Astronaut Joseph Acabá and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez will be among those honored at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Gala on September 17, an event with Puerto Rican flavor featuring salsa singer Charlie Aponte. CHCI is the educational arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which includes 42 Democrats from the U.S. Senate and House.
Acabá, associate director of Mission and Strategy at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, will receive the 2026 President’s Medallion, presented by CHCI Board Chair, Rep. Darren Soto, who called Acabá’s career an inspiration to Florida’s 1.3 million-strong Puerto Rican diaspora. Born in California to Puerto Rican parents, Acabá joined NASA’s astronaut program in 2004, logging 306 days in space, including a 2009 Discovery shuttle mission (STS-119) delivering solar panels and two spacewalks, and a 2012 Soyuz mission as flight engineer.
From 2023-2025 he headed NASA’s Astronaut Office, awarding wings to the second Puerto Rican NASA astronaut, Marcos Berríos. Velázquez, retiring from Congress in December after 34 years, will be honored alongside fellow retiring Democrats Adriano Espaillat (New York), who lost his June primary, and Jesús 'Chuy' García (Illinois). Velázquez was the first Latina to chair a full House committee and the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress.