Polaris Dawn astronauts begin historic first commercial spacewalk
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule sits on Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center ahead of the Polaris Dawn Mission in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 9, 2024. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission crew began the first-ever commercial space walk early Thursday.
Two crew members — commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis — were expected to exit the Dragon spacecraft on the “extravehicular activity,” as SpaceX described it. Pilot Scott Poteet and mission specialist Anna Menon planned to stay inside the capsule to support the operation.
All crew members are now considered “spacewalkers” as the capsule was depressurized for the outing, thus exposing all four crew to the vacuum of space.
The mission plan said Isaacman and Gillis would both leave the capsule for 10 minutes each. The astronauts will hold a handrail system — called Skywalker and are on 8-foot tethers — significantly shorter than NASA spacewalkers have traditionally used.
Isaacman and Gillis plan to “perform a series of mobility tests in the newly-designed SpaceX EVA suit” during the spacewalk, SpaceX said on its website, where the operation was live streamed.
The entire spacewalk is expected to take around two hours, SpaceX said.
Law enforcement officials work at the crime scene outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 16, 2024, following Sunday’s attempted assassination on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged on Monday with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number at his initial court appearance. — Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — The man arrested for allegedly trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course is expected to appear before a judge Monday.
Ryan Wesley Routh was ordered to appear in a West Palm Beach federal court for a pre-detention hearing. Routh, 58, has already been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number for the Sept. 15 incident that took place at Trump International Golf Club.
Trump was playing golf on the course when a Secret Service agent spotted a gun barrel poking out from the tree line near the sixth green, according to investigators.
The agent then fired in the direction of the rifle and saw Routh fleeing the area and entering his Nissan vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
Routh was allegedly 300 to 500 yards away from the former president and did not fire any shot, according to investigators. Trump was not in Routh’s line of sight, according to the Secret Service.
Witnesses reported the license plate number to authorities, and the suspect was stopped and detained.
In the area of the tree line where the suspect was seen, agents found a digital camera, two bags, including a backpack, and a loaded SKS-style 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope, according to the complaint. The serial number on the rifle “was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye,” the complaint states.
Routh did not enter a plea for his initial charges and his arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30.
The investigation is ongoing and the FBI has been going through Routh’s social media and criminal history and speaking with family members to get more clues.
Routh suggested Iran should feel “free to assassinate Trump” and himself in a self-published book from February 2023.
In the book, which ABC News has unearthed following Sunday’s incident, Routh directed an apology toward Iran, apparently for his previous support for Trump, who withdrew the U.S. in 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran.
The suspect was also a booster of a number of causes, including the war in Ukraine, an ABC News analysis of his apparent social media profiles shows.
As authorities try to unravel the motive and details of the case, sources said investigators were looking at whether Routh was frustrated with Trump’s position on Ukraine.
Mayor Eric Adams exits the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse after making the first appearance in his corruption case on October 2, 2024 in New York City. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — It is “possible” New York City Mayor Eric Adams could face additional charges and additional defendants are “likely” to be added, prosecutors said during a court hearing Wednesday, a week after a sprawling, five-count indictment was unsealed against the embattled politician.
“We’re moving quickly,” the prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, said. “We think that is quite likely.”
Adams has pleaded not guilty to charges that accused him of engaging in a long-running conspiracy to solicit and accept illegal foreign contributions.
Alex Spiro, Adams’ lawyer, criticized prosecutors, saying in a statement following the hearing: “The prosecution is desperately now saying they ‘could’ bring a new case because they are suddenly facing dismissal of their actual, flawed case and sanctions for misconduct. This is the sort of nonsense that prosecutors say when they don’t have a real case. If they had a real case, they would have brought it.”
The investigation into Adams began in the summer of 2021, “before the defendant had even become mayor,” Scotten said, revealing a timeframe not previously known.
The investigation unearthed text messages, emails and records from Turkish Airlines that Scotten said show the mayor tried to “create the illusion” he properly paid for certain flights when, in fact, he had not.
“It’s a bribe and it’s against the law,” Scotten said.
“Multiple” witnesses who participated with Adams in the charged conduct and witnesses who made illegal donations are expected to testify, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said they have evidence Adams sought to tamper with witnesses.
According to Scotten, after a witness was approached by the FBI during the investigation, that person was given “a clear message from the defendant they should not tell the truth to the FBI.”
The witness was not named, but Scotten called it a “significant instance of witness interference in this case.”
Adams patted the shoulder of a woman he seemed to recognize as he made his way to the defense table for his first hearing before the judge presiding over his federal bribery prosecution.
The mayor’s defense lawyer has asked the court to dismiss the bribery count and, separately, to sanction the prosecution over purported leaks. The defense urged the court to move quickly.
“We do not want this case dragging out,” Spiro said.
Spiro said Adams’ trial should start and end in March to give him time to secure a spot on the ballot for reelection. Adams, who was elected in 2021, is up for reelection in 2025.
“We want to get this to trial,” Spiro said. “They indicted the sitting mayor of New York.”
Spiro expressed confidence the bribery count would be dismissed and Adams acquitted.
“We want this case to be done with in March,” Spiro said.
Judge Dale Ho agreed the public and the mayor have a “strong interest” in a speedy trial, but he declined to immediately set a trial date. Prosecutors suggested a May trial date.
Prosecutors said they expect the trial to last about four weeks, while the defense said it would be much shorter.
Ho gave prosecutors until Oct. 18 to reply to the defense motions with oral arguments on Oct. 31.
Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, has said he plans to fight the charges, which last week he called “entirely false,” and does not plan to resign as leader of the largest city in the country.
(NEW YORK) — Jimmy Carter will turn 100 years old on Oct. 1.
The former president of the United States will reach the milestone birthday, about 20 months since entering home hospice care in February 2023.
Carter’s late wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, two days after the Carter family announced publicly that their matriarch had started hospice care as well. She was later honored at a memorial service held at Emory University’s Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta, where Jimmy Carter made a rare appearance.
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Jimmy Carter said in a statement at the time. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
Rosalynn Carter had been diagnosed with dementia in her final year of life.
The Carters were, and Jimmy Carter remains the head of a large extended family. Get to know their beloved children below.
Meet Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s family:
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter, who were married for 77 years, had four children: three sons — John William, James Earl III, Donnel Jeffrey — and one daughter, Amy Lynn.
In addition to their four children, the Carters were grandparents of 12 (one deceased) and great-grandparents to 14 children, according to the Jimmy Carter Library.
The Carters grew up together as neighbors and schoolmates in Plains, Georgia and went on to become the longest-married couple in presidential history. They married on July 7, 1946.
Jimmy Carter told ABC News in 2021 that the key to their long and happy marriage included taking the time to both “share as much as we possibly can” and giving each other permission to pursue separate interests.
“We’ve survived this long together because first of all, we give each other plenty of space to do our own thing,” he said at the time.
“We’re always looking to do things or find things we can do together, like fly fishing and bird watching and just going out to the pond,” Rosalynn Carter also added.
Learn more about the Carters’ children:
Jack Carter
Jack Carter was born in Virginia in July 1947, nearly a year after his parents’ marriage.
He owns an investment company and lives in Las Vegas.
The eldest Carter son was previously a lawyer and a businessman and in 2016, followed his father’s footsteps into politics. He ran as a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Nevada but lost to incumbent Republican Sen. John Ensign.
He was previously married to Juliette “Judy” Langford and they share two children – son Jason James and daughter Sarah Rosemary, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, which is run by the University of Georgia. Jack Carter has been married to Elizabeth Brasfield since 1992.
Jason Carter delivered the eulogy at the memorial service of his late grandmother Rosalynn Carter.
Chip Carter
James Earl Carter III, named after his father, was born in Hawaii in April 1950.
The second Carter son also grew up in his father’s hometown of Plains but in a 2008 interview with the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, he said his nickname Chip was given to him while he was still in Honolulu.
“‘Chip’ is Hawaiian for ‘baby’ and my blue armband when I was born had ‘Chip Carter’ written on it, which meant ‘baby Carter’ and that’s how I got the name Chip,” he said.
Chip Carter was married in 1973 to Caron Griffin and they had a son named James Earl Carter IV. The couple divorced in 1980. Chip Carter would later marry Ginger Hodges and they had a daughter named Margaret Alicia Carter. Today, Chip Carter is married to Becky Payne, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Chip Carter welcomed guests to the late Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service and called his mother his “hero.”
“I will always love my mother. I will cherish how she and Dad raised their children. They’d given us such a great example of how a couple should relate. Let me finish by saying that my mother, Rosalynn Carter, was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met and pretty to look at, too. Thank you,” he said.
Jeff Carter
Donnel Jeffrey Carter is the youngest son and third child of the former president and former first lady.
Jeff Carter was born in August 1952 in Connecticut and attended Georgia Southwestern State University, where he would meet his future wife, the late Annette Davis Carter.
The couple married in 1975, lived at the White House and, later, had three children – sons Joshua, Jeremy and James. Jeremy Carter died in 2015 after an apparent heart attack, according to the biography “His Very Best Jimmy Carter, a Life,” by Jonathan Alter.
Amy Carter
Amy Lynn Carter is the youngest of the Carter kids and was born in Plains in October 19, 1967.
Amy was one of the speakers at her late mother’s memorial service and read letters her father Jimmy had written to her mother Rosalynn.
“My mom spent most of her life in love with my dad. Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life,” Amy Carter said. “Because he isn’t able to speak to you today. I am going to share some of his words about loving and missing her.”
“This is from a letter he wrote 75 years ago while he was serving in the Navy. ‘My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are. While I’m away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me. Goodbye, darling. Until tomorrow, Jimmy,'” she finished.
Amy Carter spent her young teenage years in the White House when her father was president and her mother was first lady, between 1977 and 1981.
In 1996, Amy Carter married James Wentzel and the couple had a son, Hugo James Wentzel, who was born on July 29, 1999. The couple later divorced and Amy Carter remarried Jay Kelly. They also welcomed a son, named Errol Carter Kelly.
In the summer of 2023, Hugo James Wentzel appeared on the second season of the reality competition show “Claim to Fame,” which features celebrity relatives, and revealed he was one of the Carters’ grandchildren.
“He’s an amazing grandpa, honestly. I love him so much. I call him Papa,” Wentzel said of the former president. “He led America and my family very well. I stand for everything he stands for. He believes in equality for everyone, regardless of race, class, gender, anything. He’s just an amazing person. I aspire to be like him one day.”
