Reid Wiseman, a NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain, is currently hurtling through space aboard a small spacecraft, Integrity, along with his three crewmates.
The 50-year-old commander of the Artemis II mission has faced a long journey, both physically – travelling nearly 700,000 miles to the moon and back – and emotionally. He lost his wife, Carroll, in 2020 after a five-year-long battle with cancer.
Wiseman, now a single parent, considers his time as an astronaut and only parent simultaneously his “greatest challenge and the most rewarding phase of his life.”
The retired Navy Captain was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2009. Reid experienced his first spaceflight in 2014 as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station during a 165-day mission, where he helped complete over 300 scientific experiments while orbiting the globe.
According to NASA, Wiseman’s wife, Carroll, “dedicated her life to helping others as a newborn intensive care unit Registered Nurse.”
In a video released by NASA, Wiseman acknowledged the difficulty of losing his wife and subsequently raising two daughters while continuing to be an astronaut.
“By far, the biggest challenge was losing my wife in 2020 to cancer. And now, raising two daughters, who are grown up now, but that’s been the biggest challenge by far I’ve ever had to face.”
“It is not easy being an only parent, trying to work a full-time job, and raising two kids. It is something that I think about every single day.”
According to The Baltimore Banner, Wiseman stepped back from active flight duty while his wife was sick but returned to the flight rotation in November 2022.
Before the Artemis II mission, Wiseman explained that heading back to space, now as a single father, felt even more difficult, and required him to prepare his daughters, age 20 and 17, for the risks.
“I went on a walk with my kids, and 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 shared in a January news conference. “That’s just a part of this life.”
“My girls are my whole life,” he told Johns Hopkins Magazine.
On March 30, just two days before liftoff, commander Wiseman shared a photo of himself and his two daughters below the Artemis II rocket that would launch him and his three crewmates around the moon.
“I love these two ladies, and I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father,” he wrote.
Bill Wiseman, commander Reid’s father, was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in 2020. But he was determined to see his son fly to the moon. “I wanted to stay alive to see it,” Bill shared.
At 6:35 p.m. EST on April 1, Bill Wiseman got that chance, as Artemis II launched from Cape Canaveral on its 10-day journey around the moon.
On April 6, just after breaking the record for farthest distance any humans have traveled from Earth, Wiseman and his crewmates, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hanson, proposed naming a crater on the moon.
“It’s a bright spot on the moon,” Hanson described in a call back to Houston, “and we would like to call it Carroll.”
Wiseman later shared in an interview from space what that moment meant for him.
In a statement to the Daily Citizen, Glenn Lutjens, a licensed family therapist in Focus on the Family’s counseling department, shared advice for parents who find themselves suddenly single.
“Give your kids the freedom to grieve whatever losses they encounter in life,” Lutjens told us. “Also, encourage them to look at whatever is true beyond their pain.”
He added,
“Remember that if you’re a Christian, in a real sense, you do have a spouse,” Lutjens continued. “You are part of the bride of Christ! Depend on Him daily and let your kids know who He is.”
Please join us in continuing to pray for the four astronauts aboard Integrity as they’re scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 8:07 p.m. EST today.
To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).
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