Artemis II crew wins the Stephen Hawking Medal

The crew that flew around the moon this year now has an award usually given to great explainers rather than explorers. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen accepted the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication on Saturday, 17 October, at the opening ceremony of the Starmus VIII festival in Tenerife, Space.com reports. The honour covers all four crew members, including NASA's Christina Koch, who was not there.

The facts

• Stephen Hawking and Starmus created the medal in 2016 for people who make science accessible and inspiring. This is its 10th anniversary.
• Earlier recipients include Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Film director Ridley Scott is among this year's honourees.
• Starmus co-founder and Queen guitarist Brian May said it was a special thrill to honour the Artemis II crew the way the festival once honoured the Apollo astronauts.
• Starmus VIII runs from 17 to 22 October on Tenerife and La Palma under the theme "The Search for Truth".

On stage, Wiseman described seeing Earth from near the moon, about 400,000 km away: a planet the size of your thumb. "The only thing you feel is love, peace, hope, unity," he said.

Our take

It is easy to treat an award like this as a nice extra after the hard engineering. We think it recognises a real part of the job. Artemis II tested Orion with people on board for the first time, and the crew's live calls, interviews and photos turned a complex test flight into something people around the world could follow. That public support is what keeps long programmes funded through delays and debates, such as the one over Orion's heat shield and the work on the boosters for Artemis III.

If the crew's photos made you want to look up yourself, our beginner telescope guide is a good place to start. The moon is the easiest target there is.