All-private SpaceX astronaut mission to return home from the ISS after nearly week-long delay
CNN
The first all-private mission to the International Space Station is slated to complete the final leg of its journey this weekend, capping off what turned into a longer-than-expected journey after bad weather kept the passengers on the space station for several extra days.
The mission, called AX-1, was brokered by the Houston, Texas-based startup Axiom Space, which books rocket rides, provides all the necessary training, and coordinates flights to the ISS for anyone who can afford it.
The four crew members — Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut-turned-Axiom employee who is commanding the mission; Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and Ohio-based real estate magnate Larry Connor — are slated to leave the space station aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Saturday at 8:35 pm ET. They'll spend a day free flying through orbit before plummeting back into the atmosphere and parachuting to a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida at about 1:46 pm ET Sunday.
Leaders representing the Group of Seven nations are set to announce as soon as Thursday an agreement to loan money to Ukraine backed by the profits from frozen Russian investments, according to sources familiar with the discussions, providing a new source of revenue to a war-torn nation facing a steep and costly road to recovery.
An Arizona man was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on several firearms charges, having been accused by the US Justice Department of planning a mass shooting targeting Black people and other minorities at a May Atlanta concert in hopes of inciting a race war before the upcoming presidential election.