President Donald Trump was not fooling anyone when he blamed a supposed technical glitch for the Artemis II crew’s silence during their historic fly-by of the Moon.
Artemis II is the first mission to bring astronauts toward the Moon in over half a century, launching successfully on April 1 to the delight of space enthusiasts and the general public alike.
The last week—during which crew members, among other things, observed the Moon's geological features and color variations that could reveal mineral composition—have raised hopes that a Moon landing could be achievable by 2028.
The four Artemis II astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—reached a historic milestone on the sixth day of their mission, traveling 248,655 miles from Earth, farther than any humans have ever ventured.
On the evening of April 6, shortly before 10 p.m. ET, Trump announced on social media that he would soon speak live with the crew. When the call began, the astronauts appeared smiling inside the Orion capsule as Trump congratulated them and asked several questions, including what it felt like when their spacecraft briefly lost contact with Earth.
Earlier in the exchange, Trump praised the astronauts and noted that he had spoken with Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and other friends in Canada who were proud of Hansen, the Canadian member of the crew, who himself said he was "so proud" to be a part of the mission.
That's when things got weird with Trump's response:
"Well, I have to say I spoke to a very special person, Wayne Gretzky, you know, the Great One, and I spoke to your prime minister, and many other friends in Canada who are so proud of you."
“You have a lot of courage. I’m not sure if they’d want to do that. I’m not even sure if the Great One would want to do that, to be honest with you.”
"But you have a lot of courage to be doing what you're doing, a lot of bravery, and a lot of genius, but they're very, very proud of you."
After a brief lull in the conversation, both the astronauts and the president remained silent for about a minute before the crew asked for “a quick comms check” to confirm Trump was still connected to the call. Trump replied, "I am, yes," to laughter from the crew.
Trump attributed the awkward pause to what he described as a “nine-second delay” in the communication:
"Yeah, I think we might have gotten cut off. It is a long distance, it's a long way, [but] reception has been great. There's been a little bit of a nine-second delay but I had a statement." ...
"They're very proud, you're a brilliant person from Canada on the ship and Wayne Gretzky's a great friend of mine and he's very proud of him."
Wiseman took the mic and replied:
"Yes, Mr. President, we heard that, and we love all of our Canadian astronauts."
You can watch what happened in the videos below.
The video definitely shows there wasn't a glitch at all—and people sure had some thoughts to share about the crew's reaction.
During their mission, the Artemis II astronauts also proposed names for two lunar craters, adding to their historic spaceflight milestone.
One crater would be called Integrity, after their spacecraft, while the other would honor Carroll, the late wife of commander Wiseman. Once the mission concludes, the proposed names will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union, which oversees the official naming of celestial bodies and surface features.
The crew is now more than halfway through their journey and is expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego at about 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10.
After landing, recovery teams will retrieve the astronauts by helicopter and transport them to the USS John P. Murtha. There, they will undergo initial post-flight medical checks in the ship’s medical bay before heading back to shore and boarding an aircraft bound for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
@JamesTate121/X
