The Artemis II astronauts who flew around the moon earlier this year received the nation’s highest space honour on Friday (August 28, 2026).

President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honour to the three Americans and one Canadian whose April lunar flyby set a new distance record for humanity.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other dignitaries took part in the packed ceremony at Houston’s Johnson Space Centre, home to Mission Control. Trump used the occasion to announce the creation of a US Space Academy for the Space Force as well as NASA and the commercial space community.

“Space is the hot thing,” the President told the crowd, adding that the academy’s location has yet to be determined.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen became the first astronauts to travel to the moon in more than half a century, coming within 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometres) while test-driving NASA’s new Orion capsule. They were the first to launch aboard NASA’s new moon rocket, a 30-story behemoth that had soared only once before from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre.

While they didn’t stop at the moon, the four set the stage for next year’s Artemis III docking rehearsal in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV’s moon landing by two astronauts, near the lunar south pole, could follow as soon as 2028.

Mr. Trump said Americans will land back on the moon before his term ends. Mars is next — “very shortly,” he said.

The President called the newest recipients “four intrepid space heroes.” He pointed out that they did not do it alone, thanking all who contributed to the Artemis II mission.

“There are no finer humans we could have sent as our ambassadors to the stars,” Mr. Isaacman added.

Mr.Wiseman and his crew are in good company, with only 30 astronauts receiving the prestigious honor before them. Many of the recipients were honoured posthumously following their tragic spaceflight-related deaths.

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong — whose phrase “That’s one step for man, one giant leap for mankind” gripped the world on July 20, 1969 — was the first to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

President Jimmy Carter awarded six of these medals in 1978, which also went to Alan Shepard, the first American in space; John Glenn, the first American in orbit; and Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman, whose 1968 mission marked humanity’s first lunar voyage.

The most recent recipients were Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the first astronauts to launch aboard a SpaceX rocket. Coming nine years after the space shuttle program’s close, their 2020 test flight to the International Space Station restored America’s ability to launch crews from home soil. President Joe Biden awarded them the medals in 2023.

Dozens of astronauts participated in the ceremony, including Apollo 17 moonwalker Harrison Schmitt, who is now 91, and the four men assigned to NASA’s upcoming Artemis III mission.

Mr. Schmitt noted that his mission — Apollo’s last moonshot — was the most productive lunar exploration yet.

“Soon to be surpassed by Artemis,” he said of active astronauts standing behind him.

NASA plans a sustainable moon base staffed by astronauts and robots near the lunar south pole, where permanently shadowed craters are thought to hold tons of frozen water that could be turned into rocket fuel and drinking water. China is eyeing the same region.

“The second space race has begun,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matthew Anderson.

As the two-hour ceremony came to a close, the Artemis II astronauts presented Mr. Trump with his own blue flight jacket complete with space patches, a promise they made while visiting him in the Oval Office following their mission.

The President then hustled over to Mission Control to call the three U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station. He informed them of the new U.S. Space Academy, then briefly handed the phone to two of their spouses for a quick hello.

Published – August 29, 2026 09:01 am IST

This image provided by NASA Monday, April 6, 2026, shows the Moon, the near side (the hemisphere we see from Earth) visible at the right side of the disk, identifiable by the dark splotches. At lower left is Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the Moon’s near and far sides. Everything to the left of the crater is the far side
| Photo Credit: AP

The four astronauts embarking on NASA’s lunar flyby became on Monday (April 6, 2026) the humans to travel furthest from our planet, as they get set to view areas of the Moon never before seen by the naked eye.

The Artemis II team broke the previous record set by 1970’s Apollo 13 mission, which they are expected to surpass by approximately 4,105 miles (6,606 km) when they reach this journey’s furthest distance from Earth — 252,760 miles (406,778 km) —later in the day.

The astronauts are journeying around the Moon for a monumental flyby, in which they’ll spend more than six hours analysing and documenting lunar surface features.

The NASA mission had swept earlier into the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence, meaning their spacecraft is in the natural satellite’s neighborhood, with lunar gravity outmuscling Earth’s pull.

The Orion capsule is zipping around the Moon before U-turning and heading back to Earth in a so-called “free-return trajectory,” a return-trip that will take about four days.

The astronauts began their landmark day with a message from the late Jim Lovell, who took part in the Apollo 8 and 13 missions and recorded the message shortly before his death.

“It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view,” the Artemis astronauts heard from Lovell.

“Welcome to my old neighbourhood,” he said. “I’m proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the Moon.”

Swooping around the far side of the Moon, the crew of four will witness previously hidden lunar territory — the sphere looming large through their capsule windows.

The Moon will appear to the astronauts “about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length”, Noah Petro, head of the U.S. space agency’s planetary geology lab, told AFP.

Adding to the historic nature of the mission led by Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II crew includes several firsts.

Victor Glover will be the first person of color to fly around the Moon, Christina Koch will be the first woman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen the first non-American.

There will be a period of around 40 minutes during the flyby where all communication with Artemis II will be cut off as the astronauts pass behind the Moon.

“It’ll be exciting, you know, in a slightly scary way, when they go behind the moon,” Derek Buzasi, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, told AFP.

Human eye vs camera

The astronauts have already started seeing features never previously glimpsed directly.

An image sent back by the crew showed the Moon’s Orientale basin visible, a massive crater that before had only been viewed by orbiting, uncrewed cameras.

Near the end of their flyby, the astronauts will witness a solar eclipse, when the Sun will be behind the Moon.

Despite the technological advancements since the Apollo era, NASA still relies on the eyesight of its astronauts to learn more about the Moon.

“The human eye is basically the best camera that could ever or will ever exist,” Kelsey Young, the lead scientist for the Artemis II mission, told AFP. “The number of receptors in the human eye far outweighs what a camera is able to do.”

And while the Orion crew will still be at a substantial distance from the Moon, their flyby is key to preparing for a later crewed mission to the planet’s surface itself.

“We’re going to learn an awful lot about the spacecraft,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman told CNN on Sunday (April 5, 2026).

The information will be “pretty paramount to set up for subsequent missions like Artemis III in 2027 and, of course, the lunar landing itself on Artemis IV in 2028,” he added.

Published – April 06, 2026 11:29 pm IST

A view of the Moon taken by an Artemis II crew member through the window of the Orion spacecraft on day five of the mission, April 6, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters