4 astronauts will obtain america’ highest house honor at the moment (Aug. 28), and you’ll watch it dwell.
President Donald Trump will give the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II moon mission the Congressional Area Medal of Honor at the moment, throughout a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston that begins at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman may also take part within the occasion. You possibly can watch it dwell right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA.
Artemis II launched on April 1 and got here again to Earth 9 days later. It was the primary crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, which goals to establish a long-term base close to the moon’s south pole within the coming years.
The flight despatched 4 folks — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, in addition to Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — on a looping journey across the lunar far facet. It was the primary crewed journey past low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, and its astronauts bought farther from their dwelling planet than any folks ever had earlier than.
Artemis II engaged people all over the world due to its significance, its historic nature and the charisma of its astronauts. And a few fortuitous orbital dynamics did not damage, both: The Artemis II crew had been fortunate sufficient to look at a total solar eclipse from beyond the moon, one thing human eyes had by no means seen firsthand earlier than.
The Congressional Area Medal of Honor is awarded “to any astronaut who within the efficiency of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionalIy meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and of mankind,” NASA wrote in a description of the award, citing Congress’ acknowledged standards.
Although the president offers out the medal, he does so on the advice of the NASA administrator, the company added. Simply 30 folks have obtained the award to this point, and most of them are fairly massive names. Honorees embody Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong; Alan Shepard and John Glenn, who had been the primary People to succeed in house and orbit Earth, respectively; Gemini astronaut Ed White, the primary American to carry out a spacewalk; and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell.
The award was additionally given to every of the 14 astronauts who died within the house shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters.
Hansen subsequently will not be the primary non-American to obtain the medal. Ilan Ramon, one of many seven individuals who perished when Columbia broke aside upon reentry to Earth’s environment on Feb. 1, 2003, was from Israel.
