# Bill would award Artemis II astronauts Congressional Gold Medals  
**Published:** 2026-06-25T16:42:22.000Z  
**Source:** [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/federal-bill-seeks-to-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals/)  
**AI-generated:** yes (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001)  
**Canonical:** https://lincolne.news/article/bill-would-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals

A federal bill introduced by [Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Nebraska U.S. Rep. Don Bacon](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/federal-bill-seeks-to-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals/) would honor the four crewmembers aboard NASA's historic Artemis II mission with [one of the nation's highest civilian awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal). The "Artemis II Congressional Gold Medal Act" was introduced Wednesday and would recognize the astronauts who became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit and around the moon in more than 50 years.

[The crew, which launched April 1 and returned to Houston April 10](https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/), includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The four-person crew set a new record, traveling approximately 252,756 miles from Earth during their nearly 10-day journey. If passed and signed into law, the Artemis II astronauts would be the first crew to receive a Congressional Gold Medal since 2009, when the Apollo 11 astronauts were honored—40 years after their historic mission.

"The Artemis II crew carried human space exploration farther than it has ever gone before," Kelly, a former astronaut and Democrat, said in a statement. He emphasized how the mission reminded Americans "what we're capable of when we work together."

Bacon, who announced earlier this year he will [retire at the end of his current term](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/federal-bill-seeks-to-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals/), credited "Space for Humanity" with proposing the idea for the legislation. Nebraska GOP Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts are among cosponsors of the effort.

Ricketts noted the Lincoln connection to the mission, stating that "the General Dynamics team in Lincoln manufactured several components for the spacecraft, including the oxygen tanks." Each astronaut would receive an individually designed gold medal depicting the crew of four, while the U.S. secretary of the treasury would be authorized to sell duplicate bronze medals. The bill also recognizes multiple mission contributors and historic firsts, including the first crewed launch of NASA's Orion spacecraft on the Space Launch System and the first mission to confirm Orion's life support, navigation, propulsion and reentry systems in deep-space conditions.

## Sources

- [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/federal-bill-seeks-to-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals/)
- [NASA Artemis II mission information](https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/)
- [Congressional Gold Medal overview](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal)

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This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from Nebraska Examiner, enriched with 3 web searches. The original source is available at https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/federal-bill-seeks-to-award-artemis-ii-astronauts-congressional-gold-medals/.