Trump announces U.S. Space Academy at medal ceremony
President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four Artemis II astronauts on Friday at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control.
The packed ceremony drew NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other dignitaries.
The honorees — 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.
The four crew members launched in April aboard NASA’s new 30-story moon rocket, which had soared only once before from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
They traveled to within 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) of the lunar surface while test-driving NASA’s new Orion capsule. Their April flyby set a new distance record for humanity.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest space honor.
Trump used the occasion to announce the creation of a U.S. Space Academy for the Space Force, NASA and the commercial space community.
“Space is the hot thing,” Trump told the crowd, adding that the academy’s location has yet to be determined.