President Donald Trump presented Congressional Space Medals of Honor on Friday to the Artemis II astronauts, who successfully journeyed around the moon in April.
Trump bestowed Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen with the medals during a ceremony at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
“We gather here on these storied grounds, though, to celebrate the immense courage and service of four intrepid space heroes whose sense of daring and adventure led them further from Earth than anyone has ever traveled before,” Trump said ahead of the ceremony.
“These astronauts did not do it alone. I want to salute all of the engineers and scientists, launch and landing specialists, everyone at NASA who helped make this mission a great success,” he added.
The president recounted watching Artemis II during its mission.
“I was at a very important meeting with the biggest people in the country, maybe some of the biggest people in the world, and somebody said, ‘I’d like to watch Artemis.’ I said, ‘You would? Really? Right in the middle of our meeting you want to watch?’” Trump said.
“And we actually had a television pulled up, and everybody was spellbound… and we watched every minute of it. In fact, the meeting was a disaster because after that was over, they were so excited, nobody did anything, so it was a total waste of time,” he joked.
Trump also announced in his remarks that the United States is establishing the U.S. Space Academy, which is a new national military academy
“It’s clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators, and everything else to do what we have to do, and what we’re right now doing the best, and will continue and I think by leaps and bounds,” he said.
“That’s why in a few moments I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It’s called the U.S. Space Academy. That’s a big deal,” he added.
After the ceremony, Trump called into the International Space Station from Mission Control.
