♪♪ tonight, we're tracking extreme weather across the

country and the threat that still remains. the frantic search to find a woman swept away by a flash flood in the grand canyon. hundreds of hikers air lifted to safety. plus, hawaii under threat tonight, the tropical storm heading toward the big island. and snow in august in california. a major update about the two astronauts stuck in space since june. nasa announcing a new plan today to bring them home. how soon that could happen. the final sprint to election day, what vice president harris is doing to keep up the momentum from the dnc and former president trump's new endorsement that could shake up the race. the battle over abortion rights. our interview with four women as they take their fight to court and the ballot box. ukraine's battle for survival, zelenskyy's defiant message on ukraine's independence day as his fighters push deeper inside russia. a different kind of space

race, from robot arms to high-tech harpoons, an inside look at how scientists are rushing to keep space junk from crashing down to earth. and she's got her gold medal, now he's going to go for his at the paralympics, we talk to this olympic power couple and why they're each other's biggest fans. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with jose diaz-balart. good evening, as we come on the air, we are tracking extreme weather that's unusual at best and potentially deadly at worst. this was the scene in the grand canyon where more than 100 hikers were air lifted after flash floods left them stranded for nearly two days. but there's still a massive search underway for an arizona woman swept away by those waters. meanwhile, in the pacific, hawaii is bracing for a tropical storm name honey, churning toward the big island, and take

a look at this, something you don't often see in california in the summer, yes, that's fresh snow on the sierra nevada mountains in august. and millions of people in the middle of the country are battling dangerous high temperatures this weekend. dana griffin is covering it all. >> reporter: harrowing rescues, more than 100 stranded hikers air lifted from the bottom of the grand canyon since friday. after flash flooding late this week pushed mud and debris across hiking trails and camp sites. s shenoah nickerson and her husband were swept away. tonight she's still missing. . la trisha mins was down there too, one of the stranded campers desperate to get out, a day and a half after this river turned

brown. >> 25 feet in a matter of minutes. sgl. >> reporter: today telling me she wasn't sure they would make it. is this a life and death situation for you guys? >> it was absolutely a life and death situation, putting your feet in water that is slippery and moving so fast, it was really terrifying. >> reporter: but they worked together, creating a human chain to cross those dangerous waters. >> almost everybody got out alive, and i think that had a lot to do with everybody working together. >> reporter: it's been a hazardous few days across the west. utah under alert for flash flooding too. more than 30 million are baking under heat alerts from new mexico to wisconsin. meanwhile, look at this, there's already snow in the sierra. and tonight, high alert in hawaii as tropical storm honey turns close. storm preps underway as high winds pose a big risk for fire. kicking off a weekend of exhausting extreme weather. dana griffin, nbc news. developing tonight, nasa announcing a new plan to bring

home two astronauts who have been stuck at the international space station since june. marissa parra has the latest. >> reporter: tonight, a stunning announcement from nasa. >> nasa has decided that butch and suni will return with crew 9 next february. >> reporter: nasa astronauts, butch wilmore and suni, the first with the crew, but they were only supposed to be in space for a week. nasa now says they will return from the international space station eight months past schedule ton a spacex dragon capsule, boeing's biggest competitor. >> this has not been an easy decision. >> reporter: the spacecraft has been plagued by helium leaks and thruster issues, nasa testing to find out whether starliner could fly home with butch and suni on board, but the risk, ultimately too high. >> we have had mistakes done in the past.

we lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information could come forward. >> reporter: boeing released a statement saying they continue to focus first and foremost on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. >> here we are in the front of the international space station. >> reporter: nasa insisting butch and suni have plenty of supplies to get them through, and confident despite the set back in starliner's future. senator nelson, how certain are you that boeing will ever launch starliner with a crew on board again? >> 100%. >> marissa parra joins me now. so what happens next? >> reporter: good question, that spacex dragon capsule will save two seats when it launches to the international space station, but before that, the starliner spaceship will undock and head back to earth with no one on board. jose. >> marissa parra, thank you.

and now to politics, and with donald trump and vice president harris now both officially their party's nominees, the race for president enters its final phase. aaron gilchrist has the latest on the sprint to election day. >> reporter: the nominees for president begin the final sprint to election, the time line shrinking with early voting starting next month in at least six states, including the crucial battleground of pennsylvania. the harris campaign announcing plans to take a bus tour through the battleground state of georgia next week, targeting black, working class, rural and suburban voters. both campaigns already looking beyond the election to january. setting up presidential transition teams as required by law. nbc news has learned the federal government is set to offer them office space and resources to start transition planning on tuesday. >> thank you, president trump. >> reporter: meanwhile, president trump rallying in arizona. ♪♪

appearing with robert f. kennedy jr. just hours after he suspended his independent run for president. >> he has a lot of votes that he could have gotten. i think he's going to have a huge influence. we're leading now, but i think he's going to have a huge influence on this campaign. >> reporter: kennedy's exit from the race, a potential game changer this election with thousands of his supporters now looking for a place to go. >> what's the potential impact on the harris campaign? >> yeah, we are just looking at a sliver of the electorate, 4 to 5% who were backing rfk jr. in the polls. just a slight difference could make all the difference. >> reporter: in a race with only ten weeks to go, every day and every vote matters. ♪♪ >> aaron gilchrist joins us. aaron, the vice president is still calling herself the underdog, what else is the campaign doing to change that? >> reporter: beyond the georgia tour, harris and her running mate governor walz are expected to do hair first joint interview

next week. they're also planning major fund raise erz and swing state barn storming around labor day. >> thank you so much. now to an nbc news exclusive, ten states will have abortion ballot measures on election day, and today four women impacted by the ban in texas are taking their fight to the ballot box and speaking out to our priscilla thompson. ♪♪ as the race for the white house heats up, so does the battle over abortion access. >> he plans to create a national antiabortion coordinator. simply put, they are out of their minds. >> reporter: j.d. vance telling our kristen welker one measure is off the table. >> so he would veto a federal abortion ban. >> i think he would, he said that explicitly that he would. >> reporter: abortion rights are on the ballot in ten states this november. average americans now sharing their stories of heartbreaking

loss. >> when i got pregnant, doctors told us our baby would never survive. >> for three days, we waited until amanda was sick enough to receive standard abortion care. >> reporter: these four women are among the more than a dozen suing texas over a six-week abortion ban. after they had to wait until their lives were in danger to receive care for nonviable pregnancies. do you feel like the energy has shifted with kamala harris now at the top of the democratic ticket? >> absolutely. yes. >> she speaks so eloquently about reproductive freedom. >> it makes me want to work harder because she is. >> reporter: these women now stumping for texas democratic representative colin allred as he looks to unseat republican senator ted cruz. >> the women before us fought for roe, and, you know, i look at my daughter and my son and we owe it to you to make that change. >> reporter: priscilla thompson,

nbc news, dallas. >> and you can watch kristen welker's full interview with senator j.d. vance on "meet the press" tomorrow right here on nbc. german officials say they have arrested a suspect in a deadly knife attack that killed three people and injured eight more. it happened at a festival in western germany. officials are calling the attack an act of terror. isis has claimed responsibility. and to ukraine now, where the country's marking its independence day today with a prisoner exchange with russia. but as erin mclaughlin reports, the country is still fighting for its survival. >> reporter: tonight on ukraine's independence day, a nation mourning lives lost and vowing revenge. as ukrainians lose ground in the country's east forcing civilians to flee. earlier today, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy released this video message, it shows him standing just miles away from the russian border.

breached earlier this month by ukrainian forces. ukrainians always pay back their debts, he says, and whoever wished misery upon our land shall find it in their own home, with interest. today in kyiv, zelenskyy announced a new ukrainian battlefield drone, hours after his phone call with president biden who pledged an additional $125 million defense package. but still, no green light to use long range weapons on russian territory. founded a battalion famous for fighting russia's wagner forces. he argues it's essential the war reaches russian soil. >> our people are suffering, and they are suffering together with us. >> reporter: do you think russians understand that? >> i think that when you experience something, you for sure understand. >> reporter: tonight, while

there's defiance, there's also the painful reminder. in ukraine, freedom comes at a high price. erin mclaughlin, nbc news, kharkiv, ukraine. still ahead tonight, the urgent push to develop urgent push to develop technology like thi i was stuck. unresolved depression symptoms were in my way. i needed more from my antidepressant. vraylar helped give it a lift. adding vraylar to an antidepressant is clinically proven to help relieve overall depression symptoms better than an antidepressant alone. and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, as these may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain, and high cholesterol may occur.

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here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! if you have heart disease and struggle with ldl-c... even with statins and a healthy diet...ow... listen to your heart. talk to your doctor about repatha. repatha plus a statin lowers ldl-c (bad cholesterol) by 63%, and drops the risk of having a heart attack. do not take repatha if you are allergic to it. repatha can cause serious allergic reactions. signs include trouble breathing or swallowing or swelling of the face. most common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms, back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, or bruising at the injection site. talk to your doctor about repatha. we're back with a big problem in space. it's the growing danger of space

junk crashing down to earth. josh lederman has a closer look. >> reporter: space, vast, infinite, but not as empty as you might think. the earth's orbit now flooded with manmade trash, threatening space missions, critical satellites and even life on earth. one solution, futuristic robots designed to go into space and take out the trash. we got a rare look in switzerland, at the mission, called clear space one. engineers are training the robot's camera to see the debris it's supposed to catch, even when it's in shadow. one of the hardest parts of the mission is lining up the robot precisely with debris that is flying through space at more than 4 miles per second. the next challenge, building giant robot claws to trap the crash. i'm putting on a special clean suit to make sure we don't contaminate the clean room behind me. this back contraption represents a satellite or space junk, four massive arms like this white one will form the claw, closing

around it in outer space. have you ever played that claw game where you have to grab the stuffed animal, imagine that, but doing it in outer space. the robot designed to drag the trash toward earth where smaller objects will burn in the atmosphere, larger ones dropped safely in the ocean. is it better to have this trash fall into the ocean than it is to stay in our space? >> yes, it is better because those objects in outer space are essentially projectiles that orbit at 28,000 kilometers per hour. they go multiple times the speed of a bullet. >> reporter: a global race for solutions is on. one design uses a net, another a harpoon. there are thousands of old satellites drifting through space, and more than a million smaller objects threatening satellites and even spacecraft which could have catastrophic consequences, like in the 2013 movie, "gravity." this year, a piece of american space debris smashed into a florida home. local tv station wank spoke to the shocked homeowner.

>> i was shaken. i was completely in disbelief. >> reporter: at the european space agency's operation center in germany, technicians work 24/7 tracking space debris that could threaten earth. >> we think we have to act. however if we don't do it, we use it impossible in the future to use space. >> it's a moon shot to be sure. to clean up a mess of galactic proportions. josh lederman, nbc news, switzerland. we are back in a moment with we are back in a moment with what to expect from the if you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan that's smart now... i'm 65. and really smart later i'm 70-ish. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. with this type of plan, you'll know upfront about how much your care costs. which makes planning your financial future easier. so call unitedhealthcare today to learn more about the only plans of their kind with the aarp name. and set yourself and your future self up with an aarp medicare supplement plan

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we're back with a track and field power couple who went viral at the paris olympics when he cheered her gold medal win. well, now, as emilie ikeda shows us, he's getting ready to try and bring home gold in the paralympics. >> her final jump here in paris. >> star left to olympic glory in paris. her celebration with husband and three-time paralympian hunter, won over america's heart. >> you're an olympic champion. >> what was going through your mind as you were jumping into the stands? >> he's going through it all with me, so jumping into his arms, that was a full relief of wow i finally achieved my goal. >> now it's hunter's term. a double amputee, the

25-year-old will be sprinting toward the podium next week in the paralympics. >> i'm feeling really good. mentally and physically. >> tara and hunter first met as high schoolers at a track meet in 2017. >> afterwards i told my mom, i was like, oh, my god, mom, this guy is so cute. >> thank you for loving me. >> the endearing pair now married, documenting life as professional athletes on social media. opening up about struggles with mental health. >> i would just spill and cry and just hyperventilate and panic. >> while sharing candid moments at training. >> it was not easy, but we got here. we got it done. >> and the many laughs along the way. >> sometimes it's hard being the champion, you know. >> here hunter is jokingly sporting his wife's olympic hardware. >> obviously you guys are very talented and have a great work ethic, do you feel like your relationship is another plus working in your favor? >> oh, a huge plus. >> absolutely. >> there's zero chance that we

would be doing what we were doing if we didn't have each other. >> for sure. >> emilie ikeda, nbc news. and the paris 2024 paralympics kickoff is wednesday, august 28th, right here on nbc, and streaming on peacock. when we come back, there's good news tonight about what so tell me about your heart attack. our heart attack was... scary! never want to go through that again. but we could. with heart disease, you never know. so we made changes. green juice. yeah, not a fan. diet, exercise... statins helped. but our ldl-c (bad cholesterol)-it was stuck! stuck! just couldn't lower it enough. and high ldl-c meant a real risk of another attack. so i said, "let's ask our doctor about repatha." what can i say? listen to your heart. repatha plus a statin dramatically lowers ldl-c by 63%, and significantly drops the risk of having a heart attack. do not take repatha if you are allergic to it. repatha can cause serious allergic reactions. signs include trouble breathing

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talk to your doctor and say yess to linzess. learn how abbvie and ironwood could help you save. there's good news tonight, you know, so often the good news doesn't get as much attention as the bad, so every saturday, we highlight the many people who spread joy and love. these are just some of those stories this week. >> there he is. >> no, there he is. >> this is the moment jim and lisa oates met their hero, icu nurse, nick johnson. the couple was alone riding

bikes on a colorado trail when jim went into cardiac arrest. >> it's finally nice to meet you. >> by luck, nick was also on the trail, and jumped into action, doing cpr that helped save jim's life. for the grandparents of five, nick's life saving aid has given ann and jim a precious future with family. >> your efforts have led to me being in a situation where i can enjoy the family. i can enjoy my experiences. thank you, nick. >> i don't know what to say, i just want to keep saying thank you. >> and here's a dad going the distance. >> great to see you. >> mark lee traveled across the country to surprise his l.a. charger son shane at practice. mark, bouncing back from a massive heart attack he had earlier this year, showing shane and the whole team what grit looks like. >> so what i say to you guys is

never quit. anything is possible. anything. >> a celebration in the sky. that's united express flight first officer zilene, surprising her dad. >> she tricked me. she told me she was going to new mexico. >> a hard working immigrant who sacrificed so much for the family. >> daddy, i wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support throughout my flight career. your belief in me has been the wind beneath my wings. and here in los angeles, we're so moved to see these first responders showing up to

support the family of a beloved colleague. some 75 members from the l.a. county sheriff's department bringing the two children of deputy gonzalo galvez to their first day of school. gonzo as they called him died of cancer earlier this month. for these guys, it was a chance to let gonzo's little ones know they will never be alone. >> what did gonzo mean to you? >> he was a great mentor. we obviously can't replace him as dad, but we can offer the support they need throughout the rest of their lives. >> what's the bigger message here? >> we're a family. we're all going to back each other up. even when you're gone, we're still going to be there for your family. that's "nbc nightly news" for this saturday, i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. and good night.