Enlarge / NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken (foreground) work on Crew Dragon's touchscreen displays. (credit: NASA)
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday will bestow the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken. The former NASA astronauts launched on the debut flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft in May 2020.
Hurley, the spacecraft commander, and Behnken, its pilot, will receive the medal for "bravery" exhibited during the Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station. Their debut mission was a complete success, and since this pioneering flight, NASA has flown five operational missions on board Crew Dragon, along with two private spaceflights.
An operational Crew Dragon has provided NASA with its sole means of reaching the space station aside from the Russian Soyuz vehicle—saving the space agency from the embarrassment of having to rely on Russia for this transport amid escalating tensions surrounding the war in Ukraine.
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