HOUSTON — President Donald Trump awarded Congressional Space Medals of Honor to the four Artemis II crew members Friday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and announced plans to establish a new academy to train the next generation of space professionals.
Trump presented the medals to NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who flew around the moon and returned to Earth in April.
“We have to honor the heroes who are inspiring the next generation of astronauts and pioneers,” Trump said during the ceremony.
The Artemis II mission marked the first crewed flight around the moon since the Apollo era in the 1970s.
Trump also signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy. The commission has 120 days to develop recommendations covering the academy’s location, curriculum, admissions requirements, governing structure and service obligations for graduates.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will chair the commission. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president for science and technology, will also serve on the commission.
Trump said the academy would serve the U.S. Space Force, NASA and the commercial spaceflight industry. He compared the proposed institution with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
“It will attract, train, graduate the very best that our nation and our nation really has to offer,” Trump said.
The administration has not announced the academy’s location or an opening date.
Wiseman said the Artemis II crew hoped its mission would inspire Americans to learn more about space exploration.
“We wanted to inspire this nation to learn,” Wiseman said.
Isaacman said the academy could train engineers, scientists, technicians, operators and astronauts needed for future space missions.
Trump said the United States would pursue additional lunar missions, a moon base, nuclear power projects and commercial activity in orbit.
