Vice President Kamala Harris will award former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
According to a White House official, Congressional Space Medal of Honor has been awarded to 28 people, including 17 posthumously, since it was authorized by Congress in 1969.
Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken will today, January 31st, join the list as they are set to receive the NASA most prestigious award.
The award recognizes “any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and mankind.”
According to the White House official, the two will receive the award for bravery in NASA’s SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2 (Demo-2) to the International Space Station in 2020 which will be presented to them by the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, in a ceremony from the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 4:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
Hurley, who served in the Marines, and Behnken, who served in the Air Force, were both military test pilots before they joined NASA in 2000. The space agency has a long history of selecting test pilots, who spend hundreds of hours flying around in experimental supersonic aircraft, to be astronauts.
The ceremony will air on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app, as well as the agency’s flagship Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channels.
What is Congressional Space Medal of Honor?
Congressional space medal of honor is a meritorious award presented by the president of the United States of America on behalf of the congress to deserving astronauts who have delivered exceptional service to the nation for the best of mankind. It is a special national award that is different from the Medal of honour, a military-grade award that is constitutional authorized to appreciate those in military who have actively shown bravery in service.
Congressional space medal of honor is awarded to those recommended by National Aeronautical Space Administration, NASA. It is made to be an encourage for more space exploration for the betterment of mankind. The last time the award was present to deserving nationalists was in 2006.
List of those who have received Congressional space medal of honor
| Names | year |
| Neil Armstrong | 1978 |
| Frank Borman | 1978 |
| Pete Conrad | 1978 |
| John Glenn | 1978 |
| Gus Grissom | 1978 |
| Alan Shepard | 1978 |
| John Young | 1981 |
| Thomas P. Stafford | 1993 |
| Jim Lovell | 1995 |
| Shannon Lucid | 1996 |
| Roger Chaffee | 1997 |
| Ed White | 1997 |
| William Shepherd | 2003 |
| Rick Husband | 2004 |
| Willie McCool | 2004 |
| Michael P. Anderson | 2004 |
| Kalpana Chawla | 2004 |
| David M. Brown | 2004 |
| Laurel Clark | 2004 |
| Ilan Ramon | 2004 |
| Dick Scobee | 2004 |
| Michael J. Smith | 2004 |
| Judith Resnik | 2004 |
| Ronald McNair | 2004 |
| Ellison Onizuka | 2004 |
| Gregory Jarvis | 2004 |
| Christa McAuliffe | 2004 |
| Robert Crippen | 2006 |
| Doug Hurley | 2023 |
| Robert Behnken | 2023 |
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