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(HOUSTON, Texas) — Less than a week after returning from their historic 10-day, 694,481-mile journey to the moon and back, the Artemis II crew answered questions on Thursday about their successful mission.

During a news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of the Mission Control Center, the three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut spoke fondly of their time aboard the Orion spacecraft, Integrity, and recalled how they came together as a crew during the first mission to the moon in more than 50 years.

Reid Wiseman, who served as the Artemis II commander, said, “What an amazing journey that was. First and foremost, Victor, Christina, Jeremy, just thank you. This was an unbelievable adventure, and it was made possible by this crew and the support of each other throughout the whole thing.” 

He added, “We are bonded forever. I mean, that’s the closest four humans can be and not be a family.”

“I am here to tell the world: we launched as friends, and we came back as best friends,” he added.

When asked by ABC13 reporter Nick Natario whether the gravity of what they’ve accomplished has hit them and how it may have changed them, the crew said they were focused on completing the mission.

Victor Glover, the pilot for the mission, added, “We did what we said we were going to do, and now we’ve got to step out and just face that reality.”

Christina Koch, one of the flight’s mission specialists, said, “When my husband looked me in the eye on that video call and said, ‘No, really, you’ve made a difference.’ It brought tears to my eyes, and I said, that’s all we ever wanted.”

She added, “When we come before you now, we’ve done this together. We took your hearts with us and your hearts lifted our hearts.”

Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel into deep space, said, “I found it really refreshing to find out how people have followed the mission and been creative with the mission and there’s lots of funny stuff online. And that really resonates with me a lot, and it just reinforces something I already knew, but humans are just great people in general. We don’t always do great things. We’re not always in our integrity, but our default is to be good and to be good to one another.” 

When asked if the experience of traveling to deep space created a “sense of universal connectedness,” Wiseman said, “I turned to Victor, and I said, I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we’re looking at right now, because it was other worldly and it was amazing.”

In terms of their sleep about Orion, Koch said that “space sleep is the best sleep ever,” and now that she’s back on Earth, she said, unlike after her International Space Station mission, this time, “every time I’ve been waking up or in the first few days, I thought I was floating. I truly thought I was floating and I had to convince myself I wasn’t.”

Wiseman complimented the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System and said it’s ready for the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027.

“My own personal opinion, they could put the Artemis III Orion on the Space Launch System tomorrow and launch it, and the crew would be in great shape,” said Wiseman. “This vehicle really handled very well.”

When asked what they brought with them on the trip, Wiseman said he took some notes from friends, some great quotes and a bracelet that his daughter had made for him a few years prior. 

The crew was asked what advice they would give to younger people “who are looking skywards.”

Wiseman said one thing that he thinks society has lost is the pursuit of challenging goals.

“You have to go do really hard, really challenging things and you have to go move the needle,” said Wiseman. “We have to get our hands out there and engaged. Our hands and our minds have got to be engaged.”

Glover encouraged young people to “really get comfortable asking questions and then listening to their peers, but also their mentors. I think that’s been a game-changer for all of us.”

Koch added that people should “find your fulfillment,” “do what scares you,” and “support those around you.”

Hansen said people should “just follow the example that people saw here, don’t do it alone, and share what you’re trying to accomplish with others, because you need the support of others to do big things, and so share your goals. Be brave enough to share them.”

With the next Artemis mission scheduled for as early as next year, the crew discussed their contributions to what comes next for NASA and its pursuit of a moon base.

“We were very much lifted up by the notion that we would get to contribute to astronauts doing this all over again, much sooner than we thought that we were going to be focused on the moon base, on surface operations,” said Koch. “And I would say, if nothing else, we are feeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.”

Wiseman added that “if we had a first flight lander on board that thing, I know at least three of my crewmates would have been in it, trying to land on the moon.”

“We have to be willing to accept a little more risk than we were willing to accept in the past, and to just trust that we will figure it out in real time. We’re not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We’re going to have to trust each other and crews and Mission Control to work through real problems,” Hansen added.

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(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge presiding over the White House ballroom case on Thursday clarified his ruling to say that security-related work can go on, particularly below ground, but that work on the ballroom itself still cannot proceed without authorization from lawmakers.

Judge Richard Leon ruled on March 31 that President Donald Trump can’t build the planned ballroom without authorization from Congress.

In addition to issuing Thursday’s clarification, Judge Leon stayed his ruling by another seven days to allow the White House to pursue further appeals.

The revised decision came at the direction of a D.C. Circuit appeals court panel, which ruled 2 to 1 last Saturday that Leon’s initial ruling needed to be clarified.

But in elaborating on the exceptions in his order, Leon also warned the Trump administration that security concerns are not a “blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” saying that it is “neither a reasonable nor a correct reading” of his order for the White House to claim that the ballroom is itself part of a security upgrade, as it did in a recent court filing. 

“It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!” Leon wrote.

Leon said his revised order would allow for “below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”

Trump officials argued that items such as bulletproof windows, missile-resistant columns and drone-proof roofs — features of the planned ballroom — were necessary to enhance security of the executive mansion.

“While these features may well be beneficial, Defendants have not provided any national security justification for why these features must be installed immediately such that they should be excluded from the scope of the injunction,” Leon said, noting the appeals court panel’s own presumption that it would likely take months, if not years, for those upgrades to be completed.

Leon concluded his opinion by saying he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager,” and trusts that Trump and his aides will implement his ruling “in good faith and with the benefit of this clarification.”

Pointing to his latest stay, which is now set to expire next Thursday, Leon warned in a footnote that “any above-ground construction over the next seven days that is not in compliance with my Amended Order is at risk of being taken down pending the resolution of this case.”

The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit court following the judge’s revised order Thursday.

Trump also blasted Leon’s clarification in a social media post Thursday afternoon.

“This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly,” Trump wrote.

Saying that the ballroom project will include “Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass,” Trump claimed that Judge Leon’s ruling means that “no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.”

The White House announced the construction of a 90,000-square foot ballroom in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop the ballroom construction until the project completes the standard federal review process and the administration seeks public comment on the proposed changes to the White House.

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(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent was charged with assault for allegedly pointing a gun at the heads of two motorists in Minneapolis in February, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office said Thursday.

According to the prosecutor’s complaint, Gregory Morgan Jr., an ICE agent in Minneapolis, was ending his shift on Feb. 5 and was a driving back to the Whipple Federal Building when a person allegedly cut him off as Morgan was trying to pass them, and the agent then allegedly brandished a firearm at them. 

Morgan, of Temple Hills, Maryland, is charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and a warrant has been issued nationwide for his arrest. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarity said in a news conference Thursday that Morgan has not been taken into custody but hopes he’ll turn himself in.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

The incident occurred during a contentious period in Minneapolis when the city was the focal point of an immigration enforcement surge and after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal law enforcement. During that time questions arose about whether ICE agents could be prosecuted by state or local authorities.

Moriarity said Thursday that Morgan was driving “illegally” on the shoulder, “appearing to bypass shoulder traffic.”

The complainant told police that they did not know the person driving the other car was an ICE agent until investigators told them, according to the prosecutor’s complaint.

“There were no markings on Defendant’s vehicle that would identify it as law enforcement and the vehicle was not displaying or using lights or sirens,” according to the complaint. “Defendant continued to travel on the shoulder but rather than continue to drive past the victims, he pulled alongside their vehicle, rolled down his window, and pointed a black handgun directly at Victim 1 and Victim 2. Victim 1 had a clear view of Defendant’s appearance, saw that Defendant was wearing a black t-shirt, saw that the gun was pointed directly at their heads, saw that the gun was a Glock or Sig Sauer handgun with what appeared to be a red-dot sight, and noted that Defendant 2 yelled something indiscernible.” 

That is when they called police to report what had happened, the complaint said. 

Investigators interviewed Morgan, his supervisor and his partner a day later.

According to the prosecutor’s complaint:

“[Morgan] stated that Victim 1 swerved over in front of him and cut him off. Defendant claimed that he feared for his safety and the safety of others so, in response, he pulled alongside Victim 1’s vehicle, rolled down his window, drew his firearm, and yelled ‘Police Stop.’ [Morgan] stated he was trying to get Victim 1 to ‘back up.’ Defendant acknowledged that his firearm was a Glock 19 with a laser light, which Defendant had holstered on his right hip at the time of the interview. Defendant stated that after he pulled the gun on Victim 1 and Victim 2 he got in front of their vehicle and drove to the Whipple Building.”

Investigators also said they received cellphone footage from the complainant and reviewed traffic camera footage from the road on which they were traveling.

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(NEW LENOX, Ill.) — One of Pope Leo’s brothers was the victim of a false bomb threat on Wednesday night, according to the New Lenox, Illinois, police department.

Officers received a call at 6:29 p.m. for a reported bomb threat at a private residence, officials said.

“Upon receiving the report, officers were immediately dispatched to the scene and established a secure perimeter to ensure the safety of nearby residents. Out of an abundance of caution, surrounding homes were notified, and asked to evacuate,” according to a statement from the police department. “Specialized units, including the Will County Sheriff’s Office bomb sniffing K9 were requested to assist in the investigation.”

There were no explosives, and no injuries, according to police.

“The incident remains under investigation as authorities work to determine the origin of the report. Making false reports of this nature is a serious offense and may result in criminal charges,” the statement says. “Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the NLPD at 815-485-2500 or submit an anonymous tip through the Village of New Lenox website.”

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(TUCSON, Ariz.) — The FBI recently received and is now analyzing potentially critical DNA recovered from the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her home early on Feb. 1.

A private Florida lab that works with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department sent the sample to the FBI in recent weeks, the sources said. The FBI is now using new technology to conduct advanced analysis on the DNA sample to see if it can lead to Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper, according to the sources.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has previously described the DNA recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s home as a sample that came from more than one person.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos recently told a Neighborhood Watch group that it could take six more months to untangle the sample, separate the strands and isolate what investigators need.

The sheriff also said as many as five other labs around the country are working on the Guthrie case. It was not immediately clear which ones, what their roles are or whether there are additional DNA samples that are potentially relevant.

About two dozen Pima County and FBI investigators are still actively working the Guthrie case. After investigators released key evidence, like images from Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera, early on, seemingly little progress has been made on her whereabouts or the person or people who abducted her.

Last month, Savannah Guthrie spoke out in her first interview, telling her friend and former co-host Hoda Kotb that it’s “too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me.”

“I’m so sorry, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” Savannah Guthrie said.

And to her family, she apologized through tears, “If it is me, I’m so sorry.”

But she added, “We still don’t know … Honestly, we don’t know anything.”

Savannah Guthrie said her family “cannot be at peace” without answers.

“Someone can do the right thing,” she said.

Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.

Editor’s Note: The story has updated the time frame of when the DNA sample was received

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