The four astronauts who flew NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon have received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the highest United States award for achievement in human spaceflight.
Four crew members honored in Houston
President Donald Trump presented the medals on August 28 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The recipients were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, together with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Artemis II launched on April 1 and returned safely to the Pacific Ocean on April 10. The 10-day flight was the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program and carried people beyond the Moon for the first time in more than five decades. It also marked the first crewed test of the Orion spacecraft in deep space.
Why the award is significant
Congress authorized the medal in 1969 to recognize astronauts whose work involves exceptional courage, merit or contributions to the country and humanity. NASA says 34 people have now received it, including members of the Apollo program and the crews lost in the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters.
The recognition also highlights the international structure of the Artemis program. Hansen was the first Canadian to travel beyond low-Earth orbit, while Glover became the first Black astronaut to fly on a lunar mission. Koch previously set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
What Artemis II accomplished
The mission was designed to test Orion’s life-support, communications, navigation and re-entry systems with astronauts aboard. Flying around the Moon allowed NASA to evaluate the spacecraft far from Earth before attempting more complex missions.
Although the medals celebrate the crew, the flight depended on thousands of engineers, technicians, flight controllers and international partners. The next milestones will depend on how NASA applies data from the mission to later Artemis flights and plans for sustained lunar exploration.
Source: NASA’s August 28, 2026 news release. Photo: NASA, a United States government work, credited to NASA.
Edin Pula
Edin Pula is the editor responsible for reviewing and publishing content at Smashology Media. He oversees sourcing, fact-checking, corrections, and editorial standards across coverage of internet culture, technology, entertainment, news, and crime.
