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Artemis II launches astronauts around the moon in first deep space mission since Apollo
The Artemis II crew launched into the history books Wednesday, blasting off aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a mission around the moon — the first crewed journey beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the U.S., and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, boarded the 322-foot Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B on Wednesday afternoon, just hours before launching at 6:35 p.m.
The Artemis II crew is expected to travel around the moon and back, marking the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since 1972.
Although the mission will not land on the lunar surface, it is designed to carry the four-person crew farther from Earth than any crewed mission since the Apollo era.
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NASA describes the Orion spacecraft as the most powerful launch system rocket it has ever built.
Standing 322 feet tall, the rocket will send the spacecraft and its crew into deep space for the first time, testing critical systems ahead of proposed future lunar landing missions.
Now that the crew is in space, its members are expected to spend several days in space, including a multi-day journey around the far side of the moon before returning to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
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NASA intended to launch Artemis II in February, but technical issues discovered during testing forced the agency to push it back. Such issues included fuel and helium leaks that required additional repairs to the Space Launch System rocket.
Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I test flight and is considered a major step toward future missions, including Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the moon.
NASA said previously that the Artemis program is intended to support long-term lunar exploration and lay the groundwork for human missions to Mars.
NASA RETURNS HUMANS TO DEEP SPACE AFTER OVER 50 YEARS WITH FEBRUARY ARTEMIS II MOON MISSION
President Donald Trump established the Artemis program during his first term in 2017 as part of a broader push to return American astronauts to the moon.
Hours before the rocket launch, Trump celebrated the Artemis II mission.
“America is going back to the Moon!,” he said. “America doesn’t just compete, we DOMINATE, and the whole World is watching. God bless our incredible Astronauts, God bless NASA, and God bless the Greatest Nation ever to exist, the United States of America!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also praised the crew and NASA on Wednesday.
“Praying for the safety and success of the Artemis II crew and @NASA as they undertake a mission that will carry humanity farther into space than we have gone in over half a century,” he said. “I had the privilege of hosting these courageous pioneers at the State of the Union earlier this year. Americans are watching proudly as our Golden Age reaches new heights!”
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High-alcohol, ready-to-drink cocktails spark overconsumption concerns for Gen Z drinkers
A wave of sweet, high-alcohol canned cocktails is gaining traction among young drinkers, raising concerns among some experts.
BuzzBallz, a brand of pre-mixed, ready-to-drink alcoholic cocktails created in 2009, has gained renewed attention online in recent years, especially among young adults.
Sold in small, neon-colored round containers, most BuzzBallz drinks are about 200 milliliters of 15% alcohol-by-volume (ABV), containing nearly two standard alcoholic drinks in a single container.
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One viral TikTok video shows a man approaching young adults and asking them to chug a BuzzBallz Biggie in public for $100. The supersized version contains 1.75 liters of 15% ABV alcohol.
The video, which garnered more than 750,000 likes, drew thousands of comments from stunned viewers.
“I’d do this for free,” one person wrote.
“My problem is, I would do this for far less money,” another said.
The sweetness and drinkability of BuzzBallz products play a “significant role” in their popularity, said Cesar Wurm, a Georgia-based hospitality executive and author of “The Powers of Addiction: Finding Freedom in Acceptance and Recovery.”
Wurm told Fox News Digital that higher alcohol content can be masked by flavor — making it harder for people to gauge how much they’re drinking.
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“For a younger or less experienced consumer, that disconnect between taste and potency can increase risk,” he said.
There is also a behavioral component, Wurm said, as members of Gen Z tend to “value experiences, social connection and immediacy.”
Ready-to-drink beverages “fit seamlessly into that with no preparation required, easy to share and highly ‘social media friendly,'” he added.
The bright packaging can also “create a perception that the product is more casual or harmless than it actually is,” Wurm said.
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“From a risk perspective, the combination of high alcohol content, ease of consumption and appealing design can accelerate overconsumption, especially in unstructured environments,” he noted.
“The concern is less about the format itself and more about how accessible and unintimidating it makes higher-alcohol products.”
Wurm, who has been sober for more than a decade, emphasized the importance of “awareness, education and transparency around what’s actually being consumed.”
He added that Gen Z is “one of the most mindful generations when it comes to health and wellness.”
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“We’re seeing a parallel rise in moderation, sobriety-curious behavior and non-alcoholic alternatives, which suggests this is not a one-directional trend, but rather a more complex relationship with alcohol overall,” he said.
Ravi Sawhney, a design expert and founder of RKS Design, said the drinks are “designed experiences.”
“When something looks fun and harmless, we unconsciously assign it less risk, even when the opposite is true,” Sawhney, who is based in California, told Fox News Digital.
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“For Gen Z, who are highly attuned to visual culture and identity signaling, these drinks can feel more like an extension of lifestyle than a substance with consequences. That disconnect between how it feels and what it actually does is where the real risk lies.”
A BuzzBallz spokesperson told Fox News Digital the company’s products are “intended strictly for individuals of legal drinking age.”
“We love that the brand is highly social and associated with fun, but we are also very intentional about our role in promoting responsible consumption,” the spokesperson said.
“We fully support and promote responsible drinking practices and do not encourage illegal, excessive or irresponsible consumption in any way.”
The spokesperson added that BuzzBallz’s marketing is “focused on the social occasion, not the act of consumption itself.”
“By doing so, we ensure BuzzBallz is always portrayed as a fun, colorful, portable accessory made for adult social moments like a beach day, a concert or a party,” the spokesperson added.
The company is based in Carrollton, Texas. In 2024, it was acquired by Sazerac Company, a major global spirits company.
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Kyle Busch drops bombshell about NASCAR during ’23 season: ‘Cheating without cheating’
Kyle Busch has been everywhere this week, and it’s not because he’s once again a NASCAR Cup Series winner. Quite the opposite, in fact!
The two-time Cup Series champ is in the news again because of his inability to win. That’s right. The guy who has won over 60 Cup races, and holds the record for most wins across all three series (233), can’t buy a win lately.
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For those who missed it, Busch and former JGR teammate Denny Hamlin had beef last weekend after Hamlin essentially called Busch a scrub on his podcast. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but he called him out for not having won a Cup race in three years, which was fair.
Busch then went on Sean Hannity’s new podcast and … didn’t hold back. He hit on everything.
Drivers he hated.
Drivers he liked.
How he wanted to “beat guys into the ground.”
You know, the normal stuff you’d expect from Rowdy.
But he didn’t stop there. Busch also talked about his last Cup win, which came in 2023. He won three times that season — his first with RCR — and then things got weird.
“After the third race that we won at Gateway, we got our hands smacked for some of the stuff that we were doing to the race car that NASCAR didn’t like and said ‘don’t bring that back,'” Busch told Hannity.
“It wasn’t anything, like, against the rules. It was just, you always exploit the gray area. So we exploited a gray area and we found something and we had an advantage.”
The entire interview is worth the watch, but that specific part begins at the 1:07:44 mark for those who want to watch it.
This doesn’t look great on paper for NASCAR. Let’s just call it like it is. Not the best look when your future Hall of Fame driver is saying, essentially, that the fellas who make the rules stepped in after you won three races and told you to quit doing certain things to your car.
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But, as Busch notes, it’s what NASCAR has been doing for 70 years now. He’s not the first driver to receive a slap on the wrist, and he won’t be the last.
It’s “cheating without cheating,” Busch added.
“We exploited a gray area and we found something, and we had an advantage,” he continued.
How? Busch didn’t exactly say (smart man!), but he did give fans a glimpse into how teams try to get an advantage. Shockingly, it’s all about making the car faster.
Stunning, I know.
“You want more downforce,” Busch said. “You want to make it lighter. So, you go and you try to figure out ways of making more downforce than everybody else. Getting your car lower to the ground, lower CG, making it go around the corners faster.”
Again, it’s how NASCAR teams have operated for decades now. Since the days of Big Bill France, really. It’s the game within the game.
The problem fans are going to have with this, and I don’t blame them, is NASCAR stepping in after Kyle Busch won three races at the start of 2023, and basically telling them to stop whatever it is they were doing — even if it wasn’t against the rules.
That seems unfair. To me, at least.
It’s also going to make people bring this conversation back to the present day of NASCAR, where Tyler Reddick has won five of the first nine races this season. He’s quite literally putting up prime Dale Earnhardt numbers.
I’ve got news for you — Tyler Reddick ain’t prime Dale Earnhardt.
People will start asking questions. Fans will get suspicious. Frankly, they already are.
And this little bombshell from Kyle Busch won’t help.
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NHL coach narrowly avoids disaster as glass shatters behind bench
Los Angeles Kings head coach D.J. Smith narrowly avoided disaster in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.
Raucous Avalanche fans banging on the glass behind Smith caused the pane to shatter after Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made a stop on Quinton Byfield. Some pieces of glass rained down on Smith. He covered his head and brushed the glass off his suit before running down the tunnel to get checked out.
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Smith was OK and he returned to the game.
“Whoever the guy (was) just kept pushing and pushing and pushing,” he called. “I looked back because it hit me a bunch of times, then it broke.”
The incident delayed the game for about 15 minutes. The score was even at zero when the glass broke. Colorado eventually picked up the 2-1 win in overtime thanks to Nicolas Roy’s game-winner. The Avalanche had a 2-0 series lead.
Avalanche star Gabriel Landeskog said he was “loud” when Wedgewood made the save and admitted that the “fans got a little too excited.”
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“There’s nothing you can do to control it. There’s nothing you can do about it, so you just deal with it,” he said of the delay. “I think maybe the only thing was that there were so many bodies on the ice that it (wore) the ice out a little bit for the rest (of the period).
“I thought the ice crew did a good job and they did their best to fix it as fast as possible. Doesn’t happen every day.”
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said the delay was a first for him.
“That’s a different one,” Bednar said. “But, I mean, stuff happens. Fans get excited. Our guys were excited, competing hard. There was a bunch of melees on the ice today. It felt like playoff hockey.”
Game 3 is set for Thursday night in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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