Sex symbol was unwittingly made by astronaut Victor Glover, one of the four crew members of Artemis II, who, in the next few hours, will be on the unseen side of the Moon as part of NASA’s historic mission to return to the Moon.

The man in question is Victor Glover, who was recorded taking a space shower inside Orion, the space capsule carrying the four astronauts.

In the live broadcast from inside the Orion spacecraft, the 49-year-old American was cleaned up with a “sanitary towel” – the equivalent of a wet wipe for spaceflight – after a workout, with several of those watching the minute-by-minute journey to the moon impressed by Glover’s toned body.

The video continued to the point where Glover began cleaning his feet as the control centre in Houston realised the transmission was showing more than enough of the lives of the astronauts on the Artemis II mission.

The operator said to the crew while interrupting the live transmission, “Thank you, not knowing your preference, we had a video of Victor, which we stopped.”

Some jokingly referred to Buff Lightyear, with others writing, “Astronaut Victor Glover is in shape. Please let him get enough exercise.” Another commented with a muscle emoji, writing “one rep for a man, a whole set for humanity,” with one woman writing “ladies please, he’s a married man. But I understand.”

Victor Glover, The mission pilot who “knows everything” and is from Iraq found himself on the ISS

Born on April 30, 1976, in California, at the age of 10, he saw the space shuttle launch and recalls how “I was fascinated by this machine and thought ‘wow, I’d like to drive it'”. Despite his fascination with space travel from an early age, Glover didn’t always dream of becoming an astronaut. He describes himself as a child who was “addicted to adrenaline”, the son of parents who encouraged his curiosity and interests. “I wanted to be a stuntman, a policeman like my father, a firefighter, or a race car driver,” he told NPR.

In high school, he excelled in athletics, from football to wrestling, and had an aptitude for math and science. However, Robin Ikeda, who taught him biology, states that at the time Victor seemed to have sports as his priority most of the time: “I remember the maths teacher pulling his hair out in agony. He would come to my class and tell me, “I know Victor has a lot of respect for you. You need to talk to him. He needs to do his best in math. He’s not living up to his potential.”

“He could do very well in biology. But he was only interested in science and math. I couldn’t talk him out of it,” says Ikeda, who is now a retired university professor.

Ikeda, who remains in close contact with Glover, says he was separate. Over the years, many of her students made promises, but “with Victor, it was that inner compass and self-awareness. I’ve never seen that level of self-awareness and confidence in a young person. He was very respectful, very serious, very funny, but not frivolous.”

When it came time to choose a university, the Navy was not in Glover’s plans and he had no interest in military academies. “I got offers for various sports and turned them down,” he recalls. He chose the Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo, California, which is among the top engineering schools in the U.S.

After graduation, he joined the Navy and thought about joining the SEALs, but his father suggested something else: “My dad said: ‘You know, with an engineering degree and a pilot’s degree in the Navy, you can try and be an astronaut.”

First, though, he had to fly a lot. As he progressed through the fighter jets, he earned the insignia “Ike” (I Know Everything) from his commander. Over the years, he flew in dozens of aircraft, from the Korean War-era MiG-15 to the Goodyear blimp. But his favorite is the one he flew over Iraq: the F/A-18. “That thing kept me alive through some tough times,” he recalls.

Glover earned a master’s degree in systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in 2009. He graduated with honors. He then made his first attempt to train as an astronaut, but NASA turned him down.

By 2013, Lt. Victor Glover, a test pilot with combat experience over Iraq, had moved away from aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and childhood dreams of space travel. He was on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide to Senator John McCain.

Then he got a call from NASA. However, he missed the first call and called back himself until the director of flight operations picked up and told him, “How would you like to come to Houston to start astronaut training?”. He says he doesn’t remember much of the conversation, but when he hung up the phone, he took a deep breath, “I look at myself and think I’m dreaming.”

It is worth noting that the process to join as an astronaut trainee is particularly difficult. Glover was one of eight selected in 2013 out of 6,300 applicants.

After completing astronaut training in 2015, he served as the space station’s Capsule Communications Officer (CapCom), a lead crew member of Mission 52, operations officer, and attendant on several Soyuz and Crew Dragon launches. In 2018, he participated in his first spaceflight as pilot of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and as flight engineer for Mission 64/65 on the International Space Station. Glover spent 168 days (16 November 2020 to 2 May 2021) in space, performing four spacewalks. Glover remembers feeling like he was orbiting a planet that seemed to be collapsing beneath his feet.”The country was in an uproar of discontent and frustration,” he says. He was in the space when the invasion of the US Capitol took place (January 2021). From his time working on Capitol Hill, he had met some of the Capitol Police officers. “My heart and thoughts were with my friends in Washington, D.C.,” he says.

One day while on the space station, Glover “took a lot of pictures as the sun rose, because I wanted to capture that moment just as the sun’s rays were penetrating the atmosphere,” he says. “I took a picture and sent it to all my friends to show them that I was thinking about them.” He added a quote from the Psalms: “Weeping may last a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Commander Wiseman had said of Glover that “what impresses me every day is how methodical and thoughtful he is. He doesn’t let any detail slip through his fingers.” “What is lost when you only see Victor as an astronaut is that you don’t see him as a human being, as a mentor,” he said.

Victor Glover is married to Diona Odom, and they have four children.