Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the former NASA astronauts who ushered in a new era of space exploration when they flew to orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket, will be awarded the Congressional space medal of honor for the first time since 2006 at the White House.
, the year Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, is among the most prestigious an astronaut can receive and has been awarded sparingly. The last to earn the decoration was Robert Crippen, who served as the pilot for the first Space Shuttle flight. He was awarded the medal in 2006 by President George W. Bush.
In receiving the award, Behnken and Hurley would be adding their names to a roster of explorers who helped NASA expand its frontiers from the dawn of the Space Age, when the United States was engaged in a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union, through the beginning of the shuttle era.
The flight was the fulfillment of a risky bet by NASA under the Obama administration to entrust the private sector to fly astronauts as part of its “commercial crew” program. Previously, NASA allowed private companies to fly cargo and science experiments to the station. But putting astronauts on vehicles owned and operated by the commercial sector was considered too risky and even reckless — a view that was shared even among NASA’s leadership.
During their test mission, they stayed on the station for slightly longer than two months before coming home in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. The successful splashdown served as a rare bright spot in a year full of turmoil and devastation, from the beginning of the
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