pilot who became an astronaut four years ago. Glover’s take on the current state of the astronaut corps and the way NASA operates paints a fascinating picture of what it’s like to be an astronaut now – and what it would have been like to train for that journey from Earth to the Moon.
Frame image by James Blair / NASA