President Donald Trump will award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on August 28, 2026, to the four crew members of the historic Artemis II lunar mission during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, recognizing their record-breaking flight around the Moon earlier this year.
Honoring a Record-Breaking Lunar Flight
The crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission have earned the US’s top space medal, officials have announced. Cmdr Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on 28 August, the US space agency Nasa said.
President Donald J. Trump will award each of NASA’s Artemis II crew members the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28, during a ceremony at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, completed a 10-day mission around the Moon on April 10.
During a historic test flight as the first astronauts to fly aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, these crew members were the first to travel beyond the Moon in more than 50 years and traveled farther in space than humans have ever before. The Artemis II crew broke Apollo 13’s record for farthest distance traveled from Earth during their 10-day mission, which began on 1 April. They reached 252,756 miles (406,771km) as they swung above the lunar surface, surpassing the 1970 record of 248,655 miles as part of US plans to again land on the moon – then eventually reach Mars. This was not easy,
Wiseman said to reporters after the Artemis II mission.
An Exclusive Ranks of Space Recipients
Nasa’s website indicates that only 30 astronauts have gained the honor – among them Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and John Glenn, who was first to orbit Earth and then served four terms in the US Senate. Other recipients include James Lovell, and posthumously the crews of Challenger and Columbia, as well as astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire. The last astronauts awarded the medal were Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who in 2020 became the first to launch to orbit on a commercial spacecraft.
Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were selected for the medal, despite its name, by Donald Trump after the Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, recommended them to the president. The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is a dedicated honor awarded to astronauts by the U.S. President. The medal has been awarded to astronauts since 1978.
Ceremony Details and Public Access
President Donald Trump is expected to be in Houston next week to award Congressional Space Medals of Honor to each of the crew members of the Artemis II mission, NASA announced on Friday. Trump, who spoke to the crew while they were in space on their historic lunar fly-by mission and hosted them in the Oval Office after their return to Earth, will award the medal in a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center on Aug. 28. Trump is also expected to take part in a Republican National Committee fundraiser in Houston the night before.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will join the President and astronauts in the awards ceremony. The event will stream live on a variety of platforms. In addition to pooled media, limited media credentialing is available for this event, with requests to be submitted online by 5 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Stepping Stone for the Artemis Program
The Artemis II moon mission conducts a historic lunar flyby, pushing boundaries of human deep space travel. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick emphasizes this mission as a crucial step for future interplanetary journeys, aiming for a permanent lunar base by 2028. Global excitement builds for space exploration as part of US plans to land on the moon again and eventually reach Mars.
