Four astronauts have embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century. It’s the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a lunar landing in two years. The 32-story moon rocket blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Wednesday evening, carrying three Americans and one Canadian. The Artemis II crew will spend a day in orbit around Earth checking their capsule before firing the main engine that will propel them to the moon. The nearly 10-day mission will see them fly around the moon and set a distance record, before coming straight back home.

A Utah sheriff's office says DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and a without clothing. Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible. He was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s.

President Donald Trump is addressing the nation on the war in Iran. This is his first prime-time speech since launching strikes with Israel over four weeks ago. Trump plans to outline objectives for the conflict, which has seen shifting goals and mixed messages. Wednesday night's address comes amid rising oil prices and volatile markets, with many Americans feeling the military action has gone too far. Trump is expected to claim success in U.S. operations, even as more troops head to the region. Iran continues its attacks, and diplomatic efforts remain unclear.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has rescinded a rule that DHS expenditures over $100,000 be personally approved by his office. The decision Wednesday ends a widely criticized policy implemented by his predecessor Kristi Noem that critics said put a particular burden on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s work aiding disaster response and recovery. It marks the first major action by the new Homeland Security leader, sworn in last week, to change a policy implemented by Noem, whom President Donald Trump fired in March. Mullin’s move is expected to ease a spending bottleneck that lawmakers and states said delayed disaster response and recovery funds.

The NCAA Division I Cabinet will consider proposed changes to pre-enrollment eligibility rules, including one that would bar athletes who have entered a professional sports draft from competing in college after two high-profile cases in basketball this season. The Academics and Eligibility Committee proposed the changes and the Cabinet could take action within weeks. The new rules, if approved, would be effective for athletes entering college this fall. The draft proposal comes after two basketball players, Alabama’s Charles Bediako and Baylor’s James Nnaji, played college basketball after entering the NBA draft.

Tiger Woods has formally turned down the Ryder Cup captaincy as he steps away from golf activities. And a Florida judge approved his motion to leave the country to seek treatment. These developments come a day after Woods entered a not guilty plea to suspicion of driving under the influence. His SUV clipped a trailer and flipped on its side last week near his home in Florida. Woods posted a statement Tuesday night saying he was stepping away indefinitely to focus on his health. His attorney, Douglas Duncan, said Woods needs comprehensive inpatient treatment that cannot be done safely in the United States.

The U.S. has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez. That's according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on Wednesday on the Treasury Department website. The newly announced sanctions relief represents a strong signal that the U.S. recognizes Rodríguez as a legitimate authority in Venezuela. Washington has already formally recognized her as the country’s head of state in legal and diplomatic settings. The Trump administration has been engaging with Venezuela’s interim government since the U.S. military captured Rodríguez’s predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife on Jan. 3 in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The pair was taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Elon Musk’s space exploration company has filed preliminary paperwork to sell shares to the public, according to two sources familiar with the filing, a blockbuster offering that is likely to rank as the biggest ever and make its founder the world’s first trillionaire. A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk’s ambitions to set up a base on the moon and possibly one day send a man to Mars. The sources spoke on anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the confidential registration.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University are creating virtual replicas of patients’ hearts so they can test how to fix a life-threatening irregular heartbeat before treating the real organ. Doctors try to block ventricular tachycardia by burning off misfiring heart tissue but it's difficult to pinpoint the right spots and those ablations often must be repeated. Hopkins researchers used custom, interactive “digital twins” of 10 patients' hearts to predict where best to aim and over a year later those patients were faring well. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday. Larger studies of this technology are needed.

Medical examiners have ruled that the death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar, five days after Border Patrol left him at a Buffalo, New York, doughnut shop, was a homicide. The finding from the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office was released Wednesday. The agency didn’t reach any conclusions about responsibility for Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s death. Medical examiners said it was caused by complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance” when agents dropped him off Feb. 19 at a Tim Hortons restaurant.