Trump Calls Artemis II Crew, Invites Astronauts to Oval Office After Lunar Flyby

President Trump phoned the four-person crew of NASA's Artemis II mission Monday, congratulating them following a historic lunar flyby that shattered a 56-year-old distance record and marked humanity's first return to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

The 13-minute call, broadcast live as part of NASA's mission coverage, connected Trump with commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen while they were aboard the Orion spacecraft, named "Integrity" by the crew, on their return leg toward Earth.

"You really are modern-day pioneers, all of you," Trump told the crew. He concluded the call by extending a formal invitation to the White House: "I look forward to having you in the Oval Office at the White House, and we will celebrate your incredible achievements and trials. This is big. This is really big stuff."

The call came shortly after the crew wrapped a seven-hour flyby of the Moon that included an unbroken 40-minute communications blackout, one of the longest in human spaceflight history, as the Orion capsule passed behind the lunar far side. At its farthest point, the spacecraft reached 252,756 miles from Earth, eclipsing the record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in April 1970 during its emergency return. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman noted the magnitude of the milestone in a statement: "On the far side of the Moon, 252,756 miles away, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy have now traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history and now begin their journey home."

The call itself was not without friction. A nine-second communications delay produced a lengthy silence early in the conversation, prompting Trump to remark, "I think we might have gotten cut off." The crew asked for a comm check before the president confirmed he was still on the line.

Commander Wiseman, reflecting on the flyby, described observing "sights that no human has ever seen before" during the mission. The crew also witnessed a solar eclipse as the spacecraft passed through the Moon's shadow, viewing the Sun's corona directly from deep space without atmospheric interference, an experience impossible to replicate from Earth.

The mission launched April 1 from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B aboard NASA's Space Launch System. It is the first crewed test flight under the Artemis program and, at ten days total, the first mission to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17. The crew also received a recorded message from Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 veteran Jim Lovell, who died in August 2025 at 97, welcoming them to "my old neighborhood."

Trump's call continued a presidential tradition stretching back to Richard Nixon's conversation with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface in 1969. Monday's exchange was the first time in more than five decades that a sitting U.S. president spoke directly with astronauts in lunar space. The crew is expected to return to Earth within days, after which the Oval Office visit will be arranged.