The four astronauts who completed NASA’s historic Artemis II mission are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, recognising their role in returning humans to deep space for the first time since the Apollo era.
US President Donald Trump will present the medals to NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on 28 August.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is one of the United States’ highest honours for astronauts and recognises exceptional contributions to the welfare of the nation and humanity through spaceflight.
The award follows the Artemis II mission, which sent the four-person crew on a nearly 10-day journey around the moon aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
The mission marked the first crewed flight beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first operational test of Orion with astronauts on board. The crew travelled farther from Earth than any humans in history during the mission, setting a new benchmark for crewed spaceflight.
Artemis II represents a major milestone in NASA’s broader Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on and around the moon while developing the technologies and operational experience required for future missions to Mars.
Wiseman served as mission commander, with Glover as pilot and Koch and Hansen as mission specialists. Hansen’s participation also marked a significant milestone for international cooperation, with the Canadian astronaut becoming the first non-American to travel beyond low-Earth orbit.
NASA said the medal ceremony will take place at 11am EDT and will be attended by the President, NASA leadership and the Artemis II crew. The recognition places Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen among a select group of astronauts honoured for exceptional achievements in spaceflight.
For NASA and its international partners, the Artemis II mission demonstrated that human exploration of deep space has moved from ambition to reality once again.
With the mission successfully completed, attention will now increasingly turn towards the next phase of the Artemis program and the development of the infrastructure, spacecraft and capabilities needed to support a sustained return to the lunar environment.
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