The Artemis II astronauts broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans on Monday, becoming the first to lay eyes on some parts of the far side of the moon.
The four-person crew, captained by Reid Wiseman, spotted several craters that didn't yet have names. They decided to propose some, in hopes of making a personal — and heartfelt — mark on the moon.
Here is a labeled image so you can see the craters more clearly! pic.twitter.com/H2dHIdKXcv
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) April 7, 2026
Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, on the line with mission control, suggested that the first crater be named after their spacecraft, "Integrity." For the second, they suggested Carroll, in honor of Wiseman's wife, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 46.
"A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one … her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie," Hansen said into the radio, surrounded by his crew members, in a video shared by NASA.
He said the crater is in a "really neat place on the moon," one that will be visible from Earth during certain specific lunar transits.
"It's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it 'Carroll,'" said an audibly emotional Hansen, as Wiseman stretched out a supportive arm and Christina Koch wiped tears from her eyes.
All four astronauts floated toward each other for a hug, and stayed locked in a group embrace as mission control observed nearly a full minute of silence.
"Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear," the voice on the other end ultimately responded. "Thank you."
The craters aren't officially christened just yet: NASA says once the mission is complete, it will formally submit the proposals to the International Astronomical Union, the organization that governs "the naming of celestial bodies and their surface features."
Wiseman calls solo parenting his greatest challenge and reward
A registered nurse, Carroll Wiseman worked in the intensive care unit for newborns and later as a school nurse near Houston, Texas, where they relocated for her husband's job.
Reid Wiseman has said in interviews that when Carroll first got sick, he wanted them to move back north to be closer to family in Virginia and Maryland.
"But she said, 'No, this is where you work and you love your job. And we should not give that up for this,'" he told Baltimore Magazine in January.
In 2023, three years after Carroll's death, Wiseman was chosen as the commander for the Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight to the moon in over half a century.
"It was like I was carrying a legacy of her along and … continuing to go down this path that we had forged for 17 years together," Wiseman told The Times last year. "I honor her every single day, every single minute."
Wiseman is a 27-year Navy veteran and pilot who was chosen by NASA as an astronaut in 2009. He's already been to space once: He spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station in 2014, performing two spacewalks and conducting over 300 scientific experiments with his crewmates.
But, his NASA biography says: "Despite a long list of professional accolades, Reid considers his time as an only parent as his greatest challenge and the most rewarding phase of his life."
Wiseman has said that his daughters, who were young teens when their mom died, had long-held reservations about him launching into space.
But, as he told Baltimore Magazine: "When I said, 'This is something that I want to go do, it's important to me, and I think I can do a good job at this,' they were aligned very quickly."
"I want my kids to know that you can still achieve and go on and pick yourself up," he added.
Wiseman told NASA's "Curious Universe" podcast earlier this year that the morning after he told them the news of his selection in 2023, he woke up to his older daughter making moon cupcakes for the family.
"And she was the one that was, I think, most against this for her life," he said. "I thought that was amazing. Like here these two kids I thought were gonna pull me, but they were pushing me … I will never forget that, like that is exactly the way you want to feel as a parent."
One of Wiseman's last social media posts before Wednesday's launch was an ultrawide 0.5-lens selfie — a favorite camera angle of Gen Z — alongside his smiling daughters in front of the rocket that is now carrying him through space.
"I love these two ladies, and I'm boarding that rocket a very proud father," he wrote.
How moon features get their names
Lunar features, such as craters, valleys, mountains and seas, are typically named after late scientists, explorers or engineers, according to NASA.
Astronauts can propose those names themselves, like Jim Lovell did when he named a triangular mountain Mount Marilyn after his wife during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.
Throughout the Apollo missions, NASA informally named various craters and mountains on the moon as shorthand for important landmarks near each landing site: Shorty, St. George, Stone Mountain, and so on. Other smaller craters were named after the living crew members of the Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 missions, as well as deceased astronauts and NASA employees.
But names aren't official until they're approved by the International Astronomical Union. The Paris-based NGO is the sole entity responsible for approving names for features of the moon and other solar system bodies.
Its "Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature" follows about a dozen naming rules and conventions.
For example, it prohibits names with political, military or religious significance, "except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century." Naming features after individuals "may be employed in special circumstances," it says, as long as they have been deceased for at least three years.
Once the union approves a name, it becomes official — on maps, in publications and in the official Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
The name approval process generally takes about a month, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but it could take longer in some cases. Mount Marilyn wasn't officially approved until 2017, half a century after Lovell suggested it.
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