Four astronauts from the Artemis II mission have been selected to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, according to an announcement from the US space agency. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will be presented with the medal on 28 August at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The selection was made by President Donald Trump following a recommendation from Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman.
The Artemis II crew completed a 10-day lunar flyby mission that began on 1 April, during which they established a new record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth. The crew reached 252,756 miles from Earth while passing above the lunar surface, surpassing the previous record of 248,655 miles set during the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. Jeremy Hansen, who is from Canada, made history as the first non-US citizen to travel to the moon.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is among the most prestigious recognitions in the US space program. According to Nasa’s records, only 30 astronauts have received the award, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. The medal has also been posthumously awarded to astronauts who were killed in the Apollo 1 fire and the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle explosions. The most recent recipients prior to the Artemis II crew were Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, who received the medal in 2023 after becoming the first astronauts to launch into orbit on a commercial spacecraft in 2020.
The medal ceremony is scheduled to be streamed live beginning at 11am Eastern time through Nasa’s website. The recognition comes approximately four months after the astronauts visited the White House for a celebration of their mission achievements.
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