Declaring that space exploration is “the hot thing,” President Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a U.S. space academy and presented Medals of Honor to the Artemis II crew, which completed a historic 10-day flight around the moon.
At an event at the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Mr. Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew’s commander, Reid Wiseman; its pilot, Victor Glover; and the mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
In doing so, Mr. Trump carried out the traditional presidential duties of honoring American heroes who united the country with their achievements. He referred to the astronauts as “fearless explorers.”
Mr. Trump also announced that he was signing an executive order to create a U.S. Space Academy to feed the U.S. Space Force and NASA. Few details were released on Mr. Trump’s plans for the academy, but the president indicated they were preliminary and its location had not yet been determined.
The executive order created a commission chaired by the head of NASA tasked with “proposing key details for the establishment of the Space Academy” within 120 days.
“Space is the hot thing,” Mr. Trump told the crowd.
The event also carried a political dimension ahead of the midterm elections. The president’s approval rating is underwater, dragged down by high prices and an unpopular war against Iran, and his party is in danger of losing its control of both chambers of Congress.
Speakers at the event in Houston heaped praise not only on the astronauts, but also on Mr. Trump.
Col. Matt Anderson, the deputy administrator of NASA, told the crowd that “none of this would be possible without strong leadership from the top.”
“President Trump ignited the golden age of exploration and discovery. He gave us the vision,” Mr. Anderson said. “His Working Families Tax Cut Act gave us the resources, and the Artemis II crew took the first steps.”
In April, the Artemis II mission galvanized the country and transfixed the public.
Over 10 days, the astronauts looped around the moon’s far side before returning to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The astronauts saw parts of the moon no human had ever laid eyes on. They broke the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor has been awarded to fewer than three dozen astronauts beginning in the 1970s, according to NASA.
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