8-26-2026 4:48am

Commander Wiseman

Jeff Barto Editor

Lots of fun was had on the National Book Festival's Main Stage Saturday morning with Kate McKinnon and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, a Dulaney grad.

If you didn't catch their sessions or couldn't make it to the festival at all, don't worry. The Main Stage YouTube livestream can be found at the link.

The Cockeysville native’s team traveled farther into space than any humans in history. Wiseman reflected on the voyage while speaking at a panel at the National Book Festival in D.C. on Saturday.

He described his expedition as one “with the three greatest human beings on this planet.”

Reid Wiseman

Reid Wiseman is a 27-year Navy veteran, a pilot, a father, an engineer and a Baltimore native. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2009 and served as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41 from May through November of 2014. During the 165-day mission, Reid and his crewmates completed over 300 scientific experiments in areas such as human physiology, medicine, physical science, Earth science and astrophysics. This was Reid’s first spaceflight, which also included almost 13 hours as lead spacewalker during two trips outside the orbital complex. Reid also fostered a strong social media presence throughout his mission by sharing the raw emotions of spaceflight as seen through the eyes of a rookie flier. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and a Master of Science in systems engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He served as chief of the Astronaut Office. Wiseman is the commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission. Artemis II’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on April 1, 2026, sending NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard the Orion spacecraft on an approximately 10-day test flight around the moon and back.