As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk argued on social media on Thursday, the world’s richest man threatened to decommission a space capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

After Trump threatened to cut government contracts given to Musk’s SpaceX rocket company and his Starlink internet satellite services, Musk responded via X that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

It’s unclear how serious Musk’s threat was. But the capsule, developed with the help of government contracts, is an important part of keeping the space station running. NASA also relies heavily on SpaceX for other programs including launching science missions and, later this decade, returning astronauts to the surface of the moon.

The Dragon capsule

SpaceX is the only U.S. company capable right now of transporting crews to and from the space station, using its four-person Dragon capsules.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule has flown astronauts only once; last year’s test flight went so badly that the two NASA astronauts had to hitch a ride back to Earth via SpaceX in March, more than nine months after launching last June.

Starliner remains grounded as NASA decides whether to go with another test flight with cargo, rather than a crew.

SpaceX also uses a Dragon capsule for its own privately run missions. The next one of those is due to fly next week on a trip chartered by Axiom Space, a Houston company.

Cargo versions of the Dragon capsule are also used to ferry food and other supplies to the orbiting lab.

NASA’s other option: Russia

Russia’s Soyuz capsules are the only other means of getting crews to the space station right now.

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The Soyuz capsules hold three people at a time. For now, each Soyuz launch carries two Russians and one NASA astronaut, and each SpaceX launch has one Russian on board under a barter system. That way, in an emergency requiring a capsule to return, there is always someone from the U.S. and Russian on board.

With its first crew launch for NASA in 2020 — the first orbital flight of a crew by a private company — SpaceX enabled NASA to reduce its reliance on Russia for crew transport. The Russian flights had been costing the U.S. tens of millions of dollars per seat, for years.

NASA has also used Russian spacecraft for cargo, along with U.S. contractor Northrup Grumman.

SpaceX’s other government launches

The company has used its rockets to launch several science missions for NASA as well as military equipment.

Last year, SpaceX also won a NASA contract to help bring the space station out of orbit when it is no longer usable.

SpaceX’s Starship mega rocket is what NASA has picked to get astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon, at least for the first two landing missions. Starship made its ninth test flight last week from Texas, but tumbled out of control and broke apart.

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

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — David Festa fell behind 2-0 to four of the first six batters he faced on Thursday. All four of them scored, three coming on a Max Muncy home run. But he settled down in the second inning and, it seemed for a brief second, as if he could be on the Zebby Matthews path.

on Friday in Seattle, Matthews allowed four runs in the first inning and then absolutely dominated for his next six. Unfortunately for Festa and the Twins, that didn’t happen on Thursday and the shaky first inning was instead a sign of things to come for the young right-hander the Twins’ 14-3 loss to the Athletics.

The Athletics had scored just six runs in the first three games of the series riding a nine-game losing streak. They snapped that losing streak emphatically.

Muncy’s home run was one of four on the day for the Athletics. Festa allowed three of them, including a pair in the third inning. After his departure, Jorge Alcala served up a grand slam, which was Tyler Soderstrom’s second home run of the day. All told, Soderstrom drove in six runs in the Athletics’ win.

For Festa, who gave up eight runs in 3⅔ innings, it was a much different type of outing than the three he turned in during his call up earlier in the season. In those three starts, he gave up a combined three runs in 13 innings pitched, then returned to Class AAA St. Paul, where he battled some inflammation before coming back and pitching well, earning Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month Award.

Festa was initially supposed to start for the Saints on Wednesday but instead was on a flight to Sacramento, taking the rotation spot of Pablo López, who suffered a shoulder injury on Tuesday night that will keep him out for two to three months. That injury has opened up an opportunity for Festa, one of the most promising young arms in the organization.

The Twins scored a run on Matt Wallner’s third home run of the season and two more in the seventh on RBI knocks from Ty France and Brooks Lee.

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Imagine you decide to change up your workout routine. After months of not doing any lat pulldowns, you decide, for some odd reason, to do 10,000 of them.

That’s how Pablo López described the soreness that he was feeling after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 teres major strain, which will keep him sidelined for the next eight to 12 weeks.

“It’s like a weird soreness, which is why I was hopeful early on,” López said. “It just feels like it’s sore.”

Because he didn’t hear a pop, because he wasn’t experiencing immense pain, López — who left Tuesday night’s game with the injury — held out hope that the results of his magnetic resonance imaging, taken on Wednesday might yield more positive results.

“I hate it,” the starter said. “It’s not what I want to be dealing with. It’s not what I want to hear. Every time you get the game taken away from you, it’s really hard. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

López has been told that he can’t throw for at least four weeks. He has to wait for the discomfort to clear before he can do anything over head. Wednesday, he said he did a “crazy lower-body workout” ans plans to spend the time doing cardio and leg workouts to keep up his conditioning.

Until his teres major, a muscle that attaches the scapula to the humerus, is healed, he’s will be a full-on lefty, he joked.

“We’re just going to aim at getting back on the field in the most responsible fashion and let him heal up fully,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But I truly believe he’s going to be out there pitching for us, probably not at the very end of the year. We’re talking like he’ll be able to pitch significantly for us. We’re going to stay optimistic and let him do his thing.”

López is hoping that’s closer to eight weeks than 12, though he knows he can’t rush his recovery.

Rotation-mate Joe Ryan suffered the same injury last year in a game on Aug. 7. He did not return during the regular season, though he said he might have been healthy enough to return in a relief role in mid-October had the Twins made the playoffs.

“It stinks. He’s so good. He prepares so well,” Ryan said. “He’s one of the best teammates I’ve been around as far as that goes and what he does off the field. It’s tough to see.”

It’s a tough blow for the Twins’ rotation, which has been among baseball’s best this season. López has been a big reason why, with a 2.82 earned-run average across his 11 starts. To fill his place in the rotation, the Twins called up David Festa, who started on Thursday and gave up eight runs in 3⅔ innings against the Athletics.

And it’s a tough blow for López personally, who said the biggest challenge won’t be his shoulder but his mind.

“The mental side is what’s going to be eating me alive for a while. It’s just that itch, knowing that every day that passes is games I’m not participating in,” López said. “So, the options are simple: I either choose to drown myself in tears of sorrow or I choose to power through, grow internally, grow physically, grow emotionally and just make sure that when the time comes, that I will be able to come back.”

Correa sits

Carlos Correa has dealt with back issues in the past. But this was different, he said.

The current soreness is little higher, in an area of his back that has never bothered him. He hasn’t changed his routine. The only thing that has changed, he said, is slipping every time he took a swing because of the dirt in the Sutter Health Park batter’s box.

Correa was scratched from Wednesday’s lineup and did not play on Thursday, but he projected optimism that he would be back when the team returned home.

“Every swing that I slip at the plate, I feel my back compensating to stabilize me throughout the motion,” Correa said. “It’s just discomfort in my middle back and I don’t want to make it worse, where I miss months of the season (for) two games. We’re taking the smart option of taking these two days (off) so I can go back and play at home.”

Briefly

Reliever Danny Coulombe, on the injured list with a left forearm extensor strain, is scheduled to make a rehab outing with Triple-A St. Paul on Friday. … The Chicago White Sox announced on Thursday longtime owner Jerry Reinsdorf and billionaire Justin Ishbia have entered a “long-term investment agreement that establishes a framework for Ishbia to obtain a future controlling interest in the White Sox.” Ishbia had been among the interested potential buyers for the Twins but shifted his interest to his home-town White Sox earlier this year.

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By COLLEEN SLEVIN and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of yelling “Free Palestine” and throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza was charged Thursday with attempted murder and explosives crimes in a Colorado court.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was advised of the charges during a court hearing where he appeared from jail in Boulder. He has been held there since his arrest following Sunday’s attack. Investigators say Soliman, who posed as a gardener, had planned it for a year.

Authorities have said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack.

Lesli Colin Johnsen, right, hugs Beth Blacker before a community vigil at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via AP, Pool)

He has also been charged with a hate crime in federal court and is jailed on a $10 million cash bond.

Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants the weekly demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.

According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.

Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88, and a dog. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, said Boulder County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Shannon Carbone.

Defendant’s family investigated

U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher on Wednesday granted a request to block the deportation of Soliman’s wife and five children, who like Soliman are Egyptian. U.S. immigration officials took them into custody Tuesday, but they have not been charged in the attack.

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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal.

“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” attorneys for the family wrote in a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the plaintiff’s claims “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.” She said the entire family was living in the U.S. illegally.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, said Eric Lee, one of the attorney’s representing the family.

Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew he was planning an attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit.

The family’s immigration status

Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.

He arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.

Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.

Soliman’s wife is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman’s asylum application.

A vigil for the victims

Hundreds of people squeezed into the Jewish Community Center in Boulder for a vigil Wednesday evening that featured prayer, singing and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses of the firebombing attack in the city’s downtown.

Rachelle Halpern, who has participated in such demonstrations since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet.

Rachelle Halpern, a witness to last Sunday’s attack in Boulder, speaks during a vigil at the Boulder Jewish Community Center Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via AP, Pool)

“A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband,” she said. “People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.”

Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman’s head dropped into her hands.

“I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don’t remember those next few moments,” said a victim, who didn’t want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event’s speakers. “Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn’t seem real.”

Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle; Eric Tucker and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.