Congressional Space Medal of Honor
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor (German: Kongress-Weltraum-Ehrenmedaille) was donated by the Congress of the United States in 1969 to honor special achievements of astronauts . It is awarded by the President of the United States on the recommendation of the NASA administrator and is the highest American award for astronauts.
This award is only given to astronauts on NASA missions for special achievements, extraordinary scientific discoveries, or deeds of remarkable benefit to mankind. It can also be given to astronauts who distinguished themselves through their courage during a space crisis, helped prevent a catastrophe in space, or died while doing their duty on a mission.
receiver
By 2006, 28 astronauts had been awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. More than half of them were awarded the award posthumously and therefore received by the families of the spacemen.
| astronaut | date | reason |
| Neil Armstrong | October 1, 1978 | Commander of the first moon landing |
| Frank Borman | October 1, 1978 | Commander of the first circumnavigation of the moon |
| Charles Conrad | October 1, 1978 | Commander of the first Skylab crew |
| John Glenn | October 1, 1978 | first American in orbit |
| Virgil Grissom * | October 1, 1978 | Commander of the first manned Gemini mission and Apollo 1 disaster |
| Alan Shepard | October 1, 1978 | first American in space |
| John W. Young | May 19, 1981 | Commander of the first space shuttle flight |
| Tom Stafford | January 19, 1993 | rescued the US crew at the Apollo Soyuz project |
| James Lovell | July 26, 1995 | Commander of Apollo 13 |
| Shannon Lucid | 2nd December 1996 | longest stay in space for a woman |
| Roger chaffee * | December 17, 1997 | Apollo 1 disaster |
| Edward White * | December 17, 1997 | Apollo 1 disaster and first American space exit |
| William Shepherd | January 15, 2003 | Commander of the ISS expedition 1 |
| Rick Husband * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| William McCool * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| Michael Anderson * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| Kalpana Chawla * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| David Brown * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| Laurel Clark * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| Ilan Ramon * | February 3, 2004 | Columbia disaster |
| Francis Scobee * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Michael Smith * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Judith Resnik * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Ellison Onizuka * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Ronald McNair * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Gregory Jarvis * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Christa McAuliffe * | July 23, 2004 | Challenger disaster |
| Robert Crippen | April 26, 2006 | Pilot of the first space shuttle flight |
* Award was given posthumously
Web links
- NASA-History Division (English)