Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, the dramatic moments, two more New Orleans fugitives were captured. Only two more remain on the loose. The footage just released showing police chasing the escaped prisoners going the wrong way down the highway. And the body camera footage as they pulled them out of the car. Plus, the ex-police chief convicted of murder on the run after his prison escape. The community he once vowed to protect, now living in fear. Secret Service fight. agents caught on camera in a fist fight, what the Secret Service says about their behavior.

Beanie Baby Mansion attack, the assault at the home of the man who created Beanie Babies, the woman who worked for him now in a coma, and the former soldier being blamed for the attack. Countdown to lift off. Elon Musk and SpaceX will try once again to launch their starship rocket after two spectacular failures. We'll bring it to you live. Reality stars pardoned. President Trump gives a full pardon to Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the show Chrisley knows best, serving years for bank fraud, the moment he called their daughter to deliver the news. Up in flames, a boat off the coast of Florida suddenly explodes the race to save those on board, nearly a dozen injured. What caused it to ignite?

And prom night heroes, the teenagers on their way back home from the big dance when they see house on fire, how they came to the rescue of the family inside. Plus, the chilling testimony today, Sean Diddy Combs' former assistant on the stand with how the rap mogul threatened to kill his romantic rivals, even driving to his house with a gun. Top story starts right now. Good evening. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom Yamis.

Tonight, two more of the New Orleans jailbreak fugitives are. back behind bars after a wild high-speed chase in Texas. It comes more than a week after that daring escape. Dramatic video, you see it here, capturing the pursuit, the white car darting through an intersection, then looping back, heading in the opposite direction. The driver making another maneuver ending up on the wrong side of the road before being pulled over. Body camera capturing the moment Leo Tate and Dremaine Donald were pulled out of the SUV and arrested on the side of a highway. Right now, eight out of the 10 inmates who escaped have been captured over the last week and a half. At this hour, just two remain on the run. And over in Arkansas,

a manhunt underway there for a convicted murderer and rapist. Grant Hardin, a former police chief, serving a decades-long prison sentence, remains at large. Hardin escaped from prison on Sunday, spotted in this image, disguised in a law enforcement uniform. This is all happening in northern Arkansas. Now, the entire region is on edge. In a moment, we will speak with the sister of the man who hardened murdered about her concerns for the community tonight. But first, NBC's Priya Shrether reports. Hey, everybody moved to the right side of the car. This dramatic new video released by police shows the moment two of the inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail were recaptured on the side of a Texas highway after 10 days on the run.

The video shows Jermaine Donald and Leo Tate, leading police. on a high-speed chase before they were finally apprehended. Unlocked the door with the right hand. Another inmate was also arrested Monday in Baton Rouge, leaving two of the 10 inmates who escaped on May 16th, still on the loose. We're also learning more about the people charged with helping them. Court documents showed the night before the escape, one inmate instructed his sister to be outside the prison at 1130 the following night, telling her to ask his girlfriend

to get him a, quote, clean phone. in Arkansas, police are still trying to determine how this inmate was able to escape from prison wearing a makeshift outfit, they say was designed to mimic law enforcement. 56-year-old Grant Hardin is a convicted murderer and rapist serving a 30-year sentence, but he was once the police chief of the small town of Gateway Arkansas. Nathan Smith prosecuted Hardin twice. How would you stack him up in your entire career of prosecution? I mean, was he one of the worst? Was he the worst? He was certainly one of the worst. If you look at criminals who are sociopaths, I don't think you can have a better example than Grand Harden. The ability to walk around in society to hold your hand up and swear an oath to protect and

serve while at the same time knowing that you've committed these heinous deeds in the past. It's very troubling. In 2017, Hardin pled guilty to fatally shooting city worker James Appleton in the face in broad daylight. His DNA was then tied to an unsolved rape of a school teacher from 1997. Hardin has been subject of at least two documentaries. He was right there and nobody knew. Now another twist in the story of the man known as the devil in the Ozarks.

And Priya Shrether joins us now from Gateway, Arkansas. Priya, that prosecutor there calling Hardin a sociopath. What are you hearing from people in the community? Are they concerned for their safety? Hey, Ellison, that's right. Yeah, he certainly didn't mince words. and they are considering Hardin to be potentially armed and incredibly dangerous. And part of the reason for that is because the crimes that he committed and has been convicted of were just so brazen. Both of them occurred in broad daylight, just steps away from where

people could have seen him. And there also appears to be no logical motivation in either of those crimes. NBC News did get an opportunity to speak with some of the family members of the victims. I know you're going to get a chance to speak to the sister of one of them. And most of them didn't want to talk to us until he's back in custody. That's also because officials here have said that for him to get away from the prison area, he would most certainly have to get in some sort of vehicle. And there is concern that he could potentially take someone hostage, or they're also warning people to not let any sort of hitchhikers into their cars, Ellison.

NBC's Priya Shrether, thank you. And joining us now is Cheryl Tillman. She is the sister of James Appleton. Harden admitted to murdering Mr. Appleton in 2017. She is also the mayor of Gateway, the city where Hardin once served as the police chief. Mayor Tillman, thank you for joining us tonight. I'm sorry it's like this. We are sorry for everything your family has been through.

How are you and your family handling all of this? Well, we're handling it really well. It's just kind of hard. to bring up things that had happened in the past, and now it's come back almost like to haunt us again, but we're holding up really well. Do you feel concerned for your safety or the safety of other family members? I mean, we were talking about someone who is not just a hardened criminal. He is that, but it must be really hard for you and your family knowing that this is the man who murdered your brother, and he's not behind bars where he should be. The only concern that I have is with me being the mayor and my sister, she's on the city council with me. And we were on the city council at the time that he was our police, uh, city working for

the city police. Were you able- And yes, he knows us very well. Were you able to learn any additional information about how he managed to escape, given your position as mayor? have not been told anything. How do you think law enforcement is doing at this point? Do you think they have been handling this in the manner that you think they should be, or do you think more needs to be done right now?

I would think that they would reach out to the victims, you know, like us, and eventually they did call us, but nothing. Nothing was any news that they told us. How long from the point when you heard that he had escaped prison until you were contacted or your family were directly contacted by law enforcement officials? 48 hours. When you think about that and all that you have been through, and surely they know that because they would have read his case file, they would know how horrific the murder of your brother was.

Do you feel hurt that they failed to reach out to you? Yes. Very hurt. If you could speak to them directly tonight, what do you want them to know? That they need to reach out to people that is involved in the situation and let them know what's going on. You know, I mean, we don't need to know every little detail, but they could let us know what's going on and how things are progressing. We hope that happens for you. We hope you will stay in touch with us and let us know how things are going.

Thank you. Mayor Tillman. Thank you for taking your time to speak with us tonight. We appreciate it. Uh-huh. Now to the Secret Service fight caught on camera. The video first obtained by Real Clear Politics shows two uniformed officers in a physical confrontation around 2.30 a.m. last Wednesday while guarding former President Obama's home. You can see one officer shoving another to the ground next to what appears to be a police car. A Secret Service spokesperson confirming the video and the audio from the incident. are real. For more on that incident, for more on that incident, NBC's Vaughn Hillier

joins us now from DC. Vaughn, it's hard to wrap your head around all of this, but let's start with what happened to the officers. Are they, as far as we know, tonight, still on duty? To our understanding that they have been suspended from duty, the Secret Service saying in a statement to NBC News, that they hold all of their agents to a strict code of conduct. And clearly, based off of this video alone,

this altercation leading to these two female agents being removed from their posts. Our understanding is that this altercation took place outside of the Washington home of the Obamas, that they were part of the detail that was enlisted to protect the family. It is not clear whether the family was at home during this time.

It was at 2.30 in the morning. This happened last week, and there are obviously a lot of questions here to note. There are thousands of special agents who work for the Secret Service, but of course, this only heightens the scrutiny and the questions around the Secret Service, which is attempted over the course of the last months to ramp up and increase its recruitment of potentially new agents to onboard with this agency. NBC's Von Hilliard. Thank you. President Trump tonight issuing pardons to two reality TV stars.

Todd and Julie Crisley, known for their hit show, Chrisley knows best. They were convicted of defrauding banks out of tens of millions of dollars. Both Crisley's convicted back in 2022 and still had several years left on their prison sentences. A White House staffer posting video from the moment Trump called their children to tell them the news. Give them my regards and wish them. I'm going to wish them a good life. Mr. President. Yes.

I'm supposed to say thank you for bringing my parents back. Yeah, well, they were given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I'm hearing, pretty harsh treatment. Yes, sir. Trump's pardon comes after the Chris Lee's daughter, Savannah, who you heard in that video, made an appearance on a Fox News show hosted by Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura Trump. Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierre, as joins us now from the North Law. Gabe, what do we know about why Trump decided to grant this pardon?

Well, Alston, you just saw that video posted by one of his aides. You know, he was speaking with his children, their children, rather, by phone from the Oval Office. Now, in that video, he said that this should never have happened to the Crisleys, that they were giving pretty harsh treatment, as he just heard. And look, a jury found the couple guilty of fraud, including charges related to a tax evasion scheme that went on for years. Investigators accused a couple of submitting false documents to request bank loans and using a production company to hide income from the IRS. Now, President Trump has repeatedly railed against what he calls the weaponization of the justice system. He sees himself as being targeted because of his fame.

He's said that before. And it was just a few months ago that he pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who had been serving time for public corruption. So late today, Allison, the White House said the President always is pleased to give well-deserving Americans a second chance, especially those who have been unfairly targeted and overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system, he wrote. Now, that was according to White House official. The President is now expected to officially sign the pardons within the next 24 hours else. Gabe, let's step back a little. And you mentioned a different pardon that the President has done that was considered controversial by some.

So far, President Trump's choices for pardons this term have caused quite a bit of controversy, starting with his pardoning of nearly all of the January 6th defendants. Has the White House indicated that there's any sort of strategy at play when it comes to these pardons? Well, some, these pardons play well with his base, you know, many of whom feel that they've been unfairly held back or targeted by the establishment. Now, I just mentioned what he thinks of the justice system. While the pardon requests apparently keep coming, U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin, personally received pardon applications for members of the proud boys and the oath keepers, including members who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

And that's according to a former classmate of President Trump who's working on the issue. That's what he told NBC News. So it's possible we could see more of these else. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez, thank you. A terrifying break-in at the home of the billionaire Beanie Baby's founder, Ty Warner. The suspected home invader now in police custody after a brutal, attack left one woman who was on the property in a coma. Liz Kreutz has more. Tonight, shocking details emerging about a terrifying home invasion at a monocito mansion owned by

Beanie Baby's founder, Ty Warner. The suspect is probably still inside the house at the point. According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, a man broke into the home Wednesday and began violently attacking a woman before barricading himself in an upstairs bathroom. He also has an injured female who's found in the pond with. A criminal complaint says the woman is now comatose due to brain injury. Warner was also home at the time, but unharmed. They had found a woman who had some very severe injuries, and she was in front of the residents,

and they were able to get her out into safety. The suspect identified by officials as 42-year-old Russell Maxwell Faye of Nevada arrested after attempting to escape by jumping out of a second-story window. Records show he has a history of arrests. The scary incident happening in the exclusive coastal enclave of Monctave. Monocito, home to celebrities like Oprah, Prince Harry, and Megan Markle. How unusual is this for something like this to happen in Montecito? I mean, it's odd for Santa Barbara County.

I think it really shook a lot of our community members. Warner, the notoriously reclusive billionaire credited with launching the 90s Beanie Baby Crays has not commented on the brazen break-in with investigators saying there is no indication the suspect knew the victim. And Liz Croyd's joins us now from Montecito, California. police know why the suspect carried out this attack at all or any sort of motive? No, that's the big question right now, trying to figure out why the suspect decided to target this home, the home here of Ty Warner. Right now, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office

says that the suspect is facing multiple charges of attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping, and assault, and he is being held without bail, Ellison. NBC's Liz Croix in Montecito. Thank you. We are back in a moment with the chilling testimony in the Diddy Trial. His former assistant describing tense moments with the rapper, the death threat she says he made, and the time he showed up to her place with a gun. Plus, we are just moments away from the launch of the SpaceX starship. The uncrewed ship has blown up in spectacular fashion on previous attempts.

The question tonight, will it be successful this time? Day 10 of the Sean Diddy Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial kicking off today with another of his former assistants taking the stand. Capricorn Clark testifying about death threats and the day Combs showed up to her apartment with a gun. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. NBC's Chloe Malas was in court today. Within 20 minutes of being sworn in, Capricorn Clark describing her first date working for Sean Diddy Combs back into 2004. Telling the jury, Combs found out about her connection to his rival rap mogul Shug Knight. And during a late night walk in New York Central Park, she said he told her, if anything happened,

he would have to kill me. Then when three pieces of high-end jewelry went missing, she said Combs' team forced her to repeatedly take a lie detector test for five days and testified that a heavyset man who was chain smoking cigarettes and administered the test, told her, quote, If I failed the test, he would throw me in the East River, describing him as, quote, very wide, like two linebackers, like five of me. Another portion of Clark's testimony focusing on when Combs discovered his then on and off again girlfriend Cassie Ventura was dating musician Kid Cuddy, whose real name is Scott Muscutty. Clark saying, quote, he had a gun in his hand and was pacing. She testified he then told her, get dressed, we're going to kill Ms. Gutty. She says she was kidnapped and forced to get into Combs' escalade and driven to.

to Kid Cuddy's home. Clark says Combs order her to call Cassie and tell her he's not going to let me go until I come get her. A lot of what you're seeing is really is compelling. It's, it's graphic, it's disgusting. It's to the point where you would say this guy is the most reprehensible person that I've ever known of. But that doesn't mean he committed racketeering and he's a conspiracy for Rico with this criminal enterprise. The defense pushing back on her testimony during cross-examination, saying that she continued to work for Combs for years. Reading emails Clark sent to Combs after he fired her, saying things like, hopefully you will forgive me soon. I feel like you forgave everyone but me. X-O. Be well. Clark working for Combs on

and off up until 2018, and even as recently as last year, asked Combs' defense team if she could be his chief of staff. But the angle is here that she kept coming back because it wasn't as reprehensible as she's telling you now. She wanted money. She wanted power. She wanted access to fame. And that's why she came back. And she didn't get what she wanted. Just like Cassie didn't get all the things that she wanted. And that's why they're telling the story now. Expected to take the stand tomorrow, members of the Los Angeles Police and Fire Department. And Chloe Malas joins us now from outside the courthouse. Chloe, what do we expect to hear from these next witnesses? Is the prosecution close to wrapping up its case?

So actually the prosecution said today, Ellison, that they're actually running a bit early. So they only have three more weeks that puts them at a total of five. And then things will turn over to Dittie's defense team. So this trial could actually wrap up before the 4th of July. Tomorrow we're expecting to hear from some of the investigators that were on the scene when Kid Cuddy's car had that explosion with that Molotov cocktail that we've told you guys about. So they're going to talk about what they found, what potential eyewitnesses there were, and maybe we'll learn more about why nobody was charged in connection with that crime.

And we also might hear from a makeup artist who may have covered up some of those bruises that Cassie had when she went to that movie premiere. Ellison. Chloe Malas, thank you. We're back in a moment with live coverage of the SpaceX rocket set to launch just minutes from now. The uncrewed spacecraft has exploded twice before liftoff. Will they pull it off this time? Plus, explosion on the water. Video of a boat blowing up off of the coast of Fort Lauderdale,

how nearby voters, rather, came to the rescue. We're back now with the countdown to the latest liftoff for SpaceX. The company, about four minutes away from the scheduled launch of their starship now, slated for its ninth test flight. You were looking at pictures tonight from the newly minted city of Starbase, Texas, where SpaceX is headquartered. Tonight's launch set to test multiple aspects of the uncrewed ship, as well as the super-heavy booster rocket. But it comes after multiple high-profile failures for SpaceX, with the uncrewed starships exploding after launch twice this year. These images showing pieces of the flaming wreckages as they hurtled back towards Earth.

Those pieces showering parts of the Caribbean with debris. Social media users posted these images from Turks and Caicos after an explosion in January, showing what they described as pieces of the spacecraft. Tonight's launch also a major test for the man who owns SpaceX, Elon Musk, whose outsized role in the Trump administration has brought increased scrutiny to the company as public support for its leader has dropped. Joining us now live for the launch is NBC's senior aviation correspondent Tom Costello, as well as retired astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman ever ever. to serve as commander of the space shuttle. We should note she is also the author of the book Through the Glass Sealing to the Stars, the story of the first American woman

to command a space mission. Thank you both for being here. Tom, let me let you just take it for now. We are getting so close now to this launch. Minutes now, but soon it'll be seconds before we even know it, right? Two and a half minutes right now. Set the stage for us.

What is the mission for this test flight tonight? And ultimately, what are the stakes? Bottom line is, this is the biggest, ever built. And this is what NASA and SpaceX are banking on to eventually take astronauts potentially to Mars. Before then, potentially part of the mission to get them to the moon. It has, as you know, suffered two catastrophic failures already this year. So this is now the third attempt so far this year. This is a massive booster rocket. And the booster rocket has successfully returned to Earth, both on flight seven and flight eight. This is flight nine. It was the upper

stage in both cases that came apart. They believe that they've addressed the reasons why it came apart. And so now, yet another test flight. Nobody's on board. This is an uncrewed mission. It's going to last about an hour. And the booster, instead of coming back down and going into the chopsticks back on the pad, the booster this time is supposed to go into the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America, as the administration calls it. Separately, the upper stage is supposed to go down into the Indian Ocean. So this is a very big test now to see if they have found what's wrong. Why did, in fact, we've already seen two starships come apart over the South Florida area

and the Caribbean and have they fix those problems. I will tell you, the FAA, having approved this flight yet again, has also expanded the hazard zone in South Florida. in the Caribbean. You may recall that last January and March, when debris was raining down, they had to close off air traffic and keep flights grounded and navigate flights away from the debris area. So now they said that they have expanded the zone, and hopefully there will be no need, of course, to move flights around, but they're taking every possible precaution. By the way, Elon Musk. I'm going to step because we are seeing Tom right now. They have stopped. We are told that they were going to pause at approximately

40 seconds to launch. We see that happening in the corner to check a few things. What do you think they could possibly be checking? This is a normal hole. By the way, the window opens at exactly 7.30 Eastern time, which is right now. That doesn't mean they have to go at 7.30. It means they have an hour-long window, and they're just going to double-check everything to make sure that it's all loading properly. 3.3 million pounds of fuel, I should tell you, and that's a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid liquid methane and they want to make sure I'm listening as we go stand by we're hearing that they are possibly having an issue with the raptor engine do you know what that is Tom could you explain to us one engine one raptor engine there are 33 raptor engines

in that booster rocket and the last time they had an issue there now 29 of the 33 booster rocket engines raptor engines are going to be reused on this flight fight. But this has been, I don't want to say Achilles heel, but this has been the problem area, right? This has been what they believe has caused problems in the past, these Raptor engines that have to fire perfectly in sync. And I'm listening in as we listen to mission control. And the clock is rolling. And we're seeing that clock coming back up. All right. T-minus 30. Let's listen in. Watch that first flight proven. super heavy get ready to take off from Starbase we did have a hold on hold we did

have a hold and looks like the clock jump back to T minus 40 seconds. All right, so yep, we jumped down. Tom, as we're saying this other hold, they put the clock back to T minus 40 seconds. You mentioned if they were having a raptor issue that ultimately there are 33 Raptor engines on this. Could they go if there was just one issue

or one concern with the other? I don't think they'll do that. Okay. I don't think they'll do that. Why would they? This is a test flight. There's no reason to risk anything. The whole point is to test and make sure that all these systems are working properly.

Can we listen in because what they're saying is critical for us to understand where we are? We are still not scrubbed for the day. Give them a couple of minutes to work through this. Again, we can hang out at T-minus 40 for several minutes. Eventually, we start looking at your bulk temperatures and all of your propellant on board the vehicle. We're not actively replenishing the propellant onboard super heavy in Starship, and so you don't have essentially forever to hang out before things start to warm up, and you do want to make sure your temperatures in a really stable range for a healthy startup on Raptor engines.

So they're going to work through this issue. We can continue to hold here for a couple of minutes. You know, Allison, I do think it's important very often when we're talking about SpaceX missions, for example, to the space station, as Eileen knows far better than I. They've got a very tight window. They've got a launch at exactly the right moment in order to intersect with the space station. That's not the case here. This is a test flight. They've got an hour-long window, although they're now into the council. Maybe that window has narrowed a bit, but they're not in a time deadline. per se like if they were going to the station. Groundside issue on our tower. The techs are looking through the data right now to see if it's something that we can either work through

or if it would cause us to have to stand down. So we're continuing to hang out with them. So, I mean, as you hear that, them saying that the techs are looking through the data to see if they can keep going or if they need to stand down holding for now at T minus 40 and they said they can hold there for at least a couple of minutes.

What is it like being inside? a rocket in a moment like this? Well, I can tell you, although there's no one in this rocket in particular today, there will be astronauts in this rocket in the future. And I think really the astronauts are very focused, and it's all about what's coming next. Am I ready for a lift-off? Am I ready for a scrub?

And actually, what's going on in mission control right now down there in SpaceX, is they're very focused also. They know they have constraints. I don't know what their launch window ends, but these engineers are, you don't want to just be thinking about when is the clock going to run out. You want to be thinking about what are our flight rules or are we used to call it launch commit criteria. And if we have this problem, are we allowed to go or not? And they want to make sure that they make the right call because these are very, obviously, very expensive launches. You know, everyone's watching, you know, all eyes are down there on Boca Chica.

It's a very exciting time in not just any spaceflight, in particular human spaceflight. This is a very exciting time, but it's also very serious time. And so I'm not sure I'd want to change places with them right now. And again, as you pointed out, right, and as you pointed out, this is uncrued, but as someone who has had experience listening to a lot of control rooms in the past, when you listen to their tone, to me, it sounds like they are calm and they are just working through an issue. Is there anything you hear to the contrary of that?

or does it seem like they are working through this in some form or fashion? Well, I think one of the things, you know, of course you want to listen to technically what they're saying, and there's a lot of, I want to say, jargon and a lot of acronyms and abbreviations that are thrown around. So I would say a casual listener doesn't always know what's going on. But while the astronauts are listening, you know, we know the majority of these terms. And we're trying to understand what the problem is, although there is a launch director that will talk to the crew and say, Hey, so we're going to see the clock, but not until he knows or she knows. Well, they cut in and tell the crew.

Essentially, we saw an issue with that disconnect to the ship. There is a chance that automation will kick us out again. If we encounter the same issue. But for now, the clock is rolling. We'll see if we pass around that T minus 10 second mark. And you just heard mission control saying they've reset their systems as they started that clock again. Right. Six, five, four, three, three, two, one.

Dr. Rappar Shulpressure pressure not call. T-plus 40 seconds, it's one hell of a site from here. We see it arched right over top of us. We see 33 out of 33 Raptor engine. lit on super heavy as it starts to ascend skyward coming up on maximum aerodynamic pressure then only about a minute and a half until we get into hot staging wow Dan that was incredible we could fill the building

shaking here feel the the vehicles power and we're just about a minute away from shutting down those engines on the booster again this booster is flying for its second time today all right so hot staging so tom as we're watching and listening that and one minute away seems to be a good next marker for us but we heard them talking about 33 out of 33 raptor engines were lit up there for this un-crued mission. When will we know or when will we be able to say this has been a success? Well, so far so good. Listen, here's the next critical phase. They're going to separate out, right? The booster stage separates from the upper stage. And then they want to do a little bit of a flip. And quite literally, the booster is going to do, you might call it a flip in a controlled direction and then

starting its burn back down to Earth, down to the Gulf, where it will splash down. And a hard, flash landing. Meanwhile, the upper stage will go on into space and ultimately should land in the Indian Ocean. Let's listen then. Here we go. See those engines powering down? Booster engine cut off. So far, so good. Ship ignition. Stage separation. Watch that flip. See the flip? incredible flip by super heavy booster and you can see those six engines those three engines on the ship ignited

six healthy raptors running on ship on its way to space headed into space that engine view booster doing the boost back Chris how's it looking over there at hawthorne man it is looking it is looking absolutely incredible here in hawthor and as we said six healthy engines on ship. We've got 13 out of 13 engines on the booster. Now down to those three, which is what we expect in the final moments of the boost back burn. Now, as a reminder, we are not recovering the super heavy booster today. We are instead going to be some. And there we had a good shutdown of the boost back burn. Next up will be the jettison of that hot stage rain.

The avionics power and telemetry nominal. Great call out there that everything looking nominal aboard the super heavy vehicle, which is returning to Earth, and we're going to be doing some experiments with it, including a higher angle of attack re-entry, as well as some engine tests as it gets closer to the Gulf. We are, again, because of these tests not recovering it, we are sending it to the Gulf on purpose to do those tests. But again, you see the booster on the left-hand side of your screen. You see ship with six healthy engines continuing its ascent to its planned suborbital trajectory. Everything going very well so far, four starships ninth flight now four minutes 15 seconds in great views from inside of the

aft engine area of ship they're looking at those three sea level and three raptor engines on the right hand side of your screen the booster doing this is this further than we have seen in the last couple attempts for SpaceX well i'm not sure i would say further um because keep in mind they have successfully brought two boosters back to Earth before. Now, in this case, as they've stressed, they're not going to capture this booster. They are purposely bringing it into the Gulf of Mexico because they're going to experiment with shutting down one or more of the Raptor engines as they do that. They want to see how the booster would perform in the event of a what they would call off-nominal or not a good re-entry where they lose an engine or two. So that's why they're bringing it

down into the Gulf. But as you look at that view, you're looking at from the spaceship, the upper stage, and that is the stage that one day would carry astronauts like Eileen or cargo or fuel propellant onto space. So now as that moves into space, and eventually would splash down in the Indian Ocean, that's the stage, by the way, that has broken apart the last two times, that upper stage. So they want to see that that is able to remain healthy through the entire trip. Watch this. Here comes the booster. Coming back down the earth, phenomenal shot. Then bring that down to three engines. As we talked about earlier, we will be intentionally shutting down. We will be shutting down one of those three center engines intentionally to push the limits of the super heavy booster.

Shipwraptor, chamber pressure is nominal. That underscores this is a test flight. And continuing to see six healthy engines on the ship, three sea level and three vexed. vacuum engines still ignited as the super heavy booster is making its way back down to Earth. We can see those great fins doing some heavy work. Booster landing start out. Ignited for our landing burn. They say landing, but it's really a hard splash into the Gulf, keep in mind.

It may have ended with that landing burn. That's the view from the left we lost to levitry from the booster. once we started into that landing burn. Did you see her confirmation that the booster did demise? So the booster's flight ending before it was able to get through landing burn, but again, we were not bringing that back. We're expecting it to make a hard splash down in the Gulf. We were getting live data back the entire time through that high angle of attack flight.

So that was something that was really vital for us to get during this. reuse. So what they want to do here, Ellison, they want to be able to reuse both portions of the ship in the future, right? Both the booster and the upper stage. And that, as I've said, is going to make this a heck of a lot more economical in the future. But that is a major engineering feat to be able to reuse both components of a rocket, the biggest rocket ever built and making it possible to hopefully make it a far more.

economical to be able to go to the moon and to Mars. As always, the Starship avionics team, the techs, I think we just heard the booster. All right, we got about a minute left into this burn. All eyes definitely on ship as we get through the final stages into its assent. We're expecting it to start to cut those engines off. in about 45 seconds. Terminal guidance. Hey, Ellison, you know, it's also worth making the point.

Nobody else is doing this. No other country... Just about 30 seconds to go. Has created such a program that has so far advanced on the engineering front. The final stages of this... China hasn't done this. Russia hasn't done that. The UAE, Japan.

The SpaceX is so far beyond anybody else as it relates to engineering pushing the envelope. Those three have shut down successfully. Sea levels still running. Ship engine cut off. Ship engine cut off the three most beautiful words in the English language. And great call out that we had nominal insertion. That means it's in its planned space orbit for now. An incredible flight tests so far today. We reflu a super heavy booster for the very first time in nine test flights.

Tom, as we wrap here, and I lean same to you. you. Could you both just give us a sense of your final thoughts watching this? Let me defer to Eileen. Commander Collins is the real expert here. Eileen? Yeah, I would say, first of all, this was an extremely successful test up to this point. Now, obviously, the first stage time explained all that went fine, but I personally was more concerned with the second stage, which is what you're looking at right now in the screen. That was the one that did not start properly the last two times and broke up and came down in debris. over the Turks and Caicos and that was not a very good thing and we were all hoping that this time

it would make it to orbit and it did and so I'm really happy to keep in mind that this is the equipment that will be taking our astronauts back to the moon and onto Mars this second stage starship has to work so we're all pulling for SpaceX great partnership with NASA and our astronauts and good for them I give you a hand to I mean, I'm curious, does it make you wish you were a junior astronaut again, and one day you'd be flying this thing? Well, I would love to go to the moon and onto Mars. You know, maybe someday they'll ask, you know, we'd like an old lady to go. And in that case, I would.

I mean, we would love to watch you do it again. Eileen is self-deprecating. She's not so old, and she is truly one of the heroes of the space program. Well, Tom Costello, thank you, and Commander Eileen Collins. Thank you. grateful to have you here. Thank you for witnessing this with us this evening. We appreciate it. Thanks. It was great. We're going to be back in just a moment with bow ties and bravery. How these teens, coming back from prom, ended up rescuing a family trapped in a burning house.

We're back with a terrifying boat explosion in Florida. The Inferno caught on camera. Fire officials now saying 11 people were taken to the hospital, including two, children as authorities try to piece together what sparked the destruction. NBC's Kathy Park has this report. A Memorial Day weekend nightmare after a fiery boat explosion in Fort Lauderdale. Fire officials say the blast sent 11 people including two children to the hospital. The most significant injuries were in the cockpit area. Some of the burns were, you know, I think the greatest that I've heard is 85% of one of the victims. Surveillance camera footage captured the moment flames erupted on the boat with 13 on board. Multiple people seen spilling into the water for safety.

We tried to fuel up the boat and must have been a gas leak and, you know, it sparked one off and explosion. Antonio Rivera said he was with family members on the boat when it caught fire. One of the guys' pants were blown off, so it was bad. Rivera suffered a burn on his arm. His wife and their two children were transported to a nearby hospital's burn unit. The children are in fair condition according to the hospital. I've seen the gas vapor or whatever exploded. He evaporated into the air. I've seen people jumping in the water. Other people trying to help. Witnesses say they heard a loud boom and people screaming for help Monday afternoon on a sandbar near Fort Lauderdale's New River Triangle. Brett Triano and Marissa Toomsen say they sprang into action

after witnessing the horrific incident. We just got in our dingy and headed over there. One guy just didn't get picked up, so we went over to him. I mean, he was burned pretty badly. Fort Lauderdale's fire chief saying, it's too soon to know how this happened, but it's an important reminder to check your boats thoroughly before heading out. It's so, so important that people understand the importance of using the ventilation system in the boat and having the blowers operating for about four minutes prior to starting the boat. If the blowers on the boat aren't working, don't risk it. Don't go out in the boat.

Kathy Park joins us now. Kathy, the fire chief says this situation could have been a lot worse. Yeah, Ellison, this was just a terrible turn of events happening right in the middle of a busy Memorial Day weekend. But officials say fortunately the boat was not completely surrounded by other vessels. They were close enough where Good Samaritans nearby quickly managed to rescue some of those passengers. The fire chief told us earlier today that everyone on board the boat that caught fire knew how to swim, which was a huge bonus and also helped with the emergency response. Alison. NBC's Kathy Park. Thank you. When Top Story returns, high school heroes, the family rescued from a burning home, the Good Samaritans who saved them, teens coming home from prom. Finally tonight, a prom night to remember in more ways than one.

A group of high schoolers leaving the big dance, noticing a garage fully engulfed in flames with a family still inside the main house. NBC's Adrienne Brata spoke to those high school. school hearers about the moment they decided to rush in and help. Those desperate knocks at the door as a fire rages, steps away coming from high school junior Aden Cain. Your house is on fire. Your house is on fire. He and his buddies told me they had just left their high school prom in upstate New York when they noticed an orange glow in the sky. We thought it was like a bomb fire because it was prom night. As the teens got closer, they saw a garage engulfed in flames. As soon as we jump.

jumped up the out of the car. I called 911 instantly. You guys got to get out. Yo, go get out. You guys? Two girls and their dad were inside the home. After Aiden's plea, they followed him outside. You're okay. Thank you. You're okay. You're okay. Go. Stand behind your car. Stand behind your car. What started as one of the best days of the teen's lives, anyone else in there? Nope. Ended with helping strangers on their worst. It's in Aden's DNA. My dad has worked for both EMS and police department for basically all his life. I've been on several calls with him because he was the chief of EMS, and sometimes when I'm with them, we just got to go on it. And there's nothing you can do about it.

So, like, seeing him doing it kind of inspired me to help out the family. But all four played a role. If we didn't go, what would have happened with the fire if we weren't there? Now, this cell phone video of the fire is saved. on the same camera roll with prom night memories. What will you all remember about that night? What will stick with me is that we were there on the right time and that we got to save a family.

We were just trying to comfort them. That'll always stick with me because I have a little brother. Friends forever bonded by fire. I'm just going to remember the whole night because it was all a blast from prom to the end. And it was great to be with my friends and on the way, of course, help that family out. An amazing story. Adrian joins us now. Adrian, how is the family that lived in that home doing tonight? Alison, as you can imagine, that family is overflowing with gratitude. They told our affiliate they are grateful for the actions those teens took. Meanwhile, when I spoke with

the four earlier this afternoon, they told me they had been waiting for their friend's mom to give the green light for them to come over and hang out after prom. Initially, they say the mom said no, and that's why they were wondering what would have happened. Meanwhile, we did reach out to the fire department who says the cause of the fire is still unknown and they are investigating, Ellison. Adrian brought us thank you for that beautiful story. We appreciate it. And thank you at home for watching Top Story. I'm Ellison Barber in New York for Tom Yamis. Stay right there. More news is on the way. You know,