Artemis II Crew to Receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor for Lunar Mission
President Donald J. Trump will award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to NASA’s Artemis II crew following their successful 10-day lunar test flight, validating critical deep-space operational capabilities and cislunar platform readiness.
President Donald J. Trump will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four-person crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Joined by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the event will honor NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The crew successfully executed a historic 10-day flight around the Moon, completing the first crewed mission aboard the Orion spacecraft on April 10, 2026, and venturing farther into deep space than any human flight in history.
For defense, government, and aerospace enterprise leaders, the successful execution of the Artemis II flight test represents a major milestone in deep-space operational capability, cislunar mission assurance, and heavy-lift platform reliability. The mission serves as a critical operational validation of NASA's Space Launch System, Orion environmental control and life support systems, and deep-space command-and-control architectures. As cislunar space develops into a critical strategic domain for both civil exploration and national security posture, proving crewed system integrity and long-range operational maneuvering establishes key baselines for future defense space capabilities and space domain awareness.
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