Two former NASA astronauts have received top honors, vice president Kamala Harris, who is also the chair of the national space council, presented the congressional space Medal of Honor to a pair of former NASA astronauts for designing a new crew capsule, the crew dragon, and then piloting it to the International Space Station in 2020. Douglas Hurley and Robert behnken received the accolades in the first congressional space medal of honors awarded since 2016. Harris said their work ushered in a new era in space, an era of commercial space flight as they conducted the inaugural NASA SpaceX demonstration demo two mission. It was the first time in nearly a decade that astronauts blasted into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company, Hurley served in the marines and been conserved in the air force. They were both military test pilots before joining NASA in 2000. I'm Lisa dwyer