In an April 6 phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, the crew members of the Artemis II were left speechless and “awkwardly tossing a microphone to each other” after the President claimed that he had “saved” the space agency, NASA. Last year President Trump proposed to cut the 2026 NASA budget by 24% and on April 3 he released his 23% budget cuts for NASA in the 2027 budget request. The President also proposed a 57% cut to the National Science Foundation. In the 12-minute call with the astronauts, there were several minutes of “awkward silence.”