The embarrassing moment came when Trump contacted the
International Space Station to congratulate Jessica Meir and Christina Koch for completing an all female spacewalk outside of the craft.
Trump, however, congratulated the pair for being the “
first ever female spacewalkers”.
A delay in connection between Trump and the space station made for a short period of silence, before Ms Meir made it clear that she and Koch were not the first female spacewalker.
The first female spacewalk, in fact, took place in 1984 and 14 more have since followed.
The mistake came as Trump sat at a table in the White House with his daughter Ivanka Trump and Vice President Mike Pence sat either side of him, as well as a handful of NASA officials and a group of Girl Scouts in the background.
Staring intently into the camera, Trump said: “This is the first time for a woman outside of the space station.”
He added: “You are amazing people; they're conducting the first ever female spacewalk to replace an exterior part of the space station.
“They're doing some work, and they're doing it in a very high altitude — an altitude that very few people will ever see.”
Ms Meir can then be heard
correcting the President, explaining that the event marked the first time two women had been outside the spacecraft at the same time.
Ms Meir said: “We don't want to take too much credit because there have been many other female spacewalkers before.
“This is the first time that there's been two women outside at the same time.”
In 1984,
Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya became the first woman to complete a spacewalk.
In the 35 years since a total of 15 women have spacewalked.
Ms Meir and Ms Koch spent seven hours outside the space station replacing a failed power control unit.
