HOUSTON (AP) — Lunar love knows no bounds.
Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.
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In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, clockwise from left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home on Wednesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of a portion of the Moon coming into view along the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night, during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of Orion spacecraft pictured from one of the cameras mounted on its solar array wings on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen as they answer media questions during a video conference Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (NASA via AP)
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday's lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk.
Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.
“Just for me personally, that was kind of the pinnacle moment of the mission for me,” Wiseman said from space Wednesday night.
During Apollo 8 in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell bestowed his wife’s name upon a prominent lunar peak: Mount Marilyn. It was humanity's first trip to the moon and she anxiously awaited his return back home in Houston.
The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless.
“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”
Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young worked with the Artemis II astronauts before launch, quietly helping them choose the two bright, relatively young craters, which they quickly spied once they were close enough to the moon through zoom lenses as well as their naked eyes.
Wiseman said his crewmates came up with the idea and approached him about it while they were in quarantine a few days before liftoff. His response: “Absolutely, I would love that, I think that's just the best. And I said, 'But I can't give the speech, I can't give the talk,'" he recalled during a crew news conference, saying he was too overwhelmed.
Proposed Carroll Crater is at the moon's left limb on the boundary of the moon’s near and far sides, and occasionally visible from Earth. It's rather shallow and approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) across, according to Watkins. The slightly bigger Integrity crater is completely on the lunar far side.
Their request came shortly after they broke Apollo 13’s distance record for deep-space travelers. All four astronauts wept as they embraced in a group hug.
“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed, his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”
Mission Control fell silent for nearly a minute before replying: “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”
The emotion-drenched scene was vastly different from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo moonshots in more ways than one. NASA's Apollo all-male test pilots were for the most part all business and tear-free.
“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we're seeing just a more human aspect."
Once back on Earth later this week, the crew will submit the two proposed names to the International Astronomical Union.
Nearly a half century passed between Apollo 8 and the union's sign-off of Mount Marilyn in 2017.
The IAU's Ramasamy Venugopal promised a decision on Carroll and Integrity in about a month, the norm “for straightforward requests.”
There already are 81 astronaut-named lunar features on the group's approved list, including Apollo 16's Baby Ray and Gator, and Apollo 17's Lara named for the lead female character in the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago.”
Some Apollo-era nicknames didn't make the cut.
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon, dubbed a split boulder “Tracy’s Rock,” after his young daughter in 1972.
And in 1969, Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad nicknamed his touchdown spot “Pete’s Parking Lot.”
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In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, clockwise from left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home on Wednesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of a portion of the Moon coming into view along the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night, during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of Orion spacecraft pictured from one of the cameras mounted on its solar array wings on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen as they answer media questions during a video conference Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (NASA via AP)
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a scenic cliffside hike with ocean views last year has been convicted of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter.
A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations. Rather than the more serious charge of attempted murder, he was convicted of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance, which carries up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Aug. 13.
Thomas Otake, his attorney, said he planned to appeal. Nevertheless, Otake said the defense respected the jury's verdict.
“We are thankful that they did not convict him of attempted murder, which would have been life in prison,” Otake said. “We look forward to an appeal related to some of the judge's rulings throughout the case.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.
Distraught over her relationship with a coworker, Konig planned to kill his wife, Arielle Konig, during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025, prosecutors said. They said he tried to push her off a cliff and stab her with a syringe, and when that didn't work, he struck her with a rock. The attack was interrupted by two hikers who heard her cries for help.
The defendant testified that it was his wife who first hit him with a rock, and he hit her back in self-defense.
Konig stood as the jury’s foreperson announced the verdict, then closed his eyes and lowered his face. His parents declined to comment to reporters afterward. Arielle Konig was not in court.
Jury foreperson Makalapua Atkins said deliberations focused on what transpired on the trail. She said jurors examined the testimony of those who were at the scene to see where they matched up and where there were inconsistencies.
“At the end of the day when it comes down to it, she was hit in the head. And a head injury can be serious. And that’s a very deadly part of the body," Atkins told reporters after the verdict was read.
Jurors believed an affair Arielle Konig had was sufficient to cause “an emotional disturbance” and this affected their verdict, she said.
Under Hawaii law, if jurors believe a defendant committed murder but was under the influence of an extreme mental or emotional disturbance at the time, they must reduce the charge to attempted manslaughter if they believe there was a reasonable explanation for the disturbance.
During closing arguments, the doctor’s lawyer repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Arielle Konig’s account.
If Gerhardt Konig had wanted to kill his wife and had access to a syringe in a remote area, attorney Thomas Otake suggested to jurors during closing arguments, wouldn’t he have drugged her and then thrown her from the cliff, rather than having started a scuffle before attempting to fill the syringe as he was wrestling with her?
“You would use the syringe first,” Otake said. “It makes no sense.”
The trial started last month, nearly a year after Gerhardt and Arielle Konig went on a hike on the Pali Puka trail in Honolulu that ended with her bloodied and screaming that he had tried to kill her.
Their two young sons stayed home on Maui while the Konigs were on the trip.
The Pali Puka trail has long been closed by the state of Hawaii due to its danger but social media sites feature it. People trespass on state land to take in its views and snap photos. Arielle Konig described it as having “narrow ridge sections with steep drop-offs on both sides.”
The trial, with testimony livestreamed by Court TV, has aired the couple’s marital problems leading up to the hike, along with their versions of what happened on the trail.
Gerhardt Konig testified that his wife was having an affair, which he confirmed by unlocking her phone while she slept. The relationship, which Arielle Konig characterized as an “emotional affair” involving flirty messages with a coworker, came up during the hike.
Arielle Konig testified that her husband grabbed her and moved her toward the cliff’s edge, but she threw herself on the ground in an attempt to hold on. He straddled her and had a syringe in his hand, she said, but she batted it away. She bit his forearm and squeezed his testicles in an attempt to get him off her, she said.
Her husband denied pushing her toward the edge and testified that she hit him with a rock on the side of his face. He wrestled the rock away and hit her with it twice in self-defense, he said.
Gerhardt Konig also denied having any syringes on the mountain or trying to stab his wife. His defense attorney said no syringe was found at the scene because he never had one.
Otake said Gerhardt Konig was not someone who would try to commit murder, but someone who was struggling with infidelity and trying to do his best. Otake quoted from a heart-shaped birthday card Gerhardt Konig had written to his wife, calling her “the heart of our family” and saying, “The kids and I hit the jackpot with you.”
Gerhardt Konig testified that as he watched his wife crawl away, he believed his marriage and career were over, and he decided to jump to his death. But first, he called his adult son from a previous marriage. The son told authorities that his father said he “tried to kill your stepmom” — a confession Gerhardt Konig denied having made.
Konig testified that he called his son to say good-bye.
During that call, the defendant made no reference to having struck his wife in self-defense, deputy prosecutor Joel Garner said.
He spent about eight hours hiding on the mountain before deciding to come down, and even then, he tried to flee when confronted by police, Garner said.
His wife has since filed for divorce.
Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.
Thomas Otake, right, defense attorney for Gerhardt Konig, speaks to media after Konig's verdict, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Honolulu. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, Pool)
Deputy prosecutor Joel Garner speaks to media after the verdict in Gerhardt Konig's trial, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Honolulu. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, Pool)
Gerhardt Konig, center, reacts after the verdict is read in court Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Honolulu. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, Pool)
Gerhardt Konig, left, reacts after the verdict is read while sitting with defense attorney Thomas Otake, right, in court Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Honolulu. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, Pool)
FILE - Hawaii doctor Gerhardt Konig appears before a judge via video during an arraignment hearing after being indicted on allegation of attempting to kill his wife, April 7, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)
Defense attorney Thomas Otake delivers closing arguments during the attempted murder trial of Gerhardt Konig, in a courtroom, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, Pool)
Gerhardt Konig, left, talks to his defense lawyer Thomas Otake after closing arguments in his attempted murder trial in a courtroom, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, Pool)
Deputy Prosecutor Joel Garner holds a rock as evidence while presenting closing arguments during the attempted murder trial of Gerhardt Konig in a courtroom, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, Pool)
Gerhardt Konig appears in court before closing arguments in his attempted murder trial, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, Pool)
