Science
Artemis II astronauts to receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor
The four crew members who completed a record-setting lunar flyby will be awarded the highest US space honor at Johnson Space Center.
The short version
- President Donald Trump will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four Artemis II astronauts on August 28 at Johnson Space Center.
- The crew completed a 10-day lunar flyby in April, breaking the human distance record from Earth previously set during Apollo 13.
- Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency will be among the recipients as the first non-US citizen to fly to the moon.
- The award brings the total number of individuals to receive the honor to 34.
Key facts
- The Artemis II crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on August 28 in Houston.[NASA News · Fox News · The Guardian]
- During their 10-day mission that launched on April 1 and splashed down on April 10, the crew reached 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.[Fox News · The Guardian]
- Jeremy Hansen became the first non-US citizen to travel to the moon.[The Guardian]
- Only 30 astronauts had previously received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor since its creation by Congress in 1969, expanding the recipient list to 34.[Fox News · The Guardian]
- NASA is targeting the Artemis III mission in 2027 to test lunar landers in low Earth orbit, followed by a planned crewed lunar landing during Artemis IV in 2028.[Fox News]
What remains uncertain
- The future trajectory of NASA's budget remains subject to congressional action following an administration proposal to reduce funding by 23% for fiscal year 2027.[The Guardian]