merely put: SpaceX astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken will obtain the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Tuesday. Both are former NASA astronauts who flew on area shuttle missions earlier than this system retired. Winners go on to work for SpaceX.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is a civilian award, to not be confused with the Military Medal of Honor. Introduced in 1969, it was awarded to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for being the primary people to stroll on the moon.
Medals are historically awarded to those that obtain firsts in area exploration. Congress additionally awarded it posthumously to the crews of the area shuttle disasters Challenger and Columbia. The final time it was awarded was in 2006, when Robert L Crippen flew on the primary area shuttle mission.
So for the primary time in 17 years, the White House will honor Hurley and Behnken, the primary business astronauts to dock on the International Space Station, ending the effort that U.S. astronauts needed to fly aboard Russian spacecraft. Their milestone mission is SpaceX Demo-2. Originally deliberate for May 27, 2020, it was postponed to May 30, 2020 as a result of climate.
Demo-2 took them to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. The pair joined the Expedition 63 crew on the International Space Station and stayed on the area station for about two months, conducting numerous science experiments. They additionally put in “a brand new European drawer shelf Mark 2” within the area station’s Columbus module.
Interestingly, the Demo-2 mission arose straight from NASA’s Commercial Crew program. SpaceX and Boeing obtained billions in joint funding from the area company in 2014.
As we have seen, SpaceX’s crewed spacecraft has been developed and deployed a lot sooner and extra effectively than Boeing’s still-struggling Starliner spacecraft, which has but to fly. Since Hurley and Behnken’s landmark flight, SpaceX has flown 5 different crew members to the ISS, together with astronauts from Europe and Russia.
Although a civilian medal, the Space Medal of Honor is allowed to be worn as a navy ornament when acceptable. Since Hurley is a retired colonel within the Marine Corps and Behnken can be a former colonel within the Air Force, they have been ready so as to add the insignia to the lapels of their uniforms.
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to current the medal on the White House later as we speak.
