HOUSTON (AP) — In a deeply moving moment during their return journey from the moon, the Artemis II crew made an emotional tribute that left NASA ground controllers speechless.
Mission Commander Reid Wiseman and his three fellow astronauts requested permission to name two small lunar craters during their historic flight this week — one honoring their spacecraft “Integrity” and another dedicated to Wiseman’s deceased wife, Carroll.
Canadian crew member Jeremy Hansen made the heartfelt appeal just before Monday’s lunar flyby, as Wiseman was too overcome with emotion to speak himself.
Carroll Wiseman worked as a neonatal nurse before losing her battle with cancer in 2020.
The touching gesture echoes a tradition established during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, when astronaut Jim Lovell named a lunar mountain “Mount Marilyn” after his wife, who waited anxiously for his safe return to Houston during humanity’s inaugural moon voyage.
The current four-person crew represents the first humans to visit the moon since Apollo 17 concluded that remarkable era in 1972, making their crater-naming proposal a moment that temporarily stunned ground control.
“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”
Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young had worked secretly with the Artemis II team before their departure, helping them select the two bright, relatively recent craters that became visible to them through telescopic lenses and with the naked eye once they approached the moon.
The proposed Carroll Crater sits at the moon’s left edge where the near and far sides meet, occasionally becoming visible from Earth. According to Watkins, it measures roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide and has a relatively shallow depth. The somewhat larger Integrity crater lies entirely on the moon’s hidden far side.
The naming request occurred shortly after the crew surpassed Apollo 13’s record for the farthest human space travel. All four astronauts broke down in tears as they shared a group embrace.
“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen transmitted, his voice cracking with emotion. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”
Mission Control remained silent for almost a full minute before responding: “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”
This emotionally charged moment marked a significant departure from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s in multiple ways. NASA’s Apollo crews, composed entirely of male test pilots, typically maintained strict professionalism and rarely displayed such emotional vulnerability.
“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins explained. “I think we’re seeing just a more human aspect.”
Following their Earth landing later this week, the crew will formally submit both proposed names to the International Astronomical Union for official approval.
Mount Marilyn waited nearly five decades between Apollo 8’s mission and the union’s official recognition in 2017.
The IAU’s Ramasamy Venugopal assured a decision regarding Carroll and Integrity within approximately one month, which represents the standard timeframe “for straightforward requests.”
The organization’s approved list already includes 81 astronaut-designated lunar features, such as Apollo 16’s “Baby Ray” and “Gator,” plus Apollo 17’s “Lara,” named for the primary female character from the 1965 movie “Doctor Zhivago.”
However, not all Apollo-era nicknames received official status.
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, who holds the distinction of being the final person to walk on the moon, called a divided boulder “Tracy’s Rock” after his young daughter in 1972.
Similarly, in 1969, Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad playfully nicknamed his landing location “Pete’s Parking Lot.”
