As the astronauts of Artemis II traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, they paused.
Speaking solemnly, they called down to mission control to request that an unnamed crater on the moon be dedicated to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020. She was 46.
Carroll Wiseman, a pediatric nurse practitioner, had two daughters, Ellie and Katherine, with Mr. Wiseman.
According to The Sunday Times, Mr. Wiseman was ready to give up his dream of becoming an astronaut when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. But she refused to let him.
In his NASA bio, Mr. Wiseman characterized his time as an only parent as the most challenging, but also the most rewarding, phase of his life.
The agency appointed Mr. Wiseman commander of the Artemis II mission in 2023. But his immediate reaction was not excitement. Instead, he worried about sharing the news with his children.
His elder daughter, Ellie, responded to the mission assignment by baking moon-shaped cupcakes for the family.
“These two kids, I thought, were going to pull me, but they were pushing me,” Mr. Wiseman said in NASA’s Curious Universe podcast. “That is exactly the way you want to feel as a parent.”
As the crew approached its lunar flyby on Monday, the mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen, called down to mission control in Houston to request the naming of Carroll Crater. The crater straddles the boundary between the moon’s near and far sides, and can at times be seen from Earth.
“It’s a bright spot on the moon,” Mr. Hansen said, his voice breaking up, “and we would like to call it Carroll.”
The astronauts wiped their eyes and shared a hug. The flight controllers on Earth, with Mr. Wiseman’s family nearby, observed a moment of silence.
When aspiring astronauts join NASA’s training program, their families join a support network known as the Astronaut Spouses Group. This happens long before a mission is assigned, and can lead to intimate bonds across families.
“A number of years ago we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” Mr. Hansen said during the dedication.
Before the launch, Mr. Wiseman posted a selfie on X with his two daughters in front of NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket, which blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday with Mr. Wiseman and his crew in tow.
“I love these two ladies,” his caption read, “and I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father.”
Katrina Miller is a science reporter for The Times based in Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.
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