US President Trump Awards Highest US Medal to Artemis II Astronauts

US President Donald J. Trump has awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission.

The awards were presented to Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Artemis II made history as the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis programme. The astronauts launched aboard NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and travelled around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity.

The crew travelled 252,756 miles from Earth, breaking the previous human distance record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970. The mission launched on April 1 and safely returned to Earth on April 10.

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is one of the highest honours given to astronauts. It recognises exceptional courage and service during space missions.

Reid Wiseman served as commander, Victor Glover as pilot, while Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen served as mission specialists.

NASA said the success of Artemis II has paved the way for future missions, including Artemis III and Artemis IV, as the United States prepares to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually aim for human missions to Mars.