CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA on Friday assigned the astronauts who will ride the first commercial capsules into orbit next year and bring crew launches back to the U.S.
Nine astronauts were named to ride the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner capsules -- five on the first crew flights and four on the second round of missions to the International Space Station.
Boeing's first Starliner crew will include a former NASA astronaut who commanded the last shuttle flight in 2011, Chris Ferguson, who's now a Boeing employee. The other commercial crew members are still with NASA. All have a military background.
Besides Ferguson, the initial commercial crew members are: Nicole Aunapu Mann, Eric Boe, Sunita Williams and John Cassada riding on Boeing. Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will fly with SpaceX.
SpaceX is shooting for a test flight without passengers in November and a crew flight in April. Boeing is aiming for a test flight at the end of this year or early next, and the first crew flight in the middle of next year.
Suspect in slaying
of doctor kills self
HOUSTON -- A man accused of killing one of former President George H.W. Bush's doctors fatally shot himself during a confrontation with authorities in Houston on Friday morning, the city's police chief said.
Joseph James Pappas, 62, was accused of shooting Dr. Mark Hausknecht on July 20 while the cardiologist rode his bike to work at Houston Methodist Hospital. Authorities have said Pappas might have been seeking revenge for his mother, who died on the doctor's operating table more than 20 years ago, in April 1997.
Authorities on Wednesday had announced Pappas as a suspect in the death, saying he should be considered armed, dangerous and possibly suicidal. Police found him Friday after a city worker reported seeing him.
Pappas died from a single self-inflicted shot to his head, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters a short time after Pappas' death, with his body still at the scene. Pappas was wearing a bullet-resistant vest during the confrontation and shot himself after a second police unit arrived, Acevedo said.
Pappas had worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years and was also a licensed real estate agent, state records show. Friday's confrontation occurred about 3½ miles from his Houston home.
Dam called safe;
Virginians wary
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Officials in Virginia say a dam that overflowed Thursday is currently stable but are asking people who were evacuated to stay out of their homes until there's dry weather.
Lynchburg city officials said at a news conference Friday that the engineers had found that College Lake Dam was not in danger of failing.
But officials said they would like to get through another possible storm and re-evaluate the dam today before giving residents the all-clear to return home.
"We're still concerned about its overall stability going into tonight and tomorrow morning," said Tim Mitchell, the city's director of water resources. "But we are pretty confident at this point that the dam is stable and safe."
The National Weather Service had a flash-flood watch in effect through Friday evening. Weather forecasts for Lynchburg call for more rain through today with sunny weather on Sunday.
Heavy rains Thursday filled College Lake beyond capacity, prompting officials to report that the lake's dam was in danger of "imminent failure." The service says a failure of the dam could flood parts of Lynchburg with 17 feet of water in just seven minutes.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/04/2018