HOUSTON, Texas (KBTX) – The four astronauts behind NASA’s historic Artemis II mission received a hero’s welcome Friday at Johnson Space Center, where President Donald Trump presented them with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, were honored for becoming the first humans to return to lunar orbit in more than 50 years.
source:(KBTX)
“This is a very rare thing,” Trump said. “It’s for courageous people, brilliant people, bestowed on astronauts who have distinguished themselves with exceptional service to the nation.”
The crew completed a 10-day mission around the moon in April, breaking the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.
“Each breakthrough opens a door to the next one, and each new frontier gives those who follow it a chance to reach out beyond it,” Trump told the crew. “You didn’t just make history, astronauts. You helped open a new chapter of it.”
The visit wasn’t just about honoring the past. Trump also announced plans for a new national institution aimed at the future of space exploration.
“In just a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy,” Trump said. “It’s called the U.S. Space Academy.”
The academy is designed to feed both NASA and the U.S. Space Force, though few details have been released. A commission chaired by NASA’s administrator has 120 days to propose key details, including the academy’s location.
Texas’ role in the nation’s space ambitions was also front and center Friday. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz highlighted the state’s growing influence in the industry.
“In 10 years from now, that SpaceX IPO will have created a venture capital ecosystem here in Texas that is going to fund hundreds of new space ventures and is going to make sure that Texas continues to lead in space for the next 100 years,” Cruz said.
NASA is now looking ahead to its next milestone: returning astronauts to the lunar surface.
“A nation cannot be first on Earth if we’re going to be second in space,” Trump said.
A&M’s role in getting there
Texas A&M has quietly played a role in nearly every part of NASA’s Artemis program, according to Texas A&M mechanical engineering professor Robert Ambrose, who spent years at NASA overseeing software for the Orion spacecraft, the same capsule carried the Artemis II crew around the moon and back.
“Across A&M, we have so many faculty involved in aspects of NASA’s story,” Ambrose said. “We have a lot of engineers here in the College of Engineering, where I am, that work on everything from spacesuits to rovers to re-entry dynamics and guidance and navigation.”
Ambrose said the university isn’t slowing down. Texas A&M is currently building the Space Institute at Johnson Space Center, a facility designed to train the next generation of astronauts for missions to the moon and Mars.
“We’re building the Space Institute down at the Johnson Space Center right now, solving a problem that the country had no place to test a lunar surface, or much less Mars surface, human experiments,” Ambrose said.
Texas A&M aerospace engineering professor and former NASA astronaut Dr. Bonnie Dunbar said Friday’s honor was well-deserved:
I am delighted that the Artemis Crew will be honored by President Trump. It was President Trump who put the U.S. back into human space exploration in 2018. The crew and the entire NASA team executed a flawless mission, paving a path back to a permanent presence on the Moon and further Exploration of our solar system. The crew were also outstanding ambassadors and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
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