The crew of Artemis II flew farther from Earth than any human in history, saw parts of the moon never seen before and spoke with President Donald Trump as they took a turn for their return flight home.

“Today you’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” Trump said during a call with the four crew who had just completed seven hours of observations including parts of the far side of the moon.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen flew 248,655 miles from the planet during their 10-day mission. The quartet launched from Kennedy Space Center last Wednesday, but are now headed for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening.

They were on a call with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who dialed in Trump who was rife with congratulatory statements.

“We have a lot of things to be proud of lately, but this is. there’s nothing like what you’re doing, circling around the moon for the first time in more than a half a century,” he said.

Only 24 people, all during nine Apollo missions from 1968-1972, had ever left low-Earth orbit and ventured to deep space. The Artemis II crew grows that number to 28, including the first woman, first Black man and first non-American.

Wiseman gave credit to Isaacman’s leadership and collaboration with international partners and weighed in on the gravity of the what the crew had just seen, although the connection was littered with awkward moments of dropped audio.

“As we came around the near side of the moon, seeing all the sites that we’ve seen from Earth for all of our lives, but we’re seeing them from a different perspective,” he said, but sites like the Orientale basin on the far side, “sites that no human has ever seen before, not even in Apollo. That was amazing for us.”

The crew also witnessed a solar eclipse when the moon blocked out the sun.

“We could see the corona of the sun, and then we could see the planet train line up,” Wiseman said noting they could also see Mars. “All of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two-planet species.”

Trump kept floating Mars as the next step for NASA, but touted his administration’s plans to start a lunar base in the coming years.

“Your mission paves the way for America’s return to the lunar surface. Very soon, we’re going all out. We’re doing everything we can, and it’s headed up by Jared. We’ll plant our flag once again, and this time, we won’t just leave footprints. We’ll establish a permanent presence on the moon, and we’ll push on to Mars.” he said. “That’ll be very exciting. I’m waiting for that so much. I’d love to be here, but maybe we won’t quite make it in terms of timing, but we will be up in the moon, and that’s going to happen soon.”

Artemis II is the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, which is aiming to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. That won’t come until Artemis IV aiming for an early 2028 launch before the end of Trump’s second term.

“I just watched you go to the back of the moon, and people haven’t been there in a long time, we can say. But it’s going to be more and more prevalent, because we’re going to be doing a lot of traveling, and then you’re going to ultimately do the whole big trip to Mars, and that’s going to be very exciting,” Trump said.

Trump also took time to tout the nation’s prominence calling America the “hottest country anywhere in the world,” but did recognize that the crew was not just Americans.

“You really are modern day pioneers. All of you, and one of them happens to be a neighbor. You know who that is right? You have a special person over there and neighbor, and we like our neighbor,” he said. He later mentioned how he was good friends with Canadian and NHL legend and Canadian Wayne Gretzky, avoiding talk about his threats to make Canada the “51st state” which has led to widespread anti-U.S. sentiment in the country.

Hansen recognized the U.S. role in leading the effort.

“A nation that leads like that and then creates and sets big goals for humanity that brings other countries along with it, is truly incredible,” he said. “I know that’s a very intentional, not a necessary decision.”

Trump asked about what the crew saw on the far side and what it was like when they were out of contact when they did not have line-of-sight with the Earth.

“I said a little prayer, but then I had to keep rolling,” Glover said talking about his filming out the spacecraft’s window. “I was actually recording scientific observations of the far side of the moon. … We were really able to make some of our most detailed observations of the far side of the moon up close. And so we were busy up here, working really hard, and I must say, it was actually quite nice.”

Koch said, though, it was good to return to a point where she could see home.

“I think one of the biggest highlights was coming back from the far side of the moon and having the first glimpses of planet Earth again, after being out of communication for about 45 minutes,” she said. “It really just reminds you what a special place we have.”

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