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As is standard procedure for major NASA missions, the US space agency held a post-launch news conference on Sunday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to provide information about how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was faring during its initial maneuvers. What was not standard, however, is what happened in the middle of the news conference. A little less than half an hour in, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman looked down at his mobile phone, and then stood up and walked away from the dais where he had been seated behind a table along with other NASA officials. He briefly left the room. Isaacman returned about a minute later, phone in hand, apologizing for interrupting NASA's chief of science, Nicky Fox, as she was speaking about the mission. "The President of the United States of America would like to address and congratulate everyone on this mission," Isaacman said, returning to his seat. Read full article Comments

As is standard procedure for major NASA missions, the US space agency held a post-launch news conference on Sunday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to provide information about how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was faring during its initial maneuvers.

What was not standard, however, is what happened in the middle of the news conference. A little less than half an hour in, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman looked down at his mobile phone, and then stood up and walked away from the dais where he had been seated behind a table along with other NASA officials. He briefly left the room.

With just one more major mission upcoming, NASA’s science programs need a boost.

In an unusual moment, Trump then spoke through Isaacman’s phone to the assembled reporters and NASA officials. “I just want to thank everybody, and congratulate you. Boy, it looked beautiful on television,” Trump said of the Roman space telescope launch. “Jared is doing a fantastic job, you are doing a fantastic job, and I’m supplying you all that money.”

So what to make of this? Presidents, historically, do not call into a NASA news conference. In truth, presidents do not spend much time thinking about space in general, or NASA in particular. This is changing with the increasing importance of space from a military standpoint, but for most presidents civil space lies fairly low on the priority list. Presidents call astronauts when they’re orbiting the Moon; they don’t dial into post-launch news conferences.