Behnken, Harris and Hurley
Former NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley stand with Vice President Kamala Harris after she awarded them the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at a Jan. 31 ceremony. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

WASHINGTON — The two men who flew on the first NASA commercial crew mission to the International Space Station in 2020 received a rarely awarded medal from the White House Jan. 31.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...