Reid Wiseman comes home to Baltimore County, months after moon mission

Astronaut Reid Wiseman and his Artemis II crew splashed down from their historic journey around the moon more than five months ago. But it wasn’t until Friday that the Cockeysville native truly returned home.

Wiseman served as grand marshal of the homecoming parade at his alma mater, Timonium’s Dulaney High School, part of a daylong celebration of the Baltimore County son who commanded the first crewed flight to the moon in over 50 years.

Among the hundreds who lined the parade route along East Padonia Road were families gathered in lawn chairs, teens wearing Dulaney red, a young girl in an orange spacesuit and a toddler waiving pom-poms. Outside the high school, which marked the end of the half-mile parade route, stood a sign in cardboard block letters that read “WELCOME BACK REID.”

Wiseman, dressed in a blue NASA spacesuit, rode in an orange Jeep that trailed the marching band. He high-fived the lion mascot, shook hands with the homecoming prince and princess, and tossed out Artemis II mission patches like frisbees. All along the route, he was met with screams, cheers and applause.

Later, the 50-year-old stood on a stage to deliver brief remarks, mobbed by people hoisting camera phones and signs, his speech frequently interrupted as he spotted old classmates and neighbors in the crowd.

“We were a quarter million miles away. Earth was the size of our thumb. And, when you’re that far away, the only thing that counts is where you’re from and your friends and your family,” Wiseman said.

Among those standing near the front of the stage was Karen Cirrincione, a classmate who once played in the marching band with Wiseman.

“The kid who sits next to you in class is then doing that,” she said of watching Wiseman travel to the moon. “It’s amazing. It couldn’t happen to a better person.”

Others shared personal connection with Wiseman but, like many across the country, were captivated by the Artemis II mission.

“I’ve been a space nerd all my life, and I was infatuated with following the story while they were in space,” Harford County resident Eric Mahala said. “I just thought it was worth coming out to try and get a chance to meet him.”

Wiseman, who will step back this month from flight duties and into an emeritus role, has lived for the last 17 years in Houston. He is visiting Maryland for the first time since Artemis II launched him to national celebrity, enjoying crabs with Gov. Wes Moore in Annapolis on Wednesday and visiting with Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. on Thursday, his father, Bill Wiseman said.

A passionate Baltimore sports fan, Reid Wiseman is also scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Orioles game Saturday and lead pregame festivities at the Ravens’ home opener Sunday.

“He’s been running crazy, but I’m overjoyed with the fact that he’s home,” Bill Wiseman said this week in a call from his Cockeysville home.

Reid Wiseman is a 1993 Dulaney graduate and a former member of the school’s Russian club and golf team. He offered a glimpse of his ambitions when he captioned the photo in his senior yearbook, “FUTURE PLANS: Fly high.”

He served as a Navy pilot, deploying twice during the Iraq War, and as a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. NASA selected him for astronaut training in 2009.

Wiseman’s first spaceflight came five years later, when he spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station. In one photo he sent from space, he wore a red T-shirt with “DULANEY” across the chest in white block letters.

This spring, Wiseman and Artemis II crewmates Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen journeyed about 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any humans before, looping around the moon in a figure eight and capturing unprecedented views of the lunar far side.

The mission captured the nation in part because of poignant moments the four astronauts shared with the world. One of those occurred when the crew proposed naming a lunar crater after Wiseman’s wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the Artemis II crew at the end of August.

Dulaney alumni, students and teachers cheered Wiseman at each step of the trip. Some of his childhood friends traveled to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center for the April 1 launch. Hundreds packed Dulaney’s auditorium April 10 to watch the crew’s return, bursting into applause as their capsule parachuted safely into the Pacific Ocean.

Wiseman has maintained close ties with his high school over the years, visiting after he returned from the International Space Station, taking questions from students and sharing videos and pictures of his time with NASA. He spoke at two assemblies before Friday’s parade.

Along the route, the orange Jeep passed Reid Wiseman Way, a new honorary name given to the intersection of Padonia and Treherne roads. Seeing the street sign for the first time, Wiseman flashed a thumbs-up.

Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier presented Wiseman with an enlarged replica of the sign.

“For the kids that are here, when you work hard and never stop reaching for the stars, you can truly accomplish anything,” Klausmeier said.