Moon Heroes Get Their Medals! The Artemis II Crew Is About to Be Honored
Quick Summary
Four brave astronauts flew around the Moon earlier this year. Now they are about to receive one of the highest honors in American history. On Friday, August 28, each of them will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
What Happened?
Back in April 2026, four astronauts blasted off on NASA’s Artemis II mission. They flew around the Moon aboard a spacecraft called Orion. Their journey lasted ten days. When it was over, they had flown farther into space than any humans in all of history.
The four crew members were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch. The fourth was Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. Together, they became the first people to travel beyond the Moon in more than 50 years.
Now they are getting their reward. On Friday, August 28, a special ceremony will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. That is where NASA trains its astronauts and runs many missions from. The ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Each astronaut will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Why Does It Matter?
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is one of the most special awards an astronaut can ever receive. The very first one was given to Neil Armstrong — the first person to walk on the Moon — back in 1978. Very few people have ever earned this honor.
The Artemis II crew earned it by doing something that hadn’t been done since 1972. They flew humans all the way around the Moon and back safely. Their spacecraft, Orion, performed better than expected. It re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at very high speed and landed right on target in the ocean.
Their mission was a practice run for an even bigger goal: landing people back on the Moon. It showed that NASA’s new deep-space systems work. Future crews will use this same spacecraft to actually set foot on the lunar surface.
The ceremony is a chance for the world to say thank you to four people who risked everything to push humanity a little farther into the universe.
Big Words
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor — a very special award given by the U.S. President to astronauts who have done something exceptionally important for space exploration
- Artemis II — NASA’s mission that carried four astronauts around the Moon in April 2026, the first crewed lunar flight in over 50 years
- Orion — the spacecraft NASA built to carry astronauts to and from deep space, including the Moon
- Ceremony — an official event held to celebrate or honor something important
- Deep space — the region of space far beyond Earth’s orbit, starting around and beyond the Moon
Fun Fact
The Artemis II crew traveled 252,756 miles from Earth — farther than any human being had ever been before in the history of spaceflight!
Think About It
If you were designing the next Moon mission, what is one thing you would want astronauts to discover or bring back?
Sources
- NASA News Release — ‘NASA’s Artemis II Crew Set to Receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor,’ Aug. 21, 2026
- Space.com — ‘Trump to award NASA’s Artemis II astronauts the Congressional Space Medal of Honor,’ Aug. 21, 2026
- Houston Public Media — ‘Trump to visit Houston to award Artemis II crew members medals of honor,’ Aug. 21, 2026
- ScienceDaily — ‘Trump to award Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II astronauts,’ Aug. 23, 2026