Artemis II crew received top space medal after record moon flyby
What's next: The mission set up Artemis III docking tests next year, with a moon landing mission possible as soon as 2028.
The four Artemis II astronauts received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Friday after their April flight around the moon, the first crewed lunar voyage in more than 50 years. President Donald Trump presented the awards at Johnson Space Center in Houston to Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their mission flew within 4,067 miles of the moon while testing NASA’s Orion capsule and set a new distance record for human spaceflight. During the ceremony, Trump also rolled out plans for a U.S. Space Academy tied to the Space Force, NASA and commercial space companies.