(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday morning to mark the third anniversary of the Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Trump later addressed the National Guard Association at the group’s annual conference in battleground Michigan, where he received an endorsement from former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait.
The chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 continues to be a focal point of conservative criticism of the Biden administration.
Trump has long decried President Joe Biden’s handling of what he said on Monday was a “botched” exit and “embarrassing” moment for the nation, though recently has included Vice President Kamala Harris — his new 2024 rival — in his denunciation of the event.
“Caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump said at the National Guard Association, claiming he would have overseen the withdrawal differently.
“We will never forget those brave warriors who made the supreme sacrifice for our country. They will live in our hearts forever,” Trump said of the 13 service members killed. He added, “We will honor their memory by restoring a government that puts the American people first.”
Harris on Monday released a statement honoring the 13 U.S. service members who lost their lives when an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide bomb at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where evacuation efforts were centered after the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan. At least 170 Afghan civilians were also killed in the bombing and dozens of others wounded.
The vice president said the fallen soldiers “represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe.”
“I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and I will always honor their service and sacrifice,” she said.
Harris went on to defend Biden’s decision to end “America’s longest war.”
“Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said in the statement. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland.”
Harris has previously spoken about being in the room with Biden for important decisions, including his decision to carry out a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — which Trump reportedly tried to launch in his final days as president. The Trump administration’s negotiated peace plan with the Taliban included a date of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal of troops — which Biden then continued to carry out with a September deadline.
Top officials have testified before Congress on the tumultuous withdrawal, some of whom have detailed regrets about how it was handled.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday announced he will present the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously on Sep. 10 to honor the 13 service members who were killed in Kabul. The medals, Congress’ highest civilian honor, will be presented to their families.
Biden, in his own statement on Monday, said the 13 Americans killed at Abbey Gate embodied “the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill.”
Biden said “we must never forget the immense price that was paid for our freedom. We must never forget that each beloved service member we lost was a human being, who left behind entire families and communities. And together, we must never stop striving to be worthy of their ultimate sacrifice.”
(WASHINGTON) — Borrowers eager for the Federal Reserve to abandon high interest rates could not have scripted a better four-word declaration than the one on Friday from Fed Chair Jerome Powell: “The time has come.”
Powell indicated that the Fed would soon bring interest rates down from a 23-year high. The shift could lower borrowing costs for everything from credit cards to auto loans to mortgages.
The pace and scale of rate cuts remains unknown, however. A cautious approach could leave borrowers saddled with high costs for the next several years while an aggressive reset could ease loan rates substantially within months.
“The question now is how far and how fast should the Fed cut rates?” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a post on X on Sunday.
The chances of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in September are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Market observers are divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point or opt for a larger half-point cut. The tool indicates a roughly 60% chance of a quarter-point cut and a 40% chance of a half-point cut.
Over the remainder of the year, the most likely scenario is a quarter-point rate cut at each of the Fed’s three scheduled meetings in September, November and December, the CME FedWatch Tool shows.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, low interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment; high interest rates slow economic performance and ease inflation.
In recent months, the labor market has slowed alongside cooling inflation. That trend was highlighted last month by a weaker-than-expected jobs report that raised concern among some economists that the U.S. may be headed toward a recession.
Recent trends have shifted the Fed’s focus away from controlling inflation and toward ensuring a healthy labor market, Powell said Friday.
“A cooldown in the labor market is unmistakable,” Powell said, adding that he would let economic performance dictate the course of rate cuts.
“The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks,” Powell said.
Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting firm EY, said in a statement to ABC News that he expects a quarter-point rate cut at each of the Fed’s next three meetings in an effort to soften the ongoing economic slowdown. However, worries about an imminent recession are overstated, Daco added.
The Fed aims to “buffer the economic downshift,” Daco said.
Deutsche Bank, which also projects three quarter-point rate cuts before the end of the year, said in a note to clients on Friday that a weak jobs report early in September could push the Fed to opt for a larger half-point cut at its meeting later that month.
“The softer-than-expected July jobs report and recent bouts of market volatility have shifted risks towards the Fed cutting more aggressively upfront,” Deutsche Bank said.
Analysts differ widely over the course of interest rate cuts in the next year or two. Zandi said the Fed should bring interest rates down significantly from the current target rate of between 5.25% and 5.5%. By the end of next year, interest rates should stand at 3%, he added.
By contrast, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers cautioned against an aggressive approach to interest rate cuts. “We need to be rather more cautious about the medium term outlook for monetary policy,” Summers said in a post on X on Saturday.
Still, Summers added, the need for some rate cutting is beyond question.
“Inflation is coming down. The economy is slowing. On current facts, absolutely the next move should be towards monetary policy easing,” Summers said.
Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Nearly one million spectators are expected to attend the US Open, which begins Monday in Queens, New York. Although a new assessment warns that large events “remain attractive targets for attacks by violent extremists and malicious actors,” the NYPD said there are currently no known causes for concern.
“There are no specific or credible threats to the US Open. However, we’re in a different threat environment than we were last year at this time. And so when we are collectively thinking through all of the measures that we’re putting in place around this US Open, we are mindful of what’s happening around the world,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner at a Monday press conference.
“We recognize that this is an environment where there’s a lot of protest activity,” Weiner added.
The focal point is Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the US Open will be played, but suspects could use “a broad range of tactics – including elevated position gunfire, vehicle ramming, edged weapons, and improvised explosive/incendiary devices (IED/IID), etc. – at a congested chokepoint areas, such as the Flushing Meadows pedestrian bridge between the Mets-Willets Point train station and the East Gate entrance of the USTA Tennis Center, requiring elevated situational awareness,” according to the threat assessment document obtained by ABC News.
Drones will hover over elevated subway lines to monitor for threats, according to officials. Police will also deploy dogs, explosive detection equipment and the bomb squad during the event.
“We cannot overstate how important it is for the people to be engaged, invested and aware. So if you are here at the US Open and you see anything that does not look right or does not feel right, call 911. Tell a police officer right away,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said at the press conference.
Two protesters were arrested at last year’s US Open when they began shouting and one glued his feet to the ground during a match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova. Another spectator was ejected from a game a few days earlier after German player Alexander Zverev accused the man of quoting a phrase from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
(LOVELOCK, Nev.) — Authorities are investigating the death of a female attendee who died on the first day of the Burning Man Festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Burning Man’s emergency services personnel found the victim unresponsive around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the Burning Man Project. Deputies responded and confirmed her death, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said.
“This death will remain under investigation until a Cause and Manner can be determined, which will be updated at the conclusion of an autopsy,” Allen said in a statement.
Her name and age have not been released, pending notification of next of kin.
“Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends affected by this loss,” festival organizers said in a statement. “The safety and well-being of our staff and community are paramount. We are cooperating fully with local authorities as they investigate. … Out of respect for the privacy of the grieving family, we will not be providing further details at this time.”
This year’s Burning Man festival runs from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2. About 80,000 people attend Burning Man each year, according to the festival’s website.
Last year’s festival was marred by torrential rains, with thousands mired in mud and told to stay in place and conserve food until they could safely exit the festival grounds.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday morning to mark the third anniversary of the Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Trump will also later address the National Guard Association at the group’s annual conference in battleground Michigan.
The chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 continues to be a focal point of conservative criticism of the Biden administration.
Trump has long decried President Joe Biden’s handling of what he said on Monday was a “botched” exit and “embarrassing” moment for the nation, though recently has included Vice President Kamala Harris — his new 2024 rival — in his denunciation of the event.
“Exactly three years ago this month, the weakness and incompetence of Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden delivered the most humiliating event in the history of our country and one of the biggest military disasters in the history of the world,” Trump claimed at a rally in North Carolina last week.
Harris on Monday released a statement honoring the 13 U.S. service members who lost their lives when an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide bomb at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where evacuation efforts were centered after the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan. At least 170 Afghan civilians were also killed in the bombing and dozens of others wounded.
The vice president said the fallen soldiers “represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe.”
“I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and I will always honor their service and sacrifice,” she said.
Harris went on to defend Biden’s decision to end “America’s longest war.”
“Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said in the statement. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland.”
Harris has previously spoken about being in the room with Biden for important decisions, including his decision to carry out a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — which Trump reportedly tried to launch in his final days as president. The Trump administration’s negotiated peace plan with the Taliban included a date of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal of troops — which Biden then continued to carry out with a September deadline.
Top officials have testified before Congress on the tumultuous withdrawal, some of whom have detailed regrets about how it was handled.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday announced he will present the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously on Sep. 10 to honor the 13 service members who were killed in Kabul. The medals, Congress’ highest civilian honor, will be presented to their families.
Biden, in his own statement on Monday, said the 13 Americans killed at Abbey Gate embodied “the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill.”
Biden said “we must never forget the immense price that was paid for our freedom. We must never forget that each beloved service member we lost was a human being, who left behind entire families and communities. And together, we must never stop striving to be worthy of their ultimate sacrifice.”
(NEW YORK) — Thirty-eight million people are under heat alerts Monday as dangerously high temperatures are set to take over the Midwest.
An excessive heat warning has been issued in Chicago, where the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could reach a scorching 110 degrees on Monday and Tuesday.
The cities of Minneapolis; Madison, Wisconsin; and Omaha, Nebraska, are also under excessive heat warnings. The heat index may climb as high as 115 degrees in these cities on Monday.
In Detroit, public schools will be released three hours early on Monday and Tuesday due to the heat.
The heat will spread east and south through the week. Record highs are possible from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday and from Nashville, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
This comes after record-high temperatures in Texas this weekend. Amarillo climbed to a record of 104 degrees on Sunday.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
Click here for tips on how to stay safe in the heat.
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Aug. 26, 2024, shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. — Ukrainian Emergency Service/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia on Monday launched a deadly large-scale attack across Ukraine, sending drones and cruise and ballistic missiles toward at least 15 regions, Ukrainian officials said.
“What is happening now in Kyiv is unbelievable horror. Pray for us,” Kira Rudick, a member of Ukrainian Parliament, said on social media. She later added, “What happened today? Nightmare.”
Some residents in Kyiv, the capital, took shelter in the city’s subways as Russia launched its “massive” attack across the country, Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister, said on social media. She included local news video that appeared to show throngs of people standing along a train platform.
Kyiv was among the 15 areas throughout Ukraine that had been struck in the attack, which began early in the morning and continued into the afternoon, lasting for at least 12 hours, officials said.
“Attack UAVs are attacking Kyiv from various directions right now,” the Kyiv City Military Administration said, referring to uncrewed aerial vehicles, or drones.
The administration added, “Air defense soldiers have already destroyed a total of about one-and-a-half dozen enemy drones that were headed for the capital. The air alert in Kyiv has been going on for more than 6 hours.”
The strikes followed Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations on Saturday. Russia had on Saturday struck several pieces of Ukrainian infrastructure, knocking out power for many. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv was helping restore power on Sunday after Russia’s “barbaric attacks,” according to the U.S. State Department’s official Russian social media accounts.
Russia in its Monday attack also targeted energy infrastructure in an attempt to “terrorize all of Ukraine” and to “deprive Ukrainians of electricity,” the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the country’s parliament, said. Engineers were working midmorning to restore power to many, the parliament said.
“The desire to destroy our energy will cost the Russians dearly — their infrastructure,” Andrii Yermak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in Ukrainian on messaging app Telegram on Monday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday it had carried out a “massive strike with long-range precision weapons,” including some that were launched from the sea. Russian drones were sent to strike “critical energy infrastructure facilities that supported the operation of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
“All designated targets were hit,” the ministry said.
At least one person was killed Monday in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian Emergency Service said in a statement.
A strike there destroyed two houses and damaged four others, the service said. A fire was burning as emergency officials arrived, the service said.
“A man born in 1955 died as a result of the attack,” the service said. “Another man who was under the rubble was also rescued. He was found by rescuers and handed over to medics.”
Dozens of others were wounded in the strikes, which were among the largest such aerial attacks since war began in 2022, Zelenskyy said. More than 100 missiles were launched, along with a comparable number of drones, he said.
“And like most previous Russia strikes, this one is just as dastardly, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” he said in Ukrainian, adding later that Russian President Vladimir Putin “can only do what the world allows him to do.”
A residential apartment building was also struck in Lutsk at about 8:30 a.m., the service said.
At least three people were injured in the Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, head of the regional military administration, said on the messaging app Telegram.
“Everything is under control,” Kim said. “Charge your devices just in case.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
The Rimac Nevera electric hypercar holds more than 20 performance records. — Rimac Group
(NEW YORK) — Mate Rimac has a tall order: trying to convince drivers that electric supercars are superior to combustion vehicles.
Rimac, the 36-year-old engineering savant from Croatia who started his namesake company 15 years ago, recently pulled the sheet of his latest creation: the Nevera R, an aerodynamically perfected supercar designed to hug every tight corner and give maximum driving pleasure. The performance numbers are nearly impossible to comprehend: 2,107 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of 1.74 seconds.
This insanely powerful supercar is breaking industry records. There are, however, snags in Rimac’s master plan. He has acknowledged that turning enthusiasts to electric proselytes could take months, if not years.
Rimac spoke to ABC News earlier this month about the challenges of selling his seven-figure sports cars, taking over French marque Bugatti as CEO and why government officials are making a mistake by pushing electric-vehicle mandates. He’s also a big supporter of autonomous driving.
The interview below has been edited.
ABC News: You introduced the Nevera R electric hypercar to the world at Monterey Car Week. The horsepower that car produces — 2,107! — is mind-blowing. How did you accomplish this?
Mate: I started the company 15 years ago when I was like 20 years old in order to push the limits and show what technology can bring to the table … that the future of automotive is not going to be boring. And the whole goal, my whole focus of the company and of me the last few years, has been to achieve that. It’s not just the car. It’s building the capabilities, the company around it, to actually do it in Croatia, a country that has never built cars before.
The last 15 years of this journey has been leading up to developing this technology, the team, the resources, the factory, the equipment and actually a whole industry.
ABC News: Is horsepower the one metric that matters most to your customers?
Mate: No, absolutely not. It’s the whole package. So performance is being commoditized right now. More and more cars come to the market at a relatively affordable cost that offer quite good performance, incredible performance actually when you compare it to a few years ago when it was only reserved for extreme hypercars. It’s all about emotions and that’s always a challenge with electric cars: How do you convey emotion without the sound of a combustion engine? But everyone who tries a Nevera is like, “Yes, we can see that this car was developed by people who love cars, like proper car guys.” Despite being electric, the Nevera offers a lot of emotion. That’s the most important thing.
ABC News: And how exactly are you delivering that emotion?
Mate: Well, there’s different things. The Nevera has four electric motors that can do crazy drift modes and on a flip of a switch it’s like a track monster. Everything changes — the suspension, the power distribution, it goes from rear-wheel drive to all-wheel drive, it can adjust it exactly as you want. Like it gives a totally different experience.
Emotion for me is the ability to go sideways, to control the car, stuff like that. And we can do all of that with this car.
ABC News: Why are you limiting production of the Nevera R to 40 units? When does production begin?
Mate: The Nevera was 150 units, and the Nevera R is 40 additional. We want to keep exclusivity. The Bugatti Tourbillon is limited to 250 and we could have sold a lot more, but for us it’s important to have exclusivity and it’s also important for the value of the cars later.
We start production early next year and the cost of a Nevera R is 2.3 million euros.
ABC News: Here we are, talking about the electric Nevera R, an engineering triumph, but you made a comment this past spring that high-end buyers don’t want electric supercars. Is that still true? Are you having trouble selling the Nevera to enthusiasts?
Mate: I think electric cars, in any category, need to bring something special. Just making an car electric is not going to cut it. People are thinking, “Let’s just make an electric car and it will sell … or the regulation will force people to go electric.” And I am not totally against that — I am totally against forcing this on people who don’t want an electric car. I am all for bringing something unique, something cool, something different that’s better and maybe more affordable — maybe not in this market segment but in general.
An electric car should be better in every aspect, including price, compared to its competition and then people will buy it.
ABC News: There’s another trend in the industry where automakers are taking electric sports cars but giving them gearboxes and fake engine sounds. Is this something you’ve thought about?
Mate: No, we don’t do this. We have decided from the beginning we only do authentic things. There are no fake sounds, there are no artificial gear shift changes. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ns have that, it’s a gimmick. But we don’t think that’s appropriate for this category of cars.
ABC News: When do you think electric sports and supercars cars will be widely accepted?
Mate: Oh, I think that will be a while. People in this segment still prefer combustion cars. But I think we are the player when it comes to electric performance in this segment.
ABC News: So will the next Rimac sports car or Nevera successor have an internal combustion engine?
Mate: It could be anything. From the beginning, I never said that we are exclusively electric. We were whatever is most exciting. The Nevera R has four electric motors — that is not something you can achieve with a combustion engine. But when it comes to power source, it can be anything. It could be a combustion engine with an interesting fuel, it could be fuel cell that does not run on hydrogen. We are really looking at lots of stuff. The next car doesn’t necessarily have to be purely electric — whatever is most exciting and most technically interesting. I have been doing electric cars now for 15 years … I am very excited to look at other stuff as well.
ABC News: Where are you seeing the most demand for your cars?
Mate: The U.S. is the biggest customer base, closely after that is Europe. So like 40% [of sales] are in the U.S., 30% is Europe and then the rest of the world.
ABC News: What are the challenges of running two high performance and ultra luxe brands like Bugatti and Rimac? They compete for the same customers and that’s a very limited pool.
Mate: These customers have multiple cars, it’s not just like they buy just one car. They want to be a part of something. It’s about the people behind it, it’s about the events, meeting each other. [Customers] are becoming part of a story. They’re also becoming a part of history. We are creating history together.
Many of the customers decided to join Rimac because they’re also part of Bugatti or vice versa and they deal with the same people, they go to Croatia, they have the Croatia experience, so it actually works well. With Bugatti you have to be careful, it’s an old brand with a lot of heritage. You have to be very respectful to the brand. You cannot do something that’s crazy. A lot of our Nevera customers are also Bugatti customers.
ABC News: What is the biggest obstacle for all automakers and the industry right now?
Mate: There are three big topics. One is electrification. A lot of people invested a lot into electrification and maybe it was a bit too fast. The other area is China. The third one is autonomous driving and finding new ways of moving around where ownership isn’t really necessary anymore. The lower-end brands are really in the trenches, they have issues. It’s for sure an interesting time and in the next year we’ll see lots of changes in the industry.
ABC News: There are concerns about a recession in the U.S. Has the company been impacted at all?
Mate: This talk has been going on for years, basically since COVID started. We have never been more successful. We sold out of the Tourbillon — all 250 cars. We just presented it two months ago. It’s completely sold out. We are basically sold out until the end of this decade with Bugatti for a car that’s $4.6 million. The market is still strong in this segment.
ABC News: You’re also developing a driverless robotaxi that could be in service as soon as 2026. These types of vehicles have received a lot of bad press lately and have been involved in serious safety accidents. Why robotaxis? You design cars for real-life drivers.
Mate: Yeah, but do you really like to drive in every situation? Like how many times would you rather spend your time doing something else — watching a movie, or typing on your phone or typing some emails but you can’t because you’re driving or even worse you’re doing it while you’re driving. Not every drive is necessarily exciting and let’s be honest — how many people really care about it? I am not saying car ownership should go away or people shouldn’t drive cars anymore. God forbid.
We just think it makes sense. When an autonomous car in this stage has an accident, even if it’s a minor one, of course it will be blown out of proportion. But eventually autonomous cars will be a lot safer, a lot safer than human drivers and they will save millions of lives.
ABC News: So you have taken over Bugatti, you’re building electric hypercars and you also want to build robotaxis.
What is next on your list to accomplish?
Mate: [laughs]. Oh Jesus Christ, nothing. I made a vow to myself to finish all these things and then I don’t know. I might take a long vacation.
The Crew of the next SpaceX private astronaut flight called Polaris Dawn, (Left to Right) Anna Menon, who works to develop astronaut operations for SpaceX, Scott Poteet, who served as the mission director of the Inspiration4 mission SpaceX, Jared Isaacman, who is financing the mission and Sarah Gillis, lead space operations engineer, SpaceX. Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington
(MERRITT ISLAND, Fla.) — Embarking on a new chapter of private space exploration, the Polaris Dawn mission is poised to make history this week by launching four private citizens into ultra-high orbit and attempting the first civilian spacewalk.
Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman and in collaboration with SpaceX, the crew aims to reach as far as 870 miles above Earth, the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission in more than a half-century since the Apollo program.
SpaceX announced Sunday the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry the Polaris Dawn crew to orbit could launch as early as Tuesday at 3:38 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Isaacman, the CEO of the payment-processing company Shift4, will be joined by former Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
During the historic mission, which is set to span five days under normal conditions, two of the crew members will exit the spacecraft in the first commercial spacewalk at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.
During a press briefing last week, Isaacman shared details on the ambitious mission, which will see all four crew members exposed to the vacuum of space due to the absence of an airlock on the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The spacewalk will also serve as a critical test for SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity spacesuits, an evolution of the intravehicular activity suit.
This new design includes a heads-up display, helmet camera and enhanced joint mobility. It also features thermal insulation, solar protection and a suspension system that allows you to pressurize the suit, put on a harness and actually go through operations as if you are weightless.
The Dragon spacecraft has undergone significant modifications, including upgrades to the life support systems to supply more oxygen during spacewalks, according to the Polaris Program. Environmental sensing has been improved, and a new nitrogen repressurization system has been installed.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be Isaacman’s second journey to space.
In 2021, he funded his first mission to orbit Earth. The project was billed as a childhood cancer fundraiser, garnering $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and marked the first all-civilian mission to orbit.
Looking to the future, Isaacman believes the SpaceX vehicles could unlock a new frontier in commercial space travel.
“It could very well be the 737 for human space flight someday,” he said of the company’s Starship vehicle. “But it’ll certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the moon and then on to Mars and beyond,” he added.
(KETCHIKAN, Alaska) — A landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska, blocked roads and damaged houses, killing at least one person, officials said.
Three other people were transported to a nearby hospital, Kacie Paxton, a public information officer for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, said in a statement. One of those people was later released, she said.
Forced mandatory evacuations were put in place after the landslide swept through several streets in Ketchikan at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, Paxton said. Alaska State Troopers and local authorities were undertaking search and rescue operations.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an Alaska Disaster Emergency Declaration. A separate Joint Disaster Emergency Declaration was issued by Borough Mayor Rodney Dial and City of Ketchikan Mayor Dave Kiffer.
“In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude,” Kiffer said in a statement. “With the slides we have seen across the region, there is clearly a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand with the support of our state geologist.”
He added, “The loss of life that we have encountered is heartbreaking, and my heart goes out to those who lost their homes.”
An evacuation was ordered for homes near the landslide, along Third Avenue, Second Avenue and Water Street, First Avenue, and White Cliff Avenue between Austin Street and Nadeau Street, officials said.
Photos released by the borough appeared to show a pile of trees and loose soil up against several hillside homes, at least one of which appeared to have been pushed into another home. Other photos appeared to show roads covered with debris, including trees.
“Our prayers are with the families, the injured, those recovering, and the community,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said on social media, later adding, “My team and I stand ready to help facilitate any federal assistance that may be necessary.”
