President Trump is awarding the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of Artemis II, the first humans to travel near the moon in more than half a century.
He also said he will create the U.S. Space Academy to train the next generation of explorers reaching for the stars.
Mr. Trump extolled the four-person Artemis II crew as “fearless explorers” who took a 10-day trip around the moon and back in April, a journey that took them farther into space than any other humans.
“This is the Golden Age of America, and this is a big part of it,” Mr. Trump said during the medal ceremony Friday at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We will conquer this vast frontier that we have before us.”
Mr. Trump awarded medals to Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
The Artemis II mission captivated the American public.
The crew weathered a steep descent to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, leading to gripping footage of its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.
“They crossed behind the dark side of the moon and glimpsed sights never seen before, never seen by human eyes, and returned to Earth at 30 times the speed of sound,” Mr. Trump said.
In his speech, the president said his administration is reviving NASA through private-sector partnerships after a relatively dormant period under his predecessors.
“A nation cannot be first on Earth if we’re going to be second in space, just not going to happen,” he said. “Somehow, it just doesn’t work that way.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump announced he’s launching the Space Academy, putting it on par with military academies at West Point and Annapolis.
“I’m going to be choosing the location very shortly,” he said.
Delving into another space subject, Mr. Trump said he was looking forward to Sunday’s launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
The new device will capture and map distant galaxies, planets and supernova stars.
“It’s hundreds of times more powerful than Hubble [Space Telescope], and it will help unlock the secrets of the universe,” the president said, dubbing the launch “a big deal.”
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