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The Artemis II spacecraft successfully returned to Earth Friday with four astronauts after traveling 700,000 miles around the Moon, marking humanity's return to deep space after more than 50 years. NASA has revised its Artemis program timeline, with Artemis III now planned as an Earth-orbit rendezvous mission in mid-2027 and Artemis IV as the lunar landing mission in 2028. The agency faces significant challenges ahead, including accelerating Orion spacecraft production, fixing propulsion system issues, developing lunar landers through SpaceX and Blue Origin, completing spacesuit development through sole provider Axiom Space, and scaling up commercial lunar delivery capabilities.

NASA's Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts safely returned to Earth on Friday after a nine-day mission that included the first crewed flight to the Moon in over five decades. The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—reached a record distance of 252,756 miles from Earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego. While Artemis II did not include a lunar landing, the mission validated NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft for future crewed lunar missions, including planned landings near the Moon's south pole.

Californians filed a proposed class-action lawsuit Wednesday against Sutter Health and MemorialCare alleging that the Abridge AI transcription tool recorded patient-physician conversations without patient consent in violation of state and federal law. The complaint states patients did not receive clear notice that their medical conversations would be recorded, transmitted outside clinical settings, or processed through third-party systems, and that recordings contained identifiable health information. Sutter Health said it takes patient privacy seriously and evaluates technology in accordance with applicable laws, while MemorialCare declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The Trump administration launched a recruiting campaign targeting gamers to address persistent shortages of air traffic controllers, ahead of a hiring window opening April 17th. The FAA said controllers cited gaming as influencing their ability to think quickly and manage complexity, and the campaign promises an average salary of $155,000 after three years. However, the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General identified significant training challenges including outdated curriculum and high failure rates, and the GAO noted that the hiring process itself may cause applicants to accept other positions before receiving employment offers.

San Francisco police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home early Friday morning, with the incident captured on surveillance video. Later that morning, someone matching the suspect's description made threats to burn down OpenAI's Mission Bay offices and was arrested around 9AM. OpenAI confirmed no one was injured and said the company is assisting law enforcement; charges remain pending.

The Orion capsule carrying four astronauts is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego following the nine-day Artemis II mission, which set a record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth. The capsule's heat shield, which sustained damage during a previous uncrewed test flight, will face its critical re-entry test as the spacecraft makes a high-speed atmospheric entry. Navy recovery crews will retrieve the astronauts for medical evaluation before they return to land.

Researchers published a new geophysical model suggesting that stresses created by the subducting Farallon plate remnants, rather than a traditional mantle plume, power the Yellowstone hotspot and its associated volcanism. The model proposes that mantle material flows eastward from the sinking plate fragments until encountering thicker, older continental crust east of Yellowstone, where the change in flow direction creates compressive stresses that open pathways for molten material to reach the surface. The model accounts for why Yellowstone and the Snake River Plain exhibit different volcanic styles but leaves open questions about why these features formed only at Yellowstone despite widespread Farallon plate subduction across western North America.

Formula 1 cancelled races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this month due to the Middle East conflict, but the break will allow teams to address issues with the sport's new 2026 hybrid power unit regulations. The system—combining a 400 kW V6 engine with a 350 kW electric motor drawing from a 4 MJ battery—has created unpredictable power delivery and dangerous speed differentials between cars with different battery charge levels, exemplified by a crash in Japan and drivers reporting loss of control during qualifying. The FIA met with teams and committed to regulatory tweaks, with follow-up meetings scheduled to propose technical changes aimed at improving energy management and driver control.

The Trump administration obtained a grand jury subpoena requiring Reddit to provide personal information about an anonymous user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after an initial summons citing tariff law was rescinded by the Department of Homeland Security. The subpoena, issued by the US Attorney's office in Washington, DC, with an April 14 deadline, represents an escalation after the government's earlier legal attempts failed; the user's posts reviewed by attorneys contained no evidence of criminal activity. Civil liberties advocates expressed concern that grand jury proceedings, which are secret and non-adversarial, weaken free speech protections and may be used to suppress criticism of government agencies.

Microsoft is restructuring its Windows Insider Program by consolidating four testing channels into three and removing barriers to feature access. The new Experimental channel will combine the Canary and Dev channels and include a feature flags page for manual control of individual features, while the Beta channel will have Controlled Feature Rollout disabled so users see advertised features immediately. Users will be able to switch channels without reinstalling Windows, and existing testers will be automatically migrated to appropriate channels based on their current setup.