NASA Starliner astronauts begin 17-hour journey to splashdown off Florida coast after delays
Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(CAPE CANAVERAL, FL) — The two NASA astronauts whose return to Earth was delayed for months are on their way home.
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore left the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft early on Tuesday and began an about 17-hour journey toward a splashdown off the Florida coast.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov were also onboard the craft as it undocked at about 1:05 a.m. ET.
Williams and Wilmore had in June 2024 performed the first astronaut-crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. What was expected to be a weeklong trip to the ISS instead turned into a nine-month stay. The Boeing Starliner that was expected to carry them home after about 10 days experienced issues, leaving the pair at the station for months.
Their return spacecraft early on Tuesday maneuvered in space, moving above and behind the station, before firing a series of departure burns that sent it back toward Earth.
NASA said it expected the return trip to end at about 5:57 p.m., when the Dragon is scheduled to splash down off the Florida coast.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Matthew Glasser and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from schools that participate in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Hours after a New Hampshire judge issued a similar order on Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland appointed by Trump issued a broader ruling that prohibits the Department of Education from using federal funding to end DEI initiatives within public schools.
“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” wrote U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher of Maryland. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”
Judge Gallagher wrote that the group that brought the lawsuit — the American Federation of Teachers, American Sociological Association and a public school in Oregon — successfully proved they would be irreparably harmed and the Education Department letter at issue likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
“This Court ends where it began—this case is about procedure,” she wrote. “Plaintiffs have shown that the government likely did not follow the procedures it should have, and those procedural failures have tangibly and concretely harmed the Plaintiffs. This case, especially, underscores why following the proper procedures, even when it is burdensome, is so important.”
Earlier, a judge in New Hampshire said the Trump administration’s attempt to make federal funding to schools conditional on them eliminating any DEI policies erodes the “foundational principles” that separates the United States from totalitarian regimes.
In an 82-page order, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty partially blocked the Department of Education from enforcing the memo issued earlier this year that directed any institution that receives federal funding to end discrimination on the basis of race or face funding cuts.
“Ours is a nation deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned,” Judge McCafferty wrote, adding the “right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is…one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.”
“In this case, the court reviews action by the executive branch that threatens to erode these foundational principles,” she wrote.
Judge McCafferty stopped short of issuing a nationwide injunction, instead limiting the relief to any entity that employs or contacts with the groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the DOE’s memo.
Education groups sued the Department of Education in February after the agency warned all educational institutions in a letter to end discrimination based on race or face federal funding consequences.
The lawsuit criticized what it said was an unlawful “Dear Colleague” letter which will “irreparably harm” schools, students, educators, and communities across the country.
“This vague and clearly unconstitutional memo is a grave attack on students, our profession and knowledge itself,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement at the time.
In justifying her preliminary injunction Thursday, Judge McCafferty called out the DOE for taking a position on DEI that flatly contradicts its own policies from a few years ago.
“Prior to the 2025 Letter, the Department had not indicated a belief that programs designed to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion constituted unlawful discrimination. Nor had it taken the position that schools necessarily behave unlawfully when they act with the goal of increasing racial diversity. In fact, the Department had taken the opposite position,” the judge wrote.
In addition to finding the policy is likely unconstitutional and illegal, Judge McCafferty also criticized the Department of Education for making funding conditional on DEI programming, though the judge said the memo “does not even define what a DEI program is,” pointing to “vague and expansive prohibitions” in the DOE’s letter from February.
The Department of Education has not yet commented on the rulings.
(BLOOMINGTON, Minn.) — A Minnesota Republican state senator was arrested on Monday for soliciting a minor, according to the Bloomington Police Department.
Justin David Eichorn, the Republican state senator for District 6, believed he was communicating online with a 17-year-old girl, but in reality was talking to a police officer, officials said in a statement on Tuesday.
After the detective arranged to meet with Eichorn on Monday in Bloomington, Minnesota, the 40-year-old lawmaker arrived in a pickup truck and was “arrested without incident,” police said.
The senator was booked into the Bloomington Police Department jail and will be transported to Hennepin County Adult Detention Center, police said.
The charges that Eichorn faces for “soliciting under 18-year-old to practice prostitution” are pending from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, police said.
“As a 40-year-old man, if you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said in a statement.
Hodges also urged state legislators to “take this case and this type of conduct more seriously.”
After Eichorn’s arrest, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota have called for his resignation.
“We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation. Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family,” Minnesota Senate Republicans said in a statement.
House Republican leaders Speaker Lisa Demuth and Leader Harry Niska also demanded for Eichorn’s resignation.
“Given the seriousness of the charges, Senator Eichorn should resign. While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard,” Demuth and Niska said in a joint statement.
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party also condemned Eichorn’s actions, saying “no one who solicits children belongs anywhere near public office or the State Capitol.”
“The facts presented by the Bloomington Police Department make it clear that Senator Eichorn is an immediate danger to the public and must resign immediately,” Minnesota DFL Executive Director Heidi Kraus Kaplan said in a statement.
Eichorn was also one of the senators to recently introduce a bill labeling “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a form of mental illness.
The bill defines “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as “acute onset paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.”
Symptoms for “Trump Derangement Syndrome” include “verbal expressions of intense hostility” toward Trump and “overt acts of aggression and violence against anyone supporting” Trump or anything that symbolizes Trump, the bill said.
Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — The rain may have stopped, but Kentucky’s governor warned the danger isn’t over from the four days of deadly storms that devastated the central U.S. with catastrophic flooding and destructive tornadoes.
Many roads remain flooded and some rivers and creeks are at or above flood stage, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference Monday.
“Do not drive through water, do not move barricades,” Beshear pleaded.
He stressed that even when water is receding, it’s still dangerous to drive.
Twenty people have died since Wednesday from the storms, with the fatalities spanning Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Indiana.
Two of the 20 deaths were in Kentucky: a woman and a 9-year-old boy who both died in the floodwaters, the governor said.
The governor said the death toll may have been higher if not for the swift water rescue teams.
One person last seen boating in floodwaters has been reported missing in McCracken County, Kentucky, Beshear said.
The rainfall from these storms was historic. More than 15 inches of rain deluged Benton, Kentucky — the most rain on record in a four-day period for the western part of the state — and over 14 inches of rain inundated Arkansas and Tennessee.
Some rivers are expected to continue to rise this week. Up to 40 river gauges across the region are forecast to be in the flood stage.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Michael Muller, the judge/executive in hard-hit Franklin County, Kentucky, about 30 miles outside of Lexington.
“Stay at home, help your neighbors, don’t be out if you don’t have to be out,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced a new website, Floodsmart.gov, to help people directly access flood insurance quotes.
“It’s quick and easy and takes just a few minutes. Insured survivors recover faster,” Cameron Hamilton, senior official performing the duties of FEMA administrator, said in a statement. “With spring flooding and hurricane season both approaching fast, it’s important to take this first step so you can better protect the life you’ve built.”
ABC News’ Max Golembo and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
