This is what happened when an astronaut accidentally dialled 911 from the International Space Station

Whether it's butt-dialing a random number or drunk-texting an ex, we’ve all had an embarrassing mishap with our phone.

But if you’re looking for something to make you feel better about your own cringey blunder - nothing can top the mistake made by one astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

Dutch astronaut André Kuipers made a major error during his second mission at the ISS, where he spent eight months in space in 2012.

André Kuipers accidentally called 911 while in space (Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)

The then 60-year-old was trying to get through to NASA’s Johnson Space Center based in Houston but missed off a digit while he was dialing and wound up alerting emergency services instead.

Speaking to Dutch outlet, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, Kuipers said: “If you’re in space, it’s like you are making a call via Houston - first you dial the nine for an outside line, then 011 for an international line.”

"I missed the 0, and indeed there was a report at the Houston alarm center: something happened in the Johnson Space Center, and security went off and they went to the room where the call came from.

“There was no one on the ground, but there was the line where the space station came in. I was a little disappointed that they had not come upstairs.”

The astronaut unknowingly alerted emergency services from the ISS (Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)

Surprisingly, it’s quite easy for astronauts floating above the atmosphere to get in touch with people on Earth as Kuipers revealed that they are able to use terrestrial phones around 70% of the time.

Although he did note that it can sometimes be difficult to hold a conversation due to time delays.

He added: “Sometimes people would hang up because they thought I did not say anything, so later on I started to talk as soon as I had dialed the last number.”

Kuipers isn't the only astronaut who has made a blunder with calling the wrong number in space.

British astronaut Tim Peake made a similar issue in December 2015 after accidentally calling the wrong person.

In a tweet, he wrote at the time: “I'd like to apologise to the lady I just called by mistake saying 'Hello, is this planet Earth?' — not a prank call ... just a wrong number!”

The 52-year-old European Space Agency astronaut lived on the ISS from December 2015 until June 2016 and had many notable moments while onboard, including presenting Adele with a Brit award via videolink and running the 2016 London Marathon from an ISS treadmill.