WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the first time since 2006, two astronauts will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at the White House on Tuesday, for their work as the test pilots who completed the first NASA commercial crew mission with SpaceX.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, will present the medals to former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken.
In May 2020, Hurley and Behnken became the first people to launch into orbit from the United States in almost nine years, completing NASA’s inaugural commercial flight to the International Space Station, known as Demo-2.
The Space Medal of Honor was created in Congress in 1969 to recognize any astronaut who has “distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and mankind.”
Twenty-eight people have received the medal, 17 of them after their deaths, including the crews of Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia.
When the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida in 2020, it was seen as a new phase of U.S. spaceflight – with American astronauts, an American rocket and a launch from American soil for the first time since 2011.
Since then, through NASA’s commercial crew program, five missions have launched to the ISS carrying 13 American and seven international astronauts.
Space is one of the core issues of the vice president’s portfolio. She most recently met with both Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and French President Emmanual Macron to discuss space cooperation.
And she hosted the second National Space Council meeting at the Johnson Space Center in Texas last fall. On that trip, she also spoke by video call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, including the members of NASA’s Crew-4 mission, another one made possible through public-private partnership.
French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris speak during a meeting to highlight space cooperation between the two countries, at NASA headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
