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Artemis II astronaut tells Trump what communication blackout was like: ‘I said a little prayer’
The Artemis II literally went where no man, or woman, has gone before in an historic trek around the dark side of the moon Monday, and the crew did it with pilot Victor Glover making quick request for divine assistance.
“I’d like to ask, what was your feeling when you had no communication?” President Donald Trump asked in a call arranged by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman from Houston mission control to “Integrity,” the crew’s chosen name for the Orion capsule. “Zero communication all of a sudden: It was cut off by obviously your very special location; what was your feeling when you had no communication? A little bit different perhaps.”
“Yes, Mr. President, it was,” Glover replied. “I said a little prayer, but then I had to keep rolling.”
The prayer was quick, because when things went dark, the crew had to get to work during the 45-minute communications outage.
NASA’S ARTEMIS II CREW COMMITS TO MOON TRAJECTORY AFTER CRITICAL BURN SENDS ORION INTO DEEP SPACE
“I was actually recording scientific observations of the far side of the moon,” Glover continued. “You know, that is actually the time when we were the farthest and the closest to the moon.
“And so we were really able to make some of our most detailed observations of the far side of the moon up close. And so we were busy up here working really hard. And I must say it was actually quite nice.”
NASA CHIEF JARED ISAACMAN SAYS ARTEMIS II WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE ‘IF IT WASN’T FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’
Trump drilled down on the observations.
“Did you see a difference, a big difference between the far side of the moon and the near side of the moon?” Trump asked. “Was there a difference in feel or difference in look, what did you see?”
The lack of light “certainly did” change the perspective, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said, noting the far side looked strikingly different from the near side, with far fewer of the dark plains visible from Earth.
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“The gravitational pull of the Earth has had a profound effect on the near side of the moon, changing all those dark mares, those dark patches of the moon you see from Earth. It’s very different on the far side.
“While you see some small patches of those mare and deep craters, it’s very much absent on that side. So that’s really neat.”
Hansen also took a moment to thank Trump on behalf of Canada, a country that has had at-times testy dealings with Trump.
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“And while I have the microphone, sir, I just want to thank you on behalf of Canada: The space leadership you spoke of from America truly is extraordinary,” Hansen said. “I’ve said this many times before, a nation that leads like that and creates and sets big goals for humanity, that brings other countries along with it, is truly incredible.
“And I know that’s a very intentional, not a necessary decision, intentional decision to lead by example and to allow other countries like Canada to share our gifts and help you achieve these mutually beneficial goals, like establishing a presence on the moon and eventually going to Mars.
“And Canadians are so proud to be a part of this program.”
TRUMP HYPES MOON MISSION AS ARTEMIS II PREPARES TO LIFT OFF UNDER PRESSURE FROM PAST FAILURES
Trump referenced Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky and said the country is proud of Hansen’s bravery.
“They are so proud of you, and you have a lot of courage,” Trump said. “I’m not sure if they’d want to do that. I’m not even sure if The Great One would want to do that, to be honest with you. But you have a lot of courage doing what you’re doing, a lot of bravery and a lot of of genius. But they’re very, very proud of you.”
ASTRONAUT VICTOR GLOVER PRAISED FOR SAYING MOON MISSION IS ‘HUMAN HISTORY,’ NOT ‘BLACK HISTORY’
Mission specialist Christina Koch spoke about regaining sight of Earth after the blackout and the importance of U.S. leadership in deep-space exploration.
“One of the biggest highlights was coming back from the far side of the moon and having the first glimpses of planet Earth again, after being out of communication for about 45 minutes,” said Koch, the first woman to the moon, who already holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days) and was part of the first all-female spacewalk.
“It really just reminds you what a special place we have and how important it is for our nation to work, to lead and not follow in exploring deep space.”
Commander Reid Wiseman told Trump the crew had witnessed views that were first sights for humanity, including a solar corona during an eclipse and planets lining up beyond the moon.
“We saw sights hat no human has ever seen before, not even in Apollo, and that was amazing for us,” Wiseman said. “And then the surprise of the day, we just came out of an eclipse where the sun, moon — the entire dark moon about that big right out the window that we were watching — we could see the corona of the sun, and then we could see the planet train line up, and Mars.
“And all of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation, and this planet become a two-planet species.”
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Ex-Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene joins left-wing calls for the 25th amendment as Iran deadline nears
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” Greene wrote on X.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Greene’s post featured a screenshot of Trump’s Tuesday Truth Social post in which he ominously warned that Iran’s “civilization will die tonight.”
FORMER REP MTG VENTS THAT SHE’S ‘SO BEYOND DONE,’ CHARACTERIZING TRUMP’S ADDRESS AS ‘WAR WAR WAR’
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump declared in the Truth Social post.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!” he added.
Greene, a once-fierce Trump ally, had a bitter falling out with the president last year and has become a vociferous critic of the commander in chief.
Some sitting Democratic lawmakers have also called for the president to be booted from office.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a member of the progressive cadre of lawmakers known as “The Squad,” is one of those calling for Trump’s ouster.
“Sickeningly evil. Donald Trump must be impeached. When will it be enough for my Republican colleagues to grow spines and remove him from office?” she wrote in a Tuesday post on X.
ILHAN OMAR CALLS TRUMP AN ‘UNHINGED LUNATIC,’ URGES BOOTING HIM OUT OF OFFICE
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., declared in a Tuesday post on X, “25th Amendment RIGHT NOW! Trump is too unhinged, dangerous, and deranged to have the nuclear codes!”
Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., who last year introduced impeachment articles against Trump, declared in a Tuesday post on X, “Trump just threatened to slaughter 100 million people. It’s clear he’s unfit to be president, the 25th amendment must be invoked. If Vance, Rubio & the others continue to be spineless cowards, Congress must do everything possible to stop Trump & this war.”
In a Truth Social post issued on Easter Sunday, the president warned, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F[—]kin’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
Omar responded to the president’s comments, declaring in a Monday post on X, “This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove. This unhinged lunatic must be removed from office.”
Greene declared in a Sunday post on X that the president had “gone insane.”
“Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit,” she asserted in part of the lengthy post. “This is not making America great again, this is evil.”
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High-risk effort to save ‘Dude 44’ crew is most incredible combat rescue in US history
You have just seen the most audacious air combat search-and-rescue mission in American history. No other mission compares to the operation to bring home the F-15E crew known as ‘Dude 44.’
U.S. military helicopters have been picking up downed pilots under fire since the Korean War. In Vietnam, pilots were plucked from the tall grass and karst ridges and jungles under enemy fire. U.S. Air Force rescuers saved 1,201 aircrew from the Air Force alone, and a total of 2,780 U.S. service members in combat situations.
Over Iran, the sheer number of planes and people involved and exposed to danger dwarfs any other single rescue in the annals of air warfare. For nearly 48 hours, beginning at 4:40 a.m. local time on April 2, over 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel put their lives on the line for a mission 200 miles inside Iran. And everyone came back alive. That’s air dominance.
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“This rescue captured the world’s imagination,” President Donald Trump said at the Pentagon on Monday. The astonishing technology of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle is remote, and almost superhuman in its sophistication. But from the moment Americans learned that two aviators were down in Iran, our hearts pounded. We felt, at the most basic human level, their struggle to survive, evade, hide and hope.
“They always knew we would be coming to get them,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said.
With Operation Epic Fury in week five, ‘Dude 44’ was part of the push to eliminate the remainder of Iran’s military power. All combat missions are given a random callsign used just for that sortie; it’s for radio calls to homebase, command and control, the tanker, etc. ‘Dude’ is one of the more popular, but sometimes you get a callsign like “Poptart.”
CENTCOM COMMANDER DIRECTED STRIKE AGAINST AN IRGC HEADQUARTERS IN UNDERGROUND FACILITY: SOURCES
‘Dude 44’ was a night mission. The F-15E is the workhorse of Operation Epic Fury. It carries the biggest bomb payload of any U.S. fighter. F-15E crews often have hundreds of combat hours racked up over Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran. The two officers of ‘Dude 44’ likely had double-digit missions over Iran to their credit.
They were about to face the worst-case scenario. This F-15E was 200 miles inside Iran when something – a shoulder-fired infrared missile locking on to their engine heat, or anti-aircraft fire – hit them.
At 4:40 a.m. local Iran time, the first rescue began. While joint forces knew both airmen had survived, it was only the pilot they located at first. Rescuers prized a quick daybreak mission that can achieve surprise. What they got was seven hours inside Iranian airspace. The Air Force HH-60W Jolly Green IIs are purpose-built for rescue. They have radars, self-defense chaff and flares, the most sophisticated Link 16 datalinks to other planes, and of course, 7.62mm and .50-caliber guns.
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A U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthog fighter loitered and maintained radio communication with the pilot on the ground, to coordinate an exact pick-up spot. A-10s and other aircraft kept up surveillance and shot at anything moving toward the pilot. The Iranians shot back; Caine called it a close-in gunfight and “an incredibly dangerous mission.” The lead A-10 callsign “Sandy,” designator for special training in search and rescue, took so much fire that the pilot ultimately had to exit Iran’s airspace and bail out.
All this time, a fleet of 155 aircraft set up seven different deception areas to fool the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). B-1 bombers, F-22s, F-35s, F-16s, more F-15s and A-10s created the appearance of multiple search and rescue operations. Above them, 48 tankers, many over Iranian skies, supplied air refueling. Count the participants: hundreds of airmen, special forces and other members of the joint force. This preponderance of airpower faked out the IRGC forces.
Anxious hours passed, yet Central Command dared not launch the second rescue mission because searchers could not pinpoint the F-15E Weapons Systems Officer or “back-seater.”
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During a rescue, it’s possible to have radio contact or indications of life – but not to know exactly where the airman is. Down in unfamiliar mountains, wounded and bleeding, the airman can only describe what he sees. Devices like infrared strobes can signal to watching aircraft. But Iran’s forces were closing in, making concealment imperative.
Fortunately, as CIA Director John Ratcliffe described it, the back-seater was “invisible to the enemy but not to the CIA.” Careful sweep monitoring at a range of about 40 miles, as described by Trump, yielded the first clue of slight movement. Then the back-seater stood up in his mountain crevice – and that was enough. “We have him,” Trump recounted. (Even Trump cautiously chose his words when talking about this highly classified capability; suffice it to say, our side has been working on the ability to detect and characterize slight motion in terrain for quite some time.)
Trump’s decision to greenlight the back-seater rescue was high stakes. Two powerful, specially modified HC-130Js landed and disgorged three MH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters. Small but heavily armed, the three helicopters were unpacked in less than 10 minutes, according to Trump. The team retrieved the back-seater from the mountain. To no one’s surprise, while the HC-130Js landed, they could not taxi fast enough to reach take-off speed in the wet sand and dirt. Trump described how “other aircraft” came to lift out all personnel.
Finally, American fighters strafed and destroyed the HC-130Js to keep secrets out of the hands of Iran – and their cronies in Russia and China. As Caine said, “People are more important than hardware.” Still, you’ll be glad to know C-130Js are still made in Marietta, Georgia. And brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighters for the Air Force are on the production line in St. Louis.
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US embassies in Bahrain, Egypt issue warnings as Iran threatens universities across Middle East
The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain told American citizens in the country to shelter in place on Tuesday, as the embassy in Egypt issued its own caution to Americans amid threats that Iran and its terror proxies may try to target American universities across the Middle East.
The embassy in Manama directed all U.S. government employees, along with all other Americans in the country, to shelter in a secure structure and stay away from windows until further notice.
“Iran and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target American universities in Bahrain,” the embassy said. “Iran has specifically threatened American universities across the Middle East.”
The embassy provided instructions to those Americans who wish to leave the Middle East.
“If you want to leave the Middle East, the U.S. government is ready to assist by providing you the latest information about the departure options available,” it said.
For those who wish to remain and shelter in place, the embassy reminded them to have a supply of food, water, medications and other essential items.
“We urge all Americans to remain vigilant, follow local authorities’ instructions, and review the latest guidance from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate,” the embassy said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo advised U.S. citizens to closely monitor the news for regional developments.
“Egyptian authorities generally offer effective security protection,” the embassy said. “However, extremists and Iranian-aligned actors have expressed interest in planning and carrying out attacks in the region. Iran and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target universities in the Middle East. Iran has specifically threatened American universities across the Middle East.”
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