Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.

SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.

They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers) following Tuesday’s liftoff.

Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.

“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team. Within an hour, all four were out of their spacecraft, pumping their fists with joy as they emerged onto the ship's deck.

It was the first time SpaceX aimed for a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a cluster of islands 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Key West. To celebrate the new location, SpaceX employees brought a big, green turtle balloon to Mission Control at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The company usually targets closer to the Florida coast, but two weeks of poor weather forecasts prompted SpaceX to look elsewhere.

During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.

The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX's Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.

SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.

This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This black and white, thermal image made from SpaceX video shows its capsule, center, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman with his crew as it splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

In this image made from SpaceX video, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, center, reacts as he gets out of its capsule upon his return with his crew after the capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

In this image made from SpaceX video, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, center, greets as he gets out of its capsule upon his return with his crew after the capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

This black and white, thermal image made from SpaceX video shows its capsule, center, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman with his crew after it reached the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

This black and white, thermal image made from SpaceX video shows its capsule, center bottom, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman with his crew minutes before it reached the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

This image made from SpaceX video shows the four-member crew including tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, third left, seated in its capsule as they wait to get off the capsule after it landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

This image made from SpaceX video shows its capsule, center, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman with his crew after it reached the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas early Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in an apparent second wave of attacks targeting electronic devices a day after hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, state media and Hezbollah officials said. At least nine people were killed and more than 300 people wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said.

The attacks, which were widely believed to be carried out by Israel targeting Hezbollah, have hiked fears that the two sides' simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war.

Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the explosions of electronic devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”

In Wednesday's attacks, several blasts were heard at a funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene. An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop damaged after devices exploded inside of them. A girl was hurt in the south when a solar energy system blew up, the state news agency reported.

The new blasts hit a country still roiling with confusion and anger after Tuesday’s pager bombings, which appeared to be a complex Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members that caused civilian casualties, too. Tuesday’s bombings killed at least 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,800 others.

The second wave also deepens concern over the potentially indiscriminate casualties caused in the attacks, in which hundreds of blasts went off wherever the holder of the pager happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes, often with family or bystanders nearby.

While the pagers were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time of the blast. Also, many of the casualties were not Hezbollah fighters, but members of the group’s extensive civilian operations mainly serving Lebanon’s Shiite community.

At least two health workers were among those killed Tuesday. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office administrators work for Hezbollah-linked organizations, and an unknown number had pagers.

The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions. “The fear and terror unleashed is profound,” he said in a statement, urging world leaders to step up “in defense of the rights of all people to live in peace and security.”

Iran-backed Hezbollah — Lebanon's strongest armed force — and Israel's military have exchanged fire almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led assault in southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Since then, hundreds have been killed in strikes in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, while tens of thousands on each side of the border have been displaced. Hezbollah said its strikes are in support of its ally, Hamas.

Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they might increase operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying they must put a stop to the exchanges to allow people to return to homes near the border. Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to an official with knowledge of the movements who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In his comments, Gallant said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.”

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with top security officials at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, the country's army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. is still assessing how the attack could affect efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas.

New details on the pager bombings began to emerge. An American official said Israel briefed the United States after the attack, in which small amounts of explosive had been hidden in the devices. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The AR-924 pagers used in Tuesday's attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, which is based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, according to a statement released by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.

Gold Apollo's chair, Hsu Ching-kuang, told journalists Wednesday the firm has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years. "But the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

At the headquarters of a building in a residential neighborhood of Budapest, the names of multiple companies, including BAC Consulting, are posted on pieces of paper on a window.

A woman who emerged from the building and declined to give her name said the site provides headquarter addresses to various companies.

BAC's parent company is registered to Cristiana Rosaria Bársony-Arcidiacono, whose describes herself on her LinkedIn page as a strategic advisor and business developer.

The Associated Press has attempted to reach Bársony-Arcidiacono via the LinkedIn page and has been unable to establish a connection between her or BAC and the exploding pagers.

The attack in Lebanon started Tuesday afternoon, when pagers in their owners' hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding — leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders.

It appeared that most of those hit were members or linked to members of Hezbollah — whether fighters or civilians — but it was not immediately clear if people with no ties to Hezbollah were also hit.

The Health Ministry said health care workers and two children were among those killed. In the village of Nadi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn the death of one of the children, 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah.

Her mother, wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf, wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.

Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday morning that it would continue its normal strikes against Israel as part of what it describes as a support front for its ally, Hamas, and Palestinians in Gaza.

“This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” it said. “This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”

This story has been updated to correct the age of one of the children killed. She was 9, not 8.

Spike reported from Budapest and Lai from Taipei, Taiwan. Associated Press journalists Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Simina Mistreanu in Taipei; Melanie Lidman and Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Zeke Miller in Washington; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

A Civil Defense first-responder carries a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)

Lebanese soldiers and firefighters gather outside a mobile shop after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A partly damaged car after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

CORRECTS DAY TO TUESDAY WHEN INJURED Lebanese Red Cross ambulance passes next of the families of victims who were injured on Tuesday by their exploding handheld pagers, at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

CORRECTS DAY TO TUESDAY WHEN INJURED Families of victims who were injured on Tuesday by their exploding handheld pagers, wait at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese security officers stand next of a partly damaged car after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese Red Cross ambulance passes next of the families of victims who were injured on Monday by their exploding handheld pagers, at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Families of victims who were injured on Monday by their exploding handheld pagers, wait at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

This shows a sing featuring the names of several companies on the door of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

This photo shows a door of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

This photo shows a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)

Hsu Ching-kuang, chairman of Apollo Gold, talks about the Taiwan company's communication products at the headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)

Hsu Ching-kuang, chairman of Apollo Gold, talks about the Taiwan company's communication products at the headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)

A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People gather outside the American University hospital after the arrival of several men who were wounded by exploded handheld pagers, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bassam Masri)

Lebanese soldiers stand guard at a street that leads to the American University hospital where they bring wounded people whose handheld pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)