NASA astronaut Victor Glover, recently named as the pilot of the Artemis II mission around the Moon, listens to Gil Scott-Heron’s poem “Whitey on the Moon” twice a week on the way to work.

In the 1970 spoken-word poem, Scott-Heron criticizes investment in space when black people in the U.S. couldn’t afford health care.

Was all that money I made las’ year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain’t no money here?
(Hm! Whitey’s on the moon)
Y’know I jus’ ’bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)

A memorable scene captures this dissonance by juxtaposing the Apollo 1 disaster, in which a fire killed three astronauts during preflight testing, with people protesting NASA’s program — all set to a rousing reading of musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron’s work “Whitey on the Moon.”

Glover also believes that it’s important to listen to the spaceflight skeptics, those who don’t see the utility in sending people to space or spending money on those efforts.