Reid Wiseman felt a little jealous about the tree that he and his crewmates helped dedicate on U.S. Capitol grounds on Tuesday (June 4).
The NASA astronaut, who is assigned to command Artemis 2, the next mission to fly humans to the moon after a more than 50 year hiatus, was, in a way, beaten to the punch by the sapling. Wiseman will not launch until late 2025, at the earliest.
"That little sweetgum has been to the moon and it has come back and it is now sitting here," said Wiseman, who was joined at the tree planting ceremony by his three fellow moon-bound astronauts, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. "I think about this tree growing maybe about 'that tall' as we are finished with Artemis 2 and we're back."
Related: NASA's Artemis 2 mission: Everything you need to know
