Two trailblazing former NASA astronauts will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday (Jan. 31), and you can watch the action live.
Harris will bestow the prestigious award on Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley for their bravery, NASA officials said. The duo flew SpaceX’s first-ever crewed mission, the Demo-2 test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020.
The event begins Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. EST (2115 GMT). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency (opens in new tab).
Related: SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 astronaut flight in photos
Demo-2 lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 30, 2020, sending Behnken and Hurley toward the ISS aboard a Dragon capsule. The test flight lasted just over two months, wrapping up on Aug. 2 when the Dragon splashed down safely off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
The successful mission was a huge milestone for both SpaceX and NASA, ushering in a new era of private astronaut trips to the ISS. Elon Musk’s company is in the middle of its fifth contracted crewed flight to the orbiting lab for NASA and is gearing up to launch its sixth in late February.
Hurley retired from NASA in July 2021, and Behnken followed suit in November 2022.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
