Canadian Jeremy Hansen joins Artemis II crew, meets Trump at White House - BERITAJA

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the courageousness of the astronauts connected the historical Artemis II ngo Wednesday, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, saying their travel to the satellite captured the attraction of the world.

“They’re very brave,” Trump said astatine the White House. “And that was a batch of rocket nether them. I ne'er saw thing for illustration that.”

Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch stood beside the president, who was seated down the Resolute Desk successful the Oval Office, about 3 weeks aft they splashed down successful the Pacific Ocean pursuing a 10-day lunar fly-around.

The four-person unit were the first quality beings to spell to the satellite successful much than 50 years. They travelled farther from the aboveground of the Earth than anyone earlier them.

Trump invited the astronauts to the White House erstwhile he said pinch them hours aft their spaceship had travelled about the acold broadside of the moon, saying he wanted their autographs.

Trump has agelong expressed a desire to grow American abstraction capabilities. On Wednesday he said it takes “unbelievable courage” to beryllium an astronaut. Trump said astronauts person to beryllium smart and “do a batch of things physically good.”

Trump joked he would person had “no trouble” pinch the beingness facet of the job.

“Is a president allowed to spell up connected 1 of these missions?” he asked.

While Trump has praised the abstraction mission, his management is moving to trim NASA’s budget. The Office of Management and Budget’s projected NASA allotment for the adjacent fiscal twelvemonth is $18.8 billion, about a 23 per cent cut.

NASA formally launched the Artemis programme during Trump’s first word to hole for a much imperishable quality lunar beingness and laic the groundwork to someday nonstop astronauts to Mars.

NASA has 3 much Artemis missions planned earlier Trump’s 2nd word ends, pinch the eventual extremity of landing group connected the satellite again and opening building of a lunar base.

“We person we person bully shot,” Trump told reporters. “We’ve authorized it.”

Canada was the first of dozens of nations to subordinate the Artemis program. The celebrated Canadarm robotic manipulator strategy has been a cardinal instrumentality for abstraction missions since the early 1980s and is utilized connected the International Space Station.

With the Artemis II mission, Hansen, 50, of London, Ont., became the first non-American to recreation beyond debased Earth orbit and the first personification to speak French while en way to the moon.