Donald Trump was flanked by world-renowned astronauts as he signed an executive order re-launching America’s National Space Council.
He was joined at a press conference by David Wolf, Benjamin Alvin Drew and, most famously, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin – the second man on the moon.
But, as President Trump made a somewhat vague speech about the importance of exploring space, Mr Aldrin failed to conceal his bewilderment.
As the President took to the stand, he said: “We are going to lead again like we have never led before.
“We are a nation of pioneers and the next great American frontier is space. We never completed, we started but we never completed, we stopped. But now we start again."
Unaware of Mr Aldrin's pained expression, Mr Trump introduced him as an “American hero” before he appeared to veer away from the pre-written speech and talked, instead, about security.
“Security is going to be a very big factor with respect to space and space exploration,” he said.
“At some in the future we will look back and say how did we do it without space."
He then commended his cabinet members for doing “a fantastic job always working, always fighting – and winning – winning big against ISIS” as Mr Aldrin raised his eyebrows, looking bemused.
Mr Trump later said travelling into space will “unite us and bring us all closer together” and added: “Wouldn’t that be nice. Can you believe that space is going to do that?”
Mr Aldrin was clearly seen looking at the President with a perplexed expression as Mr Trump goes on: “America will think big. We haven’t been thinking so big for a long time but we’re thinking big again as a country.”
Twitter erupted with memes and posts about the awkward encounter, with one person sharing a picture of Mr Aldrin and commenting that his face represents “all of us when Trump talks about anything”.
