Trump awards Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II crew: Here’s everything to know

President Donald Trump honored the four Artemis II astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for their historic lunar voyage.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christiana Koch and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen received the Congressional Medal of Honor today for their remarkable mission.

NASA crew members were the first astronauts to lift on the administration's SLS vehicle.

Over the course of their record-breaking deployment, the astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth farther than any humans have traveled before- exceeding the previous record set by the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.

In this connection, Trump said: “We gather on these historic grounds to celebrate the immense courage of four intrepid space heroes whose sense of daring and adventure led them further from Earth than anyone has ever traveled ever before.”

“Today we’re proudly awarding the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the remarkable crew of Artemis II. These astronauts did not do it alone. I want to salute all of the engineers, scientists, launch and landing specialists, and everyone at NASA who helped make this mission a great success.”

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was established by Congress in 1969 to commend astronauts who have excelled through outstanding bravery in the face of danger and delivering significant contributions for the nation.

The first crewed mission under NASA's Artemis program opened the door for the 2027 Artemis III test flight in low Earth orbit to verify orbital rendezvous and interfacing functionality and the Artemis IV mission in 2028 which will return American astronauts to the lunar surface.