As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) prepares for its first crewed mission in more than half a century, Artemis II crew member Reid Wiseman had one of the most difficult conversations with his daughters.
The 50-year-old discussed his own death plan with his teenage daughters.
He is a single father and raised Ellie and Katherine after the death of his wife, who lost her life to cancer in 2020.
Before heading to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, he took his daughters for a walk and mentally prepared them not to return from the 10-day lunar flyby mission.
Wiseman said, “This is where the will is, this is where the trust documents are, and if something happens to me, this is what happens to you.”
“I actually wish more people in everyday life would talk to their families that way because you never know what the next day will bring,” he added.
The mission is scheduled to launch from Florida on Wednesday, April 1. The crew includes three more members named Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The crew will make the trip around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, the first human mission to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Wiseman said that while his daughters initially had “no interest” in launching again after spending five months on the International Space Station in 2014, they eventually came around after discussing the importance of the mission with him, even baking him moon-themed cupcakes the next morning.
She acknowledged that the hardest thing is “the stress” she is imposing on her daughters.
