The four Artemis II crew members will be able to join the exclusive company and, along with the Apollo 11 crew, will be the only astronauts to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
Artemis II’s crew has already become the first astronauts to fly near the moon in more than 50 years. The four astronauts could become the first astronauts in nearly 20 years to receive one of Japan’s most prestigious civilian awards.
USA TODAY Network has learned that two U.S. lawmakers are pushing a new bipartisan bill that would award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Artemis II astronauts. Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, will join retiring Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon to introduce the bill in both the House and Senate on Wednesday, June 24, Kelly’s office confirmed exclusively to USA TODAY Network.
If the bill passes and is signed into law by President Donald Trump, the Artemis II astronauts will become the first crew member to receive the Congressional Gold Medal since the honor was bestowed on the Apollo 11 crew in 2009, 40 years after their historic mission.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Congressional Gold Medal and why some lawmakers think the Artemis II astronauts earned that recognition in NASA’s effort to return humans to the moon.
Artemis II astronauts aim for Congressional Gold Medal
News of the impending passage of the bill comes more than two months after NASA’s Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen returned from the groundbreaking Artemis II spaceflight.
Although it is rare for astronauts to be nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal, Kelly and Bacon said in a statement to the USA TODAY Network that the Artemis II mission was of such historical significance that the crew deserved the honor.
“Reed, Victor, Christina and Jeremy have taken human space exploration further than ever before,” Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who attended the Artemis II launch in Florida, said in a statement. Kerry is also considering running for president in 2028.
“They reminded Americans of what we can do when we work together,” Kelly continued. “They inspired the next generation of scientists, explorers, and engineers. The Artemis II crew deserves this honor for pushing the boundaries of human accomplishment.”
In a statement, Bacon praised the “extraordinary astronauts” and said the mission continued the iconic Apollo program’s legacy in space exploration. Bacon said the astronauts “carried that legacy further than any human race has ever traveled from Earth before.”
What is the Congressional Gold Medal?
The Congressional Gold Medal is one of the oldest and highest civilian honors awarded by Congress.
This medal was first awarded to George Washington in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. Since then, Congress has expanded recognition to include private citizens and organizations that have had a “longstanding impact on American history and culture,” according to the Smithsonian.
The only previous medals awarded to astronauts were in 2009, when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were honored for their roles in the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
What is Artemis II’s mission?
Artemis II, the second mission in NASA’s multibillion-dollar Artemis program, marked the first time humans had flown near the moon in more than 50 years.
The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft blasted into space atop NASA’s powerful 322-foot Space Launch System rocket during liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1.
During the 10-day spaceflight, the Orion spacecraft carried astronauts around the moon and back to Earth without landing on the lunar surface.
In the process, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen traveled a historic 42,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the record set during the infamous Apollo 13 mission in 1970. They also witnessed sights on the far side of the Moon never before seen by human eyes, during their lunar flight, which brought them as close as 4,067 miles above the Earth’s surface.
The mission, which flew into the Pacific Ocean near California on April 10, was ultimately a successful test flight, confirming that both the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft would perform as expected during a crewed mission.
Artemis III is scheduled to be developed prior to landing on the moon
NASA is already preparing the next mission based on the Lunar Campaign, with the ultimate goal of returning humans to the moon and building a $20 billion lunar base where astronauts can live and work.
Scheduled for 2027, Artemis III aims to send a new group of astronauts – NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano – into Earth orbit aboard Orion, where they will spend two weeks testing their spacesuits and docking capabilities with two commercial lunar landers. Those landers are Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS).
The mission is complex, involving three separate rocket launches – NASA’s SLS, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and SpaceX’s Starship – to place all three spacecraft into orbit.
If the test mission is successful, it will set the stage for the program’s first human landing on the moon during Artemis IV. The mission, targeted for 2028, will be the first time humans have set foot on the moon since NASA’s iconic Apollo era ended in 1972.
NASA views the moon program as an important stepping stone to eventually sending the first human expedition to Mars. And it all primarily started with Artemis II.
Eric Lagatta is a Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact elagatta@usatodayco.com.
