U.S. President Donald Trump is set to award each crew member of NASA’s Artemis II mission the Congressional Space Medal of Honor Friday morning.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, completed a historic 10-day mission around the moon on April 10, becoming the first humans to travel beyond the moon in more than 50 years and travelling further in space than any humans before.
The crew were also the first astronauts to fly aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is expected to be utilized for future Artemis missions.
Hansen, who is also a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, announced on July 6 that he would be leaving the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to transition to becoming a reservist.
This means he will be allowed to have jobs outside the air force but will also be permitted to work with the Canadian Armed Forces when the need arises.
“This September, after 32 years of military service and 17 years as a Canadian Space Agency astronaut — culminating in the incredible privilege of flying around the Moon on Artemis II—I will be transitioning from my full-time role at the CSA,” Hansen said in a social media post.
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NASA unveiled its Artemis III crew on June 9, which is anticipated to be the next step in the space agency’s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon.
NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano won’t fly to the moon or land on the surface. Instead, they’ll orbit Earth while practising docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers.
The ceremony is set to begin at 11 a.m. Eastern.
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