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April 6 marked a historic day in space exploration — and an unforgettable emotional moment for the crew of Artemis II.
During a lunar flyby that shattered a decades-old record, Commander Reid Wiseman and his crewmates — Mission Pilot Victor Glover, Crew Specialist Christina Hammock Koch and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — discovered two unnamed craters on the moon.
One of them now carries a deeply personal name proposal: Carroll, in honor of Wiseman’s late wife who died of cancer six years ago.
A Record-Breaking Day for Artemis II
On April 6, the four-member Artemis II crew surpassed the record distance from Earth of 248,655 miles on April 6. That record had stood since the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
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During the flyby, the crew spotted two unnamed, relatively fresh craters on the moon. The first, located between the craters Orientale and Ohm on the far side of the moon, was proposed to be named Integrity after their spacecraft.
The second was proposed to be named Carroll Crater
The crater names are not yet official. Proposals must be formally submitted to the International Astronomical Union, the governing body for naming celestial bodies and their surface features, after the mission concludes.
Why Did They Propose the Name Carroll Crater?
Hansen delivered the announcement about the Carroll crater, his voice cracking with emotion.
Wiseman wiped tears as Hansen spoke, then placed his hand on Hansen’s shoulder. All four crew members shared a group hug shortly after.
The moment was captured in a video posted to NASA’s Instagram account.
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Here is what Hansen said:
“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one. And there is a feature in a really neat place on the Moon, and it is on the nearside/farside boundary. In fact, it’s just on the nearside of that boundary, and so at certain times of the Moon’s transit around Earth, we will be able to see this from Earth.
“And so we lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie. And if you want to find this one, you look at Glushko, and it’s just to the northwest of that, at the same latitude as Ohm, and it’s a bright spot on the Moon. And we would like to call it Carroll.”
The Carroll crater sits near the boundary of the far side of the moon and is visible from Earth during certain times of the lunar cycle — a detail that makes the tribute all the more meaningful.
Who Was Carroll Wiseman?
Carroll Taylor Wiseman was a pediatric nurse practitioner who dedicated her career to caring for the youngest patients as a newborn intensive care unit registered nurse.
She died on May 17, 2020, at age 46 after a five-year battle with cancer, according to her obituary.
Reid Wiseman was 44 years old when he lost his wife. He has been a single father to his two daughters, Katey and Ellie, since Carroll’s passing — something he describes as his “greatest challenge and most rewarding phase of life.”
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Just before the mission launched, Wiseman shared a selfie on Instagram with his now-teenage daughters and the spacecraft, writing “I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father.”
Now, if the proposal is approved, a bright spot on the moon will carry Carroll Wiseman’s name — visible from the Earth she left behind and the family that still looks up.
