New York City might soon witness a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in honor of the Artemis II crew, but it hinges on NASA’s financial commitment to the event.
This week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that his administration is evaluating the possibility of celebrating the astronauts who ventured farther into space than any humans before them. Speaking with 1010 WINS, Mamdani acknowledged that the idea is under review following City Council leaders’ calls for a grand celebration of the crew’s accomplishments.
“Regarding the Artemis II ticker-tape parade, we have initiated discussions with my City Hall team to assess the logistics necessary for such an event,” Mamdani remarked. His comments came in response to the council’s demand for a fitting tribute to the space pioneers.
However, the mayor suggested that NASA should cover the parade expenses. “Historically, ticker-tape parades have been funded by the organizations or entities being honored, and that’s a significant part of what we’re examining at the moment,” he explained.
The last time New York City saw a ticker-tape parade was in 2024, celebrating the New York Liberty’s victory in the WNBA championship. On that occasion, the team bore most of the costs associated with the festivities along the iconic Canyon of Heroes.
The city last held a ticker-tape parade in 2024 when it celebrated the New York Liberty’s WNBA championship down the Canyon of Heroes, with the team picking up most of the cost.
It’s unclear how much the Liberty parade cost, but a similar parade honoring the US women’s national soccer team’s World Cup championship cost $2 million — with NYC taxpayers reportedly paying $1.5 million.
Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island), Deputy Speaker Nantasha Williams (D-Queens) and Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island) sent Mamdani an April 17 letter — first reported by The Post — requesting he celebrate the space crew along downtown’s Canyon of Heroes.
The last astronauts honored that way were the famed Apollo 11 moonshot crew in 1969.
The socialist mayor — who has already coldly banned the public from attending the Times Square ball drop celebrating America’s 250th birthday on July 4 — admitted to WNYC that it was “quite incredible” watching the Artemis crew’s journey from Earth.
“I think it was a real invitation for people across the world to remember that we are part of something larger,” said Mamdani.
The NASA-led Artemis II mission earlier this month marked humankind’s first crewed visit to the moon since 1972, and set a new distance record for manned space travel of 252,760 miles from Earth.
NASA did not return messages.
