Four Artemis II Astronauts to Receive America's Highest Space Honor

A Record-Breaking Journey Earns a Historic Honor

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, became the first humans to travel around the Moon in more than half a century — and now they're about to be recognized for it in the most formal way possible. President Donald Trump will award each of the Artemis II crew members the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, August 28, during a ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

At their farthest point, the crew traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, according to NASA. Let that sink in — a record that had stood for 56 years was shattered. The astronauts covered 695,081 miles during their nearly 10-day mission, which began April 1 when NASA's Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 8.8 million pounds of thrust.

What They Actually Did Up There

The four made history in April aboard Artemis II, the first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the first mission to take astronauts around the Moon in more than half a century. This wasn't a routine orbital jaunt. After testing Orion's systems in space, the crew headed toward the Moon and passed within 4,067 miles of the lunar surface during an April 6 flyby. They splashed down safely to end the record-breaking flight on April 10.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said after the crew's return that the astronauts had accepted "significant risk" while testing the spacecraft and systems intended to carry future crews deeper into space. That candid acknowledgment speaks volumes. These four weren't flying a proven machine — they were the ones proving it, for everyone who comes after them. Trump, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, and the Artemis II crew are all expected to attend the August 28 ceremony.

An Exclusive Club With Legendary Members

The medal they will receive has roots in the Apollo era. Congress authorized the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1969, declaring that America's space program relied on the "intelligence, the dedication, the bravery, and the self-sacrifice" of astronauts who flew missions into the "hostile environment of space." Under the law, the president awards the medal in the name of Congress to astronauts who distinguish themselves through exceptionally meritorious contributions to the nation and mankind.

NASA says the medal has been awarded to only a "very select group" of astronauts, and its official list includes just 30 recipients — among them Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell. The Artemis II crew will now join those legends, a fitting symmetry given that their mission picked up the torch that Apollo 17 set down in 1972. Trump had spoken to the crew while they were in space during their historic lunar flyby and hosted them in the Oval Office after their return to Earth.

A Stepping Stone to Something Even Bigger

The ceremony on August 28 is more than a moment of celebration — it's a marker of momentum. The Artemis program was designed from the start to do what Apollo could not: establish a lasting human presence beyond Earth orbit. The Artemis II mission proved the hardware works and that humans can safely venture to lunar distances again. With Artemis III already in planning, the four astronauts being honored next week didn't just break a record — they reopened a door that had been closed for more than five decades.

For a generation that grew up hearing about the Moon landings as ancient history, watching a sitting president hand out the nation's highest space honor to a crew that just flew around the Moon is a powerful reminder: the era of deep space exploration isn't a memory. It's just getting started again.