Technologies

‘Han Solo Wants to Be Me’: Artemis II’s Victor Glover on Flying the Orion

CNET spoke with the Artemis II astronaut and pilot about seeing parts of the moon that no other human has seen before and getting to manually fly a spacecraft.

Even if you’re 250,000 miles from Earth, sleep is important. However, for all the life-sustaining accoutrements aboard the Orion spacecraft, the capsule lacked bedrooms, leaving the four-person Artemis II crew with a truly bizarre sleeping arrangement.

«I slept really close to an air conditioning vent. And so I’d wake up and I just see this big hunk of metal,» Glover told CNET during a video call. «And it was like, ‘Oh, I’m in space. I am weightless.'»

Sleep wasn’t just a means for the astronauts to recharge; it also grounded them during their historic journey. Glover explained, «What really resonated with me is we’re also humans. It’s like camping, and this is a very important part of this journey.»

Artemis II was the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years. It followed Artemis I, a 2022 uncrewed mission that was the first for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The goal for Artemis II was to have a crew test the spacecraft, life support systems, the SLS rocket and the procedures needed for future lunar missions that will involve landing on the moon and eventually building a base there.

Glover, the Orion’s pilot, along with commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, made up the Artemis II crew. The mission made a lot of history. It’s the first time a woman, a Black man or a Canadian has journeyed to the moon. The four Artemis II astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any other human being, surpassing the record set by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.

This wasn’t Glover’s first time in space. In 2020, with a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff, he piloted the Crew Dragon capsule to and from the International Space Station for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, spending over 167 days in space. But Artemis II gave Glover the opportunity to be the first to fly the Orion, a new vehicle designed for Artemis missions. For the majority of the nearly 10-day journey, Orion was on autopilot. But Glover had several opportunities to take manual control of the spacecraft to test its handling.

«It was such a treat and a joy,» Glover said about flying the Orion. «It was a test pilot’s dream to fly a new spaceship for the first time by hand.»

Even after spending time training to fly in a simulator back on Earth, he was surprised by how responsive the Orion’s hand controller was and by the clarity of the cameras, used to maneuver the craft around the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that holds the fuel for the upper stage of liftoff. He said the view from the cameras and monitors was like «looking out a window.»

When I asked Glover if he felt like Han Solo when piloting the Orion, he retorted, «Han Solo wants to be me when he grows up!» Throughout my interview, Glover was gracious, passionate and funny.

«I get to do stuff that’s cooler than Han Solo. I mean, just the fact that it’s real, it’s better.»

While landing on the moon wasn’t in the cards for this trip, the Orion crew traveled about 4,000 miles beyond the moon, allowing them to see parts of the moon that had never been seen before. For comparison, Apollo missions flew about 70 miles above the moon to make landings, limiting how much of it they could actually see.

The images that Glover and the crew took of the moon were stunning. Shots like the Earthset were a reminder of how beautiful our planet is and our place within the solar system. The astronauts even witnessed a total solar eclipse as they rounded the far side of the moon. But none of the photos they took compares to what they saw, according to Glover.

«I could see the curvature of the moon. Depth is just one aspect that you cannot see in the pictures. But here’s the other thing, the pictures lack scale.»

For the lunar flyby, the Orion was moving fast: 60,863 mph relative to Earth, but only 3,139 mph relative to the moon, according to NASA. The speed meant the shadows across the surface were constantly morphing into different shapes. Glover was particularly enamored with the moon’s terminator, where the light and dark sides of the moon meet. The terminator isn’t fixed and depends on the moon’s position relative to the sun. As Orion moved, it transformed into various shapes that looked like letters of the alphabet.

«People know, I fell in love with the terminator when I got to see the real one up close. I watched the terminator go from a letter C to a letter D, which means there was a point when the moon was half light, half dark. It was pointing right at me.»

Artemis II’s lunar flyby was a highlight of the journey for many of us on Earth, in part because we could watch it in real time on streaming services like Netflix. Nearly the entire mission was streamed live on NASA’s website and YouTube channel, making it feel like a reality show. One minute you’re watching the crew eat, work out, take photos of the moon; the next, there’s a random jar of Nutella floating by one of the cameras. I asked Glover whether it felt like he was on a TV show while on the Orion.

«It did not feel like a reality show on my end,» said Glover. «For you to see the science and hear us describing the moon, and to see us flying the spaceship by hand, and to see bedtime and bath time and teeth brush time, that’s what it’s like. The mission was all of those things.»

Glover was ecstatic to hear how I and others felt so connected to the crew during their mission. He said it was important to NASA to let the world in on everything it took to send four people a quarter of a million miles away.

«I think that maybe one of the really, most special things about this mission is how much you were able to see,» Glover said with a smile. «It makes me feel good that you felt like you were there.»

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal

Technologies

Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to ‘drive into standing water’

Waymo issued a voluntary recall of about 3,800 of its robotaxis to fix software issues that could allow them to drive into flooded roadways.

Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway,” according to a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
The voluntary recall is for Waymo vehicles that use the company’s fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems (or ADS), the U.S. auto safety regulator said in the letter posted Tuesday.
Waymo autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, were seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling, requiring other drivers to navigate around them. It’s the latest example of a safety-related issue for the Alphabet-owned AV unit that’s rapidly bolstering its fleet of vehicles and entering new U.S. markets.
Waymo has drawn criticism for its vehicles failing to yield to school buses in Austin, and for the performance of its vehicles during widespread power outages in San Francisco in December, when robotaxis halted in traffic, causing gridlock.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways,” and opted to file a “voluntary software recall” with the NHTSA.
“Waymo provides over half a million trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments across the U.S., and safety is our primary priority,” the company said.
Waymo added that it’s working on “additional software safeguards” and has put “mitigations” in place, limiting where its robotaxis operate during extreme weather, so that they avoid “areas where flash flooding might occur” in periods of intense rain.
WATCH: Waymo launches new autonomous system in Chinese-made vehicle

Technologies

Qualcomm tumbles 13% as semiconductor stocks retreat from historic AI-fueled surge

Semiconductor equities reversed sharply after a broad AI-driven advance, with Qualcomm suffering its worst day since 2020 amid inflation concerns and rising oil prices.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, reversing course after an extensive rally that had expanded the artificial intelligence investment theme well past Nvidia and driven the industry to unprecedented levels.

Qualcomm plunged 13% and was on track for its steepest single-day decline since 2020. Intel shed 8%, while On Semiconductor and Skyworks Solutions each lost more than 6%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which benchmarks the overall sector, fell 5%.

The sell-off came after a key gauge of consumer prices came in above forecasts, and as conflict in Iran pushed crude oil higher—prompting investors to shift away from riskier assets.

The preceding advance had widened the AI opportunity set beyond longtime industry leader Nvidia, which for much of the past several years had largely carried the market to new peaks on its own.

Explosive appetite for central processing units, along with the graphics processing units that power large language models, has sent chipmakers to all-time highs.

Market participants are wagering that the shift from AI model training to autonomous agents will lift demand for additional AI hardware. Among the beneficiaries are memory chip producers, which are raising prices as supply remains tight.

Micron Technology slid 6%, and Sandisk cratered 8%. Sandisk’s stock has surged more than six times over since January.