The crew of the historic Artemis II lunar mission will receive one of the highest honors in US space history. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
The ceremony is scheduled for 28 August at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA said the four astronauts were selected for the award after a recommendation from NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
The honor is among the most respected awards given to US astronauts. NASA records show that only 30 astronauts have received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Past recipients include Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, and John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth. Glenn later served four terms in the US Senate.
The Artemis II crew made history during their 10 day mission. The flight began on 1 April and sent the four astronauts around the Moon before returning them safely to Earth.
During the mission, the crew travelled farther from Earth than any humans before them. They reached about 252,756 miles, or 406,771km, from Earth while flying above the lunar surface.
That distance broke the record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970. Apollo 13 had reached about 248,655 miles from Earth.
The Artemis II mission is part of NASA’s wider Artemis program. The program aims to return astronauts to the Moon and build experience for future human missions to Mars.
The mission also made history for Canada. Jeremy Hansen became the first non-US citizen to travel to the Moon.
The astronauts returned to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The landing ended a mission that had required years of training and preparation.
After the safe return, Wiseman spoke about the challenge of the flight. He said the mission felt like a great dream before launch, but being in space also made the crew think about returning home to family and friends.
The medal ceremony will take place four months after the crew visited the White House. President Donald Trump hosted the astronauts there in April and praised their achievement.
The upcoming ceremony will recognize the crew’s role in a major step in US lunar exploration. Their mission helped test the systems needed for future Artemis flights.
NASA has listed an 11am Eastern start time for the ceremony. The agency also plans to provide a live video stream of the event.
The award comes as NASA faces debate over its future budget. The Trump administration has proposed a 23% cut to NASA’s budget for the 2027 fiscal year. The proposal also includes a major reduction in funding for space science.
A House subcommittee later advanced its own NASA budget plan. The proposal would protect several science projects targeted for cuts under the administration’s plan.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor has also been awarded to astronauts who died during major space disasters. Previous recipients include astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire and the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents.
Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken were the most recent astronauts to receive the medal before the Artemis II crew. In 2020, Hurley and Behnken became the first astronauts to launch into orbit aboard a commercial spacecraft.
They received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2023 during Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Artemis II award adds four more names to a short list of astronauts recognized for historic achievements. Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will now join a group that includes some of the most famous figures in human spaceflight.
Their record setting lunar journey has also strengthened the next stage of NASA’s Moon program. The mission showed that astronauts can travel around the Moon and return safely, providing important experience for future human exploration.
For the four Artemis II astronauts, the medal will mark a major moment in a mission that set new distance records and opened another chapter in lunar exploration.
