Donald Trump calls Artemis II astronauts during mission back to earth

President Donald Trump spoke to the astronauts aboard Artemis II, resulting in more than a minute of dead silence.

On Monday (6 April), Trump had a live call with Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and astronauts Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen as they traveled back toward Earth. The People reported.

“You have a lot of courage doing what you’re doing, a lot of bravery… a lot of genius, but they’re very proud of you,” Trump, 79, told the crew, referring to Hansen’s fellow Canadians like Wayne Gretzky, a former professional hockey player.

The crew that launched into space on Wednesday (1 April) smiled and cheered alongside one another as their microphone floated in the air before the call went silent on both ends.

The four awkwardly smiled into the camera and fidgeted with their hands for 63 seconds before Wiseman grabbed the microphone to ask NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman whether the call dropped.

“Administrator Isaacman, just get a quick comm check to make sure you guys are still on the line and we didn’t have a handover,” Wiseman said.

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Trump's voice immediately chimed in, “I am, yes, I am."

Trump went on to say that the call may have disconnected for a moment or that a reception delay was to blame.

“Yeah, I think we might’ve gotten cut off,” he said. “It is a long distance, it’s a long ways. The reception's been great. There’s a little bit of about a nine-second delay.”

The president then reverted back to praising Hansen for being a bright Canadian on the trip.

“I don’t know what you heard but I was just saying they’re very proud of your brilliant person from Canada and Wayne Gretzky is a good friend of mine and he’s very proud and the prime minister I spoke to, they’re very, very honored that you have a courageous person from Canada,” the president continued.

“I’m not sure if you heard me say that,” he added.

Trump concluded the call by telling the crew he plans to invite them to the White House once they return.

“I look forward to seeing you in the Oval Office… I’ll ask for your autograph because I don’t really ask for autographs much but you deserve that,” he said.

The four astronauts launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the intention to travel around the far side of the moon and back to Earth in 10 days.

Artemis II also saw an “Earthset” — when Earth drops below the lunar horizon — while traveling behind the Moon and an “Earthrise” as the spacecraft resurfaced from the far side of the Moon.

They reached 252,756 miles from Earth as they headed toward the far side of the moon on day six of their mission. The milestone beat Apollo 13’s 1970 distance record of 248,655 miles from Earth.

The Artemis II astronauts are now making their return trip home. According to NASA, the Orion spacecraft is expected to exit the "lunar sphere of influence" at around 1:25pm on Tuesday.