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What updates are there on the Artemis II mission?
Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. The Artemis II crew is safely back on Earth after a more than nine-day journey around the moon and back, as Central Florida Public Media's Brandon Byrne reports. Their spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego. Houston integrity, Splashdown sending post landing command now.
The cruise Orion spacecraft made the 13 and a half minute journey through the atmosphere, reaching a top speed of around 33 times the speed of sound and slowing to just around 19 miles per hour at Splashdown. The four astronauts have traveled more than 694,000 miles since launching from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. It was the first time humans ventured to the moon in more than 50 years.
The mission was a critical flight of Orion, carrying crew for the first time and testing key systems like the life support, propulsion, and the heat shield. NASA will take this data and use it for future astronaut missions with a goal to land humans on the moon by 2028. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando.
Iran's team of negotiators have arrived in Pakistan for talks there Saturday with Vice President J.D. Vance. As NPR's Aya Batraoui reports, the two sides are meeting after President Trump backed down from threats to bomb Iran's power plants and instead agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
Pakistan's state TV showed Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Begir Khalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi being welcomed on the tarmac in Islamabad by senior Pakistani officials. The Iranian team will be holding talks with Vance, who's traveling with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump says his top priorities now are ensuring Iran has no nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz opens for shipping. Iran is demanding an end to Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Israel's attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and civilian areas of Beirut killed more than 350 people Wednesday, according to Lebanon's health ministry, threatening the talks in Pakistan.
Dozens more have been killed since.
President Trump says he knew his wife wanted to address rumors about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this week. But as NPR's Frank Ordonez reports, the president said he did not know what she would say before her public remarks.
First Lady Melania Trump made a rare and surprising public statement denying ties to Epstein and calling on Congress to allow victims to testify. Her name appears in the latest tranche of documents published at the end of January.
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