Common Questions

Who is Reid Wiseman?

Reid Wiseman is a NASA astronaut and US Navy test pilot commanding Artemis II. He previously spent 165 days on the ISS during Expedition 41 in 2014.Source: NASA astronaut biography

Why was Reid Wiseman chosen to command Artemis II?

Wiseman was selected for his test-pilot background and prior spaceflight experience. NASA announced the Artemis II crew in April 2023.Source: NASA crew announcement, April 2023

Has Reid Wiseman been to space before?

Yes. He served on ISS Expedition 41 in 2014, spending 165 days in orbit and conducting three spacewalks.Source: NASA mission records

Background

Reid Wiseman commanded Artemis II, which launched on 1 April 2026 and splashed down on 10 April, completing the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit in more than fifty years. At the post-flight press conference on 16 April at JSC, Wiseman described the heat shield as looking "wonderful" but acknowledged "a little loss of charred material on the shoulder" and pledged the crew would Conduct a "fine-tooth comb" inspection of every atom of the shield. He also described the lofted re-entry trajectory as the first crewed lofted lunar return.

Wiseman is a US Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut (class of 2009) who previously commanded Expedition 41 on the ISS in 2014, accumulating 165 days in orbit. His test-pilot background was directly relevant to the manual Proximity operations demonstration in which the crew flew Orion to within approximately 10 metres of the upper stage.

As commander, Wiseman was the public face of NASA's human return to cislunar space and the individual accountable for crew safety through the heat shield uncertainty that shadowed the mission. His acknowledgement of shoulder char loss at the post-flight conference is the most specific crew assessment of heat shield performance publicly available.