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Doug And Bob Go To The White House

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
NASAWatch
January 30, 2023
Filed under , , , , ,
Doug And Bob Go To The White House
Doug and Bob
NASA

According to NASA PAO “Vice President Kamala Harris will award former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 4:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 31. … Limited pre-credentialed media will join pooled press for the event.” Keith’s note: WRT “Limited pre-credentialed media” – In other words Marc Etkind and Jackie McGuiness at NASA PAO now hand-pick space media who can cover these things – in advance – (I guess) to get the most positive results for the event. FWIW its not that you can really ask questions at these highly scripted events. NASA only announced this event after media pre-selections have been made – and only after the White House gave the OK to do so. But we can still watch all the award stuff live on NASA TV etc. And this is a rather cool award! More details from the White House below.

According to a White House official: “On Tuesday, at 4:25PM ET, Vice President Harris, Chair of the National Space Council, will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on behalf of President Joe Biden to NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley (Col, USMC, Ret.) and Robert Behnken (Col, USAF, Ret.) for their bravery and leadership as test pilots in the inaugural NASA Commercial Crew mission (Demo-2) to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Whitehouse.gov/live.

In May of 2020, Hurley and Behnken became the first astronauts to launch to orbit from the United States in almost nine years. Demo-2 marked a new era of spaceflight, with American astronauts on American rockets launching from American soil. It was also the first crewed launch for SpaceX, and the culmination of a decade of hard work in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

A key priority of the 2010 Obama-Biden National Space Policy was to transition from a U.S. government-owned and operated human spaceflight capability (i.e. the Space Shuttle program) to a public-private partnership whereby the U.S. relied on commercial providers for crew transport to and from the ISS. NASA has contracted two companies to provide crew capsules: SpaceX and Boeing. SpaceX was the first to develop capabilities leading to the Demo-2 mission. Since the success of Demo-2 mission, five crewed missions have been launched to the ISS carrying 13 American and 7 international astronauts.

Additional Background on the Congressional Space Medal of Honor

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by Congress in 1969 to recognize “any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and mankind.” Since its inception, the honor has been awarded to 28 people. Of those 28 heroes, 17 received this award posthumously (the crews of Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger, and Space Shuttle Columbia).

This is the first time the Congressional Space Medal of Honor has been awarded since 2006.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

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