President Donald Trump spoke with the Artemis II crew on Monday, 6 April, during a live call from 250,000 miles (400,000 km) away as they returned from their lunar flyby. The exchange drew attention after a 63-second silence followed the president's remarks, with the astronauts smiling and handling a floating microphone before confirming he was still on the line.
The four-person crew – NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – had just set a record for the farthest travel by humans from Earth. Trump praised their bravery and mentioned discussing the mission with his friend Wayne Gretzky, the retired ice hockey player, as well as the Canadian prime minister. The president later attributed the pause to a technical glitch.
