Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Episode Date: March 20, 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 return to Earth. The astronauts left in space for nine months now, finally, back home. The moment their capsule re-entered Earth's atmosphere, the parachutes opening and the astronauts splashing down off of Florida's coast. Dolphins circling the spacecraft. The doors opening their first time breathing fresh air in more than 280 days. And an update tonight from NASA Mission Control. Closer to a ceasefire, President Trump and Vladimir Putin. Martin's marathon meeting today, Russia agreeing to stop attacks for 30 days.

Are Richard Engel is in Ukraine? How will that country respond? Supreme Battle, Chief Justice John Roberts firing off a rare rebuttal to President Trump, blasting his suggestion to impeach federal judges, how the president pushed back. Seas fire shattered. Israel's ferocious attack on Hamas in Gaza after the terror group refused to release more hostages. Hundreds killed. what the father of the American hostage still held in the enclave at the same.

Speaking out, the parents of that missing spring breaker giving our station an emotional interview, why they're now asking authorities to declare her debt and why they don't believe that key witness is to blame. Tesla vehicles torched in Las Vegas, the vandals even firing into the service center, the latest in a string of nationwide Tesla trashings. And the JFK files released what we're learning in the 80,000 pages just declassified. Top story starts right now. Good evening. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom. We're coming on the air tonight with breaking news.

Just moments ago, astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore touching down back here on Earth, roughly nine months after they were originally scheduled to return. that SpaceX dragon capsule plunging through the Earth's atmosphere descending by parachute over the waters off of the coast of Florida. Then they arrived. The NASA broadcast says it all. And splash down. Crew 9 back on Earth. A crane aboard the recovery ship lifting the capsule out of the water before. the moment those astronauts have been waiting for. They were, you see it here, they were held to outside of the capsule and into fresh air for the first time in nine months.

Sunny and Butch disembarking alongside fellow astronaut Nick Haig and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbinov. They'll go through full medical examinations as they reacclimate the effects of gravity, a plane back on land waiting to ferry them to Houston where they will be reunited, finally, with their families. Sunny and Butch blasted off for the International Space Station back on June 5th on what was supposed to be a 10-day mission. But after mechanical issues with the capsule, they took to the ISS, they were forced to stay a little longer. Around 1 a.m. this morning, Sunny and Butch beginning their journey home, boarding their SpaceX Dragon capsule and uncoupling from the ISS. NBC's Tom Costello has been tracking their mission since it began last year. And he joins us now from Washington, DC. Tom, I was watching in awe as I saw the astronauts egress, which I learned today

means exit the capsule. Take us through it. What stood out to you? Where do things stand right now? Well, listen, the video says it all. You saw four astronauts coming out, all of them beaming, all of them smiling, all of them happy, giving a thumbs up. They're Sonny Williams right now. She looks great, waving. And then we also saw the other astronauts, including her colleague, Butch Wilmore. that, I think that's him right there. Before them, we, there's Butch right there. No, I'm sorry, that's the Russian cosmonaut. Hard to tell with their helmets on, but that's Alexander Gorbinoff. All of them came out, they looked great. Now, this is standard protocol. They go into kind of a reclining seat type of situation because they are in, you know, they're kind of readjusting

to gravity, and it's not unusual to see some astronauts over the years kind of suddenly get a little wobbly in the knees and actually start to faint. So they're taking this very slowly, This is the Russian approach, by the way, in Kazakhstan. This is the way they treat every crew coming back from space. They're going through right now a quick spot medical evaluation on board that ship, the ship that's on the Gulf, and then they will put them on a helicopter, fly them over to Tallahassee, where a plane is standing by, as you mentioned, to take them to Houston, and that is where in Houston they will be reunited with their families.

What a spectacular return, right? They came from 17,000 miles per hour, just screaming through the atmosphere there. Temperatures got up to 350, make that 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. And then they came through the atmosphere and slowed it down from that incredible speed down to, what, two, three miles per hour when they hit the ocean. That, by the way, is described to me by some astronauts as kind of a slow-moving car crash. The impact feels like a jolt. And then they kind of had to sit there, and they kind of bobbed around for a while, waiting for the fast boats to arrive. The fastboats had to check to make sure there were no vapors that might be poisonous, offloading, if you will, off gassing from the ship.

That was all spectacular. And then we had, okay, there we are, bringing the ship, bringing the spaceship onto the mother's ship, and that's when they were able to open up the hatch and let them all out. Do we have the video of the dolphins? Because, Allison, I got to tell you, this was one of the most memorable moments as the spaceship is bobbing up and down in the water. And as the fastboats are approaching the spaceship, suddenly dolphins show up. And they're playing in the waters as if this is a big game. So that made it all a lot of fun on what turned out to be an absolutely perfect return to planet Earth. Yeah, I mean, truly extraordinary to see.

And Tom, we're so grateful to have you walk us through all of these steps. You mentioned the spot medical exam that they'll go through on the boat. But ultimately, once they get back to Texas, once they're reunited with their families, are they able to just immediately go home? Or is there sort of a halfway house, for lack of better word, where they have to sort of monitor them for a bit of time before they truly are back in their own beds? That's what's going to happen. But I neglected one step that's happening.

So once they get on the chopper and they leave the boat and they go over to land, I am told that it is on the land that they will do a quick baseline medical reading. They may do it on the ship, but I was told it could be on the land. What I'm talking about there is they will take EKGs, blood pressures, they'll get, you know, their heart rate. They may do pulse ox and blood gases, all of that. They want a baseline reading on all of these critical, just basic readings on how they're doing physically, because that will be the base that they then use for the next few days, weeks, months, to determine how quickly they were able to rebound from their time in space.

So that's going to be what happens before they ever leave Florida. They get to Florida tonight. Their families are there. They'll get a big, happy reunion with their families. NASA leadership, mission managers will be there. But then they go into their crew quarters in Houston. All of them will have their own private crew quarters. I'm told their families will be allowed to visit,

but they also want to have medical staff on site. They will do much more thorough medical exams, probably again, starting tonight in Houston, and then over the coming days, a lot of debriefs, mission debriefs, engineering debriefs, but it's all about making sure that these guys are all good. They will not go home home, in other words, home to wherever they are from, Tennessee, Massachusetts, or even Houston, they will not be allowed to go home home for probably a few days, I'm told. All right. Tom Costello, thank you so much. And NASA is going to hold NASA mission control is going to hold a press conference later this hour. Stay with us because we'll bring that to you live. We're going to turn now to the high stakes call between President Trump and Vladimir Putin as the U.S. tries to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Putin agreeing to a limited ceasefire on energy and infrastructure targets, but the question is, will this limited agreement lead to permanent peace?

NBC's Richard Engel has this report from inside Ukraine. Exactly one week after Russian President Putin rejected President Trump's 30-day ceasefire, arguing Russia couldn't slow down its offensive. Tonight, Putin changed his position, slightly, agreeing to a partial ceasefire. In a nearly two-hour call with President Trump, both the White House and the Kremlin, say Putin agreed to suspend attacks on Ukraine's energy sector and infrastructure for 30 days. President Trump calling it a very good and productive call with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire.

The Kremlin naming several conditions to move further, including stopping foreign military and intelligence aid to Ukraine. Tonight, Ukraine's President Zelensky, who had already agreed to Trump's ceasefire unconditionally, said he accepted Russia's proposal, but Ukraine would continue to welcome foreign military assistance. Outside of Harkiv, these Ukrainian volunteers are following Russian troops with drones. Central commander is looking for the targets. In a nearby safe house, the unit commander showed me an operation as it unfolded. A Russian mortar position being attacked by Ukrainian artillery.

Is this positive from your perspective? Does this open the door for more discussions? Absolutely not. A border ceasefire? Absolutely not. not. Russia is pretending that they are peaceful. They are not. They are not. Their aim is to destroy Ukraine totally. And Richard Engel joins us now from Harkiv, Ukraine. I mean, Richard, the big question so many people have is, is there really a world where these conditions and this

ceasefire actually holds for as long as planned? When you talk to your sources on the ground there, do they think this is going to be a ceasefire that is quickly broken, or is it one that can actually hold for the totality of the plan duration? Well, you don't need to talk to any in-depth sources in this country to get that answer. Any Ukrainian will tell you that they have tremendous doubts. They have doubts that President Putin is serious. They have doubts that this deal will last 30 days. I was with a group of Ukrainian soldiers just on the edge of Harkiv, and we were there together. This is a small base. They're a drone unit. They operate out of a safe house.

They live together. They have quite a strong bond. The point is, I was with this group of soldiers. They've been doing nothing for the last three years except fight Russians, trying to find out where the Russians are, watching Russian advances, watching Russian defeats. They told me they don't believe this at all. They don't believe that this is going to happen. One of the soldiers said, okay, so Vladimir Putin says he'll stop attacks on infrastructure.

But what about attacks on civilians? What about attacks on this city of Harkiv, where I am right now? They thought that Putin would find a way to continue carrying out his attacks if he just called them something else. And then you mentioned conditions. These were listed by the Kremlin as some things that, that, Vladimir Putin wants to see as these negotiations, which are supposed to start immediately in the Middle East, presumably Saudi Arabia, that Putin wants to have addressed in those talks. And he wants Ukraine to stop mobilizing, stop its draft, stop expanding its troop force. It wants Ukraine not to use the ceasefire or any future period to rearm itself and redeploy, end military.

cooperation with foreign countries and the supply of foreign intelligence and in the supply of foreign weapons, to which President Zelensky has already said he can't do that. So some of the preconditions are unacceptable to Ukraine, but they're part of the process. So we will see how this process plays out in the Middle East. They weren't presented by Russia at this stage as deal breakers. They were suggested as things Russia would like to see to get the negotiations over the line. So Ukraine has already rejected some, but that's partly the way just negotiations work. Richard Engel in Ukraine, thank you. Now to the Middle East and the shattered ceasefire there. Israel striking Gaza overnight, killing at least 400 Palestinians after

weeks of relative quiet. Israel says it restarted those strikes after Hamas refused to release the remaining Israeli hostages. NBC's Matt Bradley reports from Tel Aviv. War has returned to Gaza. Since last night, Israeli missiles pummeling what they say are Hamas targets, including the IDF says, killing the head of the Hamas government there. The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said the death toll is above 400, most of them, women and children. They bombed our camps over the heads of the displaced people, this man said. They bombed the tents over the heads of sleeping people.

Before the ceasefire ended, Hamas had released nearly three days. dozen hostages in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. President Trump had demanded all the hostages be released, but negotiations had stalled. The U.S. and Israel blaming Hamas for rejecting all proposals from Trump's envoy. Hamas refused offer after offer to release our hostages. Why was this done now? We have indications, and we've seen Hamas try and rearm and regroup. But for the family of American Idon Alexander, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th, new fighting

carries real risks. Do you worry that this military action could put your son at greater danger? Any military action will put remaining hostages in danger. No question about it. That's why our hope, really, that it will be limited. A hope shared by both hostage families and Basin civilians. And Matt Bradley joins us now from Tel Aviv. Matt, with the ceasefire now shattered.

What could this mean for Don Alexander and other hostage negotiations? Well, it's going to be really a big change for those hostage negotiations. We just heard from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that any future negotiations for hostages are going to be happening under fire. Now, this goes into what he's been saying for a long time, which is that only military pressure on the ground will succeed in freeing those hostages. But a lot of the former hostages and family members of current hostages who have been protesting, been making public statements here in Israel and in the U.S. all day long have said, But that's not the case. They're worried that the hostages who are remaining, of whom they are nearly 60, most of them have already been killed, that they won't be freed except through negotiations. And in the past, that's what we've seen. Only negotiations have really freed

the largest number of hostages, not military pressure on the ground. Ellison. Excellent reporting. Matt Bradley, thank you. Turning now to Washington in a rare clash between the heads of the judiciary and executive branch. Starting early this morning, President Trump criticizing the judge who issued a block on deportation flights, posting on truth social, quote, this judge, like many of the crooked judges I am forced to appear before, should be impeached. In response, a few hours later, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issuing this statement, quote, for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.

The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. For more, let's bring an end BC News senior White House correspondent Garrett Hake. I mean, Garrett, this kind of rebuke from Chief Justice Roberts over President Trump's post is not typical, correct? It also is coming after multiple Trump allies criticized this district court judge publicly this week. What got us to this point and what is next in this deportation case? Yeah, Alison, the rebuke is rare, but the attacks from President Trump and his allies on federal judges are not. This is something that's been kind of a feature of Donald Trump, the politician, going back to before he was elected to anything during his first campaign in 2015 and 2016. When he was criticizing judges who were working on

immigration issues, even then, he has made it kind of a point of pride to try to undermine judicial rulings that he does not agree with. When he's out of power, that has less effect than when he's the president of the United States doing it. And I think that's probably why you see the Chief Justice push back here. It might also not be political. politically prudent for Donald Trump to push too much harder on this because it's entirely possible that this immigration case that they're referencing here could end up in front of the Supreme Court at its core. The debate now is whether this one district court judge here in Washington, D.C., has the authority to intervene essentially in presidential actions that deal

with national security and foreign policy. The Trump administration is arguing this district court doesn't have that authority, but the Supreme Court conceivably might. So getting on the wrong side of Justice Roberts is probably not a smart move for the president. As for the next steps in this specific case, the judge here James Bosberg has asked for the government's attorneys, the Department of Justice attorneys, to respond to a series of written questions by a noon deadline again tomorrow. He's looking into more specifics about exactly when these deportation flights over the weekend took off and when they landed to see if his order on Saturday was sort of directly disobeyed by the Trump administration or perhaps just not seen or ignored.

Garrett Haig at the White House, thank you. And while officials weigh in on whether the president deliberately disobeyed that judge's order over the weekend, family members of people deported are now worried about what the future holds. Some of them telling us their loved ones are not gang members and that they are being targeted simply because they have tattoos. NBC's Julia Ainslie has more. A chaotic scene as Venezuelan migrants arrived in El Salvador over the weekend. El Salvador's president posting this video to social media, saying it shows members of the Tren de Aragua gang being transferred to one of the country's mega-prisons.

Tonight, families of some of those detained saying their loved ones are being wrongly accused. 29-year-old Marevin Yamarte was among those deported and detained. His family telling NBC that they spotted him and they. this video. He landed in a detention center after he was arrested by ICE agents at his home in Irving, Texas. At the time, he thought he was being sent back home to Venezuela, they said. Mer Elise Kassieke saw the same video. She too recognized her son, able to identify him after seeing his tattoo. She says authorities should check him whenever, and he'll turn up, that he's not a criminal, that he has no criminal record, and that they should send him back to his country

of origin. These were bad people. Over the weekend, President Trump invoking a sweeping wartime powers wall, known as the Alien Enemies Act, to deport members of the Venezuelan gang Trenneiragua, whom his administration has labeled a foreign terrorist organization. How do you determine whether somebody is a gang member? What criteria do you use? To various investigations, a lot of the ways we do it.

that's law enforcement center. I'm not going to share all that with you, but you know whether it's through social media, through the activities, through their criminal records here and abroad. I stand by everything we did this weekend, and I think the president keeping his promise to American people. NBC News asked the Department of Homeland Security for the criminal backgrounds of these three men. In response, a spokesperson declined to provide records and said, we are confident in DHS intelligence assessments. But these family members insisting their loved ones are not part of the gang. An Orlando family saying immigration agents linked their brother to Trindera Agua after noticing tattoos on his arms. They say the only crime he committed was having entered this country and turning himself into authorities upon his arrival was his only crime because otherwise he has no criminal record.

The federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to halt those deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador is now giving the Justice Department until noon on Wednesday to answer more questions to prove. prove it did not violate his order by deporting more immigrants on Saturday night. Trump called that judge a radical left lunatic and is threatened to impeach him. In response, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement saying the appeals process is the place to settle disagreements with courts, not through the impeachment of judges. Ellison? Julia Ainsley, thank you. When we come back speaking out the parents of that missing spring breaker asking authorities

to declare her dead while the last person to see her. see her alive appears in court. The details from that tense hearing next. We're back now into the Dominican Republic. A chaotic hearing today for the man believed to be the last person seen with an American college student that's been missing for over a week now. Joshua Reby pleading with a judge to let him go home today as the parents of that missing 20-year-old speak out on her disappearance. NBC's Jesse Kersh. is there inside the courthouse for us. Joshua Reby walking into court in the Dominican Republic today, surrounded by a crush of international media for a heated hearing that stretched on more than two hours and at times devolved into a shouting match.

His lawyers argued he is being deprived of his passport and his freedom to return home to the United States. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they don't have Reby's passport and say he's been allowed to move around the resort freely. adding he has never been detained and is a witness, not a suspect. Which branch of the government has Joshua Reby's passport if you don't? I don't know the passport. The 22-year-old from Iowa is believed to be the last person seen with Sudikshikunaki before she vanished from a beach in Punta Kana on March 6th. Police have not named a suspect in her disappearance.

Reby testifying himself, saying, I really just want to be able to go home. And telling the court he spoke to Suddick Shukunaki's mother at the hotel. Thank you very much for helping save my daughter the first time. He says she told him, adding it was a really tough conversation and that the Kunaki family gave me hugs goodbye. We believe 100% in the author to investigation. Back in Kunaki's Virginia hometown, we heard from her parents for the first time since police say the Kunakis asked for a legal declaration of her death.

Our NBC station in Washington was there. It is with deep sadness and heavy. Tonight, remembering their daughter as a bright student who hoped to become a doctor. We are coming to the terms with the fact that our daughter has done. This is incredibly difficult for us to process. Jesse Kerr joins us now from outside of that courthouse in the Dominican Republic. Jesse, do we know what happens next year? It's a little bit unclear at this point.

Alison, but here's what we can tell you. The judge ruling a short time ago that, yes, Joshua Reby should be allowed to move freely without a police escort. But at the same time, the judge said that this was not the proper venue to address the issue over his passport. So at this point, it appears that Joshua Reby, an American citizen, remains stuck in the Dominican Republic tonight. Ellison. Jesse Kirsch, reporting from the ground there. Thank you. We have some breaking news. Files related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr. just released on the National Archives website. This follows an executive order by President Trump. So let's get right to Gerald Posner. He is the author of Case Closed, the book that dismantled many of the most famous conspiracy theories about the assassination of JFK. Gerald, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I know you spoke to Top Story when President Trump first signed the executive order for this release.

these documents are very newly released, not even an hour now, but what are your immediate takeaways thus far? Well, so far, the best news is it looks like they did actually release a lot of new material. You know, one of the things that we're always concerned about is releasing all material like they did on the Epstein files, recycled, things that have already been seen. But one of the ways they do it is unfortunately they release the files and then they don't tell you what had been sealed before and what had been blacked out. You have to go back to an earlier release, a year or two earlier, compare the documents. It's a torturously slow way revealing that you would think that after all these years,

they'd be able to have a better way of producing the JFK files. Walk through some of the questions or conspiracies people have had about the assassination. And based on what you have seen so far, does it look like the questions or concerns people have will finally be laid to rest with this release? A lot of people are looking for major evidence of a conspiracy, evidence of a second assassin at Dali Plaza, or maybe evidence that the CIA or the mafia was involved in killing the president. I never expected the files to reveal that.

I don't see any evidence of that at all yet. I do think the files might still reveal, and I'm getting into them right now, that the CIA should have been more forthcoming about what it knew about Lee Harvey Oswald and had disclosed that to the FBI, was possible the assassination was preventable. We're going to find that out by looking through these files.

Well, we'll let you get back to those files. I know you have thousands and thousands of pages to go through tonight. Gerald Poser, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. We appreciate it. Sure. Still ahead tonight, an update from mission control to NASA astronauts back on Earth about nine months after they were originally scheduled to return,

how they're doing after being pulled from that capsule. Back now with Top Stories News Feed, starting with the new details in the death of a Telemundo reporter in New Orleans. Authorities say 48-year-old Danubez will be charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of 27-year-old Adonzo Manzano. Manzano was in New Orleans covering the Super Bowl when he was found dead in his hotel room. He was last seen entering that room with Colbert on February 5th. A midwife has been arrested in Texas over the state's abortion ban. The state's attorney general saying the 49-year-old woman is now charged with a second-degree felony for allegedly performing abortions at all three of her Houston area health clinics.

It appears to be the first case of a Texas health care provider facing criminal charges for administering abortions since that 22 statewide ban went into effect. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years behind bars. And two Floridians are lucky to be alive after a small plane crash near Saras, Minnesota. Manatee County officials say the plane veered off its path and clipped a power line before crashing into a pickup truck. An 86-year-old passenger managed to climb out of the plane. The 70-year-old pilot was pulled out by rescuers. They both were hurt but are expected to survive. No one was in that car or on the ground and no one there was injured either. The FAA is investigating. And comedian Tracy Morgan says he is okay after a health scare at Madison Square Garden last night.

The S&L and 30 Rock Alam posting a photo from his hospital bed with a thumbs up saying that he had food poisoning. The 56-year-old was taken out of the arena in a wheelchair after he was seen vomiting and with a nosebleed while sitting court side of the Knicks game. The incident briefly delayed the game against the Miami Heat. Out of the string of incidents targeting Elon Musk's company Tesla. Flames engulfing cars at a Tesla repair center in Las Vegas and at a dealership in Kansas City, Missouri. The FBI now investigating both fires amid report. of vandalism involving Tesla vehicles across the country. NBC's Liz Croix is in Las Vegas with the details.

Tonight, authorities investigating what they're calling a targeted attack on a Tesla repair center in Las Vegas. This dramatic video showing multiple cars in flames. According to authorities, the suspected arson occurred early this morning. When police arrived, they found five vehicles set on fire or damage, and the word resist spray-painted on the front of the business. We believe the suspect approached the business. wearing all black clothing, and he used what appeared to be molot of cocktails and a firearm to conduct his attack. Just hours before in Kansas City, two Tesla cyber trucks set a blaze at a dealership there. Tonight, the FBI stepping in to help local police investigate both incidents.

Those who might think that something like this is justifiable or potentially even admirable. We want to let you know it's a federal crime. We will come after you. While authorities say the identities of the suspects and the motivation behind the attacks are still unknown, it comes amid at least 16 reports of vandalism to Tesla vehicles and dealerships across the country. As people nationwide protested Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his prominent role in the Trump administration. We're out here because we're defending democracy. President Trump sending a warning to those who vandalize Tesla property. You do it to Tesla and you do it to any company. We're going to catch you and you're going to go through hell. Tesla's stock seeing a sharp

drop down more than 40% this year. Tonight, Musk reposting the video from Las Vegas calling the incident terrorism. And Liz joins us now from Las Vegas. Liz, is there concern that insurance companies could try to up insurance rates for Tesla owners because of these attacks? Well, Alison, we talked to an expert today and we asked that question. And he said that he doesn't necessarily at the moment anticipate that to happen. But he said that, first of all, Tesla's already have some of the highest insurance rates because they are the most or some of the most expensive cars to try to repair. He did say, though, that if there is an area with a large concentration of vandalism and it happens repeatedly, that then it could be all drivers that see their insurance rates go up, not just Tesla drivers. And we should point out that we're here in Vegas where this happened.

Investigators have blocked off the road as they continue the investigation. We see some of those charred cars down there. And right now they're trying to figure out who owns those cars. Because this is a repair shop, it's likely that many of them are owned by individuals and not the company, Ellison. Liz Kreutz in Las Vegas. Thank you. And we're going to pause here because we are now getting an update from NASA officials. Remember that crew that had been stranded in space longer than expected have just touched back down. Let's listen in.

The crew 10, crew 9 situation and how we're going to set that up. I'll tell you a little bit, you know, when you plan these dynamic activities, a lot of work goes into them. For example, for the landing that you guys just witnessed today, there's a number of things that we look at, a number of factors, the weather being one of them. You saw a great weather today. In addition, we look at the readiness of the recovery team to make sure they're ready to go.

We look at the handover time on orbit between the incoming crew and the departing crew to make sure there's enough time for activities to be accomplished before the departing crew leaves. We do have the benefit of having NASA astronaut Don Pettettit remaining on board. He'll be coming home on Soyuz in April, and so he'll continue the handover with the crew. We also look at the vehicle traffic, the vehicle's coming and going. And when you pull all that together, the International Space Station program, the commercial crew program, and SpaceX came up with the plan that we just witnessed.

The crew 10 launch last week, the docking over the weekend, the undock early today, and then the landing that we just witnessed. So just an incredible amount of inputs that you get to pull all that together in order to have a successful operation. I want to tell you, we want to thank the crew 9 team and the ground teams for their dedication to excellence, their resilience, their flexibility during this expedition, everything they did to have a successful expedition, as you have all witnessed. SpaceX has been an incredible partner for us, and it shows the benefits, of the commercial, public, private partnership that we have.

So they just been a huge, great partner throughout all this. Crew 9, in addition to the spacewalks that many of you witnessed, they performed just about 150 experiments on board the International Space Station with over 900 hours of research. And the work we do on the International Space Station benefits the nation, benefits people on Earth, and are the building blocks for going back to the moon, and to Mars. So Nick, Alexander, Butch, and Sunny, welcome home. On behalf of NASA, I want to thank

the administration. I want to thank all the work of the NASA teams and all the work of the SpaceX teams. And so with that, I'll hand it over to Commercial Crew Program Manager, Steve Stitch. Thanks, Joel, and thank you all for being here. Greatly appreciate your interest in the commercial crew program and also human spaceflight. Of course, as you know, It's been just a huge week for commercial crew. You know, the missions, I think, sometimes seem easier than they are. If I just step back and think about all the challenges we had to launch crew nine, moving to a different launch pad, adjusting the seats and the crew training.

And then, you know, over the weekend, once we docked crew 10 safely, looking at the weather patterns, finding this great opportunity that we landed at today, Adjusting the timeline, you know, it's never easy. Space flight's always dynamic. Sometimes it seems like things move from step to steps to step, but there's usually different paths along the way. So the weekend was culminated today with the landing of crew nine. We've dragon splashed down at about 5.57 p.m. off the coast of Tallahassee.

That's our first commercial crew program landing at Tallahassee. We've had a couple cargo flights land there. And now it's great to have crew nine and the Freedom capsule back home, and its fourth flight is now in the history books. Curse were overjoyed. I watched every crew member come out of the vehicle today. Post-landing, it was great to watch Nick, Sonny, Butch, and Alexander come out of a dragon and smile and wave as they came out of the vehicle.

You know, we'll get them, they're on the ship now. We'll get them back to meet the NASA aircraft, and then back to meet with their families. If you watched the weather today, it was incredible. clear skies, real low winds, maybe three or four knots of wind, and really calm seas. You could see the dolphins swimming around the capsule, which was kind of incredible. SpaceX had a nice drone aircraft flying around and taking footage, and that was just incredible. As I said, the ops team just did a phenomenal job over the weekend, pulling in the landing to get the crew home sooner and take advantage of this great weather opportunity.

really appreciate the versatility of SpaceX, the ISS program, commercial crew program, and the flight ops team in planning out the timeline, looking at the crew's workload, determining whether we could pull this off, doing sleep shifting, all those sorts of things that made this an opportunity happen. I also want to thank our partners at the U.S. Coast Guard. They were there on scene, protecting the scene, and making sure that it was safe for mariners in the area. the FAA, the Department of Defense, continuing to support us. You know, it's great to see the teams really in action. Overall, I would say it was really clean, undocking, reentry and landing.

The Dragon vehicle performed extremely well, didn't really have any issues to work. You know, little things, a GPS outage that we reset a filter on and things like that. Today, the sequence went perfectly, we jettisoned the trunk, executed the deorbit burn, closed the nose cone and did the entry. You could hear Nick call down when we finally got the vehicle back through the blackout, 4.6Gs, and you could tell they were doing well, and then braced for the parachute deploy of the drogues,

and then the mains, and then they haven't splashed down. So parachutes performed well. The whole system worked just as planned. The cruise doing great. They'll spend a little time on the recovery ship getting checked out, making sure that they're healthy and ready to go, and then eventually they'll make their way, back to Houston. Again, I want to congratulate the entire mass commercial crew program,

the SpaceX team. In many ways, if I stepped back to last year, this has been nine months in the making, and I couldn't be prouder of our team's versatility, our team's ability to adapt and really build for the future of human spaceflight and looking at different ways to do business, taking advantage of one vehicle to launch a crew and then bring back the crew in a different vehicle. Our partner, SpaceX, did a tremendous job. Every time we asked them to do something a little different, they stepped up and into the plate and did that, including swapping capsules six weeks ago prior to crew 10, and then also adjusting the crew nine mission. You know, we'll celebrate for a while. We're going to take some time in commercial

crew to celebrate this one and spend a little time with the crew, and then we'll move on to crew 11. Crew 11 will be here before we know it. We'll launch that vehicle as early as mid-July, so we'll start preparing for that. And then, You know, we're working hand-in-hand with Boeing as well on certification of Starliner, getting that vehicle back to flight. You know, Butch and Sonny's return on Dragon, to me, shows how important it is to have two different crew transportation systems, the importance of Starliner and the redundancy that we're building in human spaceflight for our low-earth urban economy.

We're super grateful for Boeing as well in their investment. They're keenly interested in the landing today. They have a watch party going on and are watching Butch and Sunny come back, And they've texted me, you know, the buildup to this, they're very keenly interested in Butch and Sonny. And then we're interested in their resilience. That whole Boeing team, like our whole commercial crew program team, is resilient and moving forward to the next steps on Starliner.

It's been a busy start to 2025. It's hard to believe we're in the middle or toward late March. Looking for an exciting summer as well. And I look forward to your questions. And I'll hand it over to Bill. All right. Steve. Yeah, welcome and thanks for everybody's interest as we continue on. Return today marks the successful completion of the crew nine mission and really with them handing over operations

on board to crew 10. Just some interesting stats as we go through, Nick and Alexander both spent 171 days in space on this trip, seeing the arrival and departure of four different visiting vehicles to the ISS, which he spent 286 days in space. and they got to see eight different visiting vehicles coming and going from the ISS. We stay really busy as we talk about all these vehicles coming and going from the station. Nick and Butch each conducted one spacewalk and Sonny conducted two. That actually gave Sunny the record for most time on spacewalks by a woman and puts her forth overall in terms of time outside doing spacewalks.

The crew contributed to more than 150 unique experiments, like Joel said, including stem cell technology to potentially address blood diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancers. They tested lighting systems to help maintain circadian rhythms, which will help improve conditions for not only future crews as you go through space flight, but also those on the ground for shift workers and those in extreme or remote environments. They did plant growth and quality experiments to support. future moon and Mars missions as we look forward with that. They loaded a really interesting experiment.

Jaxsa had their first wooden satellite. They loaded that into and got that deployed from the ISS. And then as part of their spacewalk, Butch and Sunny collected samples from the station's exterior to study the survivability of microorganisms in the vacuum of space. I'll tell you, the crew nine crew did a great job here in the near term supporting this shortened handover period with crew 10 and enabling that landing opportunity that we saw today.

There was a lot of work that they did ahead of crew 10 arrival to get prepared and then really working through all of the things that we need to do to hand over the emergency procedures to the crew to get the cargo transferred that they need to and to get all the vehicles set up for crew 10 to be very successful. Crew 10 is already working hard and they're working on key science investigations on board. They already kicked them off even while they were getting prepped for undocking the other day. So coming up on ISS, we still have a lot going on. We have NG21 release at the end of March providing some important trash disposal for the space station. You've got to get rid of all the

stuff that you bring up, so you've got to bring that down somehow, and NG21 is going to take away a lot of that. And then we'll look forward to SOUYS-27 launch, Tuesday, April 8th, from Bikinorcaudrome at about 1247 a.m. Central. That'll be carrying NASA astronaut Johnny Kim and cosmonauts Sergei Rizikov and Alexei Zabritzky. And then before SOUYus M.S.26 returns, Alexei Fchenin will pass on the role of ISIS commander to our Jaksa astronaut, Takuya and Ishi.

Really a lot of great stuff continuing on station. I really appreciate the entirety of the team joint with SpaceX, NASA, our operations team, the program teams, the engineering teams, all the work it takes to turn around these missions. It's a ton of stuff and then we go change it on them at the last minute and they handle it like the pros that they are. So welcome home to crew nine and with that I'll hand it over to Sarah. All right. And we have been listening and we will continue listening to NASA officials speaking from Houston, Texas. Mission control has just overseen the successful splash

of NASA crew nine, including astronauts, Butch, Wilmore, and Sunny Williams, who have been aboard the International Space Station for about nine months longer than initially planned. Let's get into some of what we've heard so far with Ron Guerin. He is a former astronaut and CEO of Ice Space Technologies U.S. that is an American Lunar Exploration Company, and Dr. Emily Rice, professor of astrophysics at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. Ron, Let's start with you. Just take us through what these first few hours back on Earth are physically like for these astronauts. We heard NASA officials there saying that they were going to be treated and kept for a little while on the recovery ship. What are the initials hours like compared

to a couple days back? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, the human body is an amazing adaptive thing, and it adapts really rapidly to any environment that it finds itself in. And so when we get to zero G, when we get to space, the body starts realizing it doesn't need a thing like a skeleton anymore. So you start to lose bone density. You start to lose muscle mass. You have fluid shifts where the gravity is not pushing the fluid down in your body. And so your body adjust to all that and adapts.

And when you live there for months on end, that adaptation really sets in. And when you come back to Earth and you're back in 1G, you're back in a, you're back in in gravity, you have to adjust again. And so once you get back after a long duration flight like that, you pretty much can walk, but you have to think about it. It's not an unconscious act. It's okay, I'm putting my left foot down. Oh, my balance. I'm leaning a little bit to the right. I've been to move to the left. And so it's something that all of a sudden you have to think about. You feel really heavy. You feel like you're being weighed down by glue or you're wearing a lead lead suit, so you feel very, very heavy. There could be some vestibular issues. You might feel

dizzy. But that seems to pass pretty quickly, and your body really adapts rapidly back into its new environment again. Emily, talk to us about what you think of what we've heard from NASA officials so far. I mean, we heard one official there going through some of the experiments that they went through up there saying this crew, crew nine carried out 150 experiments, 900 hours of research all while on the ISS. Are we looking at a situation where we say, okay, the initial incident and the failing of the Boeing capsule, they turned it around and now this has been a successful endeavor? How do you assess the totality of the mission here? 100%. So this might have been unplanned at the beginning, but never for a second was it unprepared. These astronauts are the best of the best.

Butch in particular are just supremely prepared astronauts, very, very experienced astronauts. And I'm sure that they were, you know, a little bit frustrated from having to stay in space for longer than they originally anticipated. But I'm sure that they were prepared for it and probably been thrilled to get another chance to stay for a long time in the space station. When you think of space exploration and when people ask you, what's the point? Why do we spend all the money? Why do we need to go there? How do you explain to people when you look at moments like this why it matters for all of us. There is so much that we are doing with space exploration. We can think of the 150 experiments that they've done, all these things that we're learning about

the human body, about what we're learning about microgravity, all the technologies that people bring back to Earth. But I think more important for me is just the inspiration. This is something that we can do as human beings, that we can do internationally, that we can do collaboratively. The astronauts that have, you know, every single time they're risking their lives to go into space. We can't forget that. As routine, as nominal as these missions are, they make it look easy, but every single time they're putting their lives, their family are putting their trust in the thousands of people that work for NASA, for SpaceX, for these contractors. This is a pinnacle of achievement of humanity as far as I'm

concerned. And Ron, before we had to break, what is your answer to that? When people say, what's the point? Why do we care about space? We already did it. We were on the moon. Why keep going back? What do we really get from these experiments and these visits, too? space? Well, if we had a three-hour sequence, we could probably do that. But I think that our space exploration is the best return on an investment that we can ever make. There's so many – everything we do on the space station, all these experiments that we do, all directly benefit life on Earth. We are inspiring the next generation. It's what we do as humans. We want to explore. We want to see what's over the next hill. The list goes on and on. And we're not only talking

about spin-off technology, the benefits from that, but direct tangible benefits, new medicines, new materials, new ways to create energy, new ways to have combustion reactions that increase fuel efficiency. The list goes on and on. And I think it's a really incredible return on investment. Ron Garan, Dr. Emily Rice, thank you both so much for being here with us and for sharing your analysis and insights. We appreciate it. When we come back, a major League opening day overseas, the Dodgers and Cubs facing off in front of a packed crowd in Tokyo. The American fans traveling thousands of miles just to be there and the Japanese players getting a very special homecoming.

And finally tonight, America's pastime, Major League Baseball kicking off its regular season in Ocean Away in Tokyo. The sport is red-hot all across Japan, drawing huge crowds and even Americans for opening day. NBC's Janice Mackey Freyer has more on the festivities. Baseball season is in full swing with the LA Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. Let's go Dodgers! Los Angeles pulling out a win in the first of two sold-out games, and the fans are all in. So Tomi Haguchi says having the Dodgers come to Japan makes it really happy. Major League baseball games have been played here before.

but never with so many star players from Japan. The series features five top Japanese players, all national heroes here, including Shohei Otani, whose arrival home was all over Instagram. The MVP and reigning World Series champion is Major League Baseball's most marketable global asset, as America's pastime seeks out a wider international audience. The consistency that the Japan ball players have translate over to America,

American baseball, which is doing everything right, fundamentally sound. We're at practice, and all the cameras are waiting to spot Otani. In an exhibition game on the weekend, O'Tani, right field. The two-way talent nailed a two-run homer, giving fans exactly what they wanted. Because Japan has basically adopted the L.A. Dodgers as its team, tickets for the Tokyo series sold out fast. That didn't stop Richard Moreno and Anthony Martinez from flying in for. from L.A. for it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So it's awesome to be. I'm just

kind of shocked that we're even here. The league set up a fan experience event at the city's tallest tower so that more people could enjoy the moment with hot dogs, a photo booth, mascots, even batting cages. How big of a deal is it that all of these star players are in Japan? says, I think this is going to be written into Japanese textbooks. The regular season opens in the U.S. at the end of the month. So worth noting now that over the weekend in exhibition play, a Japanese pro team beat both the Dodgers and the Cubs. It's another sign of how Japanese baseball is better than ever

and making America's sport more of a global game. Ellison. Thanks so much for watching Top Story. Barton in New York for Tom Yamis. Stay right there. More news is on the way.