Jul 30, 2026 · 1 hr 19 min · 14 segments
The commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission slid into Hank’s DMs on Instagram asking to talk. Their conversation covers what it’s like to leave Earth behind, why astronauts need to be active followers…
Reid WisemanGuest
Hank GreenHost
People who follow me on YouTube will know that I was obsessed with the Artemis II mission, and in particular, the photographs that we received from it.
I made a whole, like, internet tool that organized the photos by what camera was used to take them, exactly when they were taken, and where the astronauts were in space when those photographs were captured.
And then a couple of days later, I got a message on Instagram, and it said, "We need to talk." It was from Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman.
[laughs] You will be unsurprised to hear I was interested in talking, and so we are.
Reid Wiseman, Baltimore kid, Navy fighter pilot, test pilot, selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009.
He spent 165 days on the International Space Station in 2014, where he got a little famous online for sharing some of the raw, rookie-eyed wonder of space flight.
In 2020, his wife Carol died of cancer, leaving him an only parent of his two daughters.
Seven months later, he became chief astronaut, which is the top job in the astronaut corps, and it is one that grounds you because you are the person assigning everyone else's flights.
Two years after that, he gave up that title for a chance, not a guarantee, at flying again.
This April, Reid was the commander of Artemis II, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years.
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