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American Morning

Will Third Time be a Charm for Shuttle Launch?; Rape-Killing Charges; Fourth of July Troop Visit

Aired July 04, 2006 - 08:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures of the space shuttle Discovery, fueled up on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. The weather looking good. Will the third time be a charm? NASA sure hoping so.
The expected launch time about five and a half hours from now, weather permitting. And if you look right now, we have live pictures of the crew coming up here.

Good morning. Welcome to a split edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm Miles O'Brien at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello, in New York, in for Soledad.

We saw the astronauts there. Didn't they just eat breakfast?

O'BRIEN: Well, they -- and this is the photo opportunity. They used to call it the breakfast shop, but what they do is they make them a cake and they don't eat it until after the mission. So, basically, what they do is pose for pictures.

It's kind of a stiff photo-op, if you will. And there you see the crew, same seats, same day. Kind of a Groundhog Day moment for them, for sure, as they go through this, the third, and they hope successful, time to get to space and make their way toward the International Space Station.

The countdown has gone smoothly, except for one minor technical issue I want to tell you about. I don't want to -- turn this into too big a deal, because I don't think it's going to slow the launch down. They're in the middle of a hold, anyway.

The solid rocket boosters are these big white boosters on the side. There are two of them. They do about 80 percent of the work in lifting the space shuttle toward orbit.

There are heaters in each of these joints. And the heating system is controlled on the ground. It's tethered to the ground. It's important to keep them warm on the pad. This hearkens back to the Challenger accident, when stiff O (ph) rings caused a leak, and then ultimately that problem.

The backup heating system not working. They're working on a circuit breaker now. I'm told it is not going to slow down this launch. They'll be able to change it out, and they could fly even if they didn't fix it at all.

The other issue we've been focused on, of course, is that cracked and chipped piece of foam, a piece of foam about four to five inches in length which fell off the external fuel tank after two attempts to launch over the weekend that were thwarted by bad weather.

A little while ago I spoke with the NASA administrator, Mike Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: The foam which can come off has come off. If it -- if it had come off in flight it would be no issue. It's half the size of the minimum threshold about which we are concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Let me show you exactly where this was and why this got people's attention. It was in a place that is above the orbiter and on the side of the tank where the orbiter is adjacent. That's where you get concerned, because foam that falls off of that could very well go straight into the fragile underside of the orbiter, a la Columbia.

This location right here is where that crack was, in a bracket which connects a pipe to the external part of the tank, carrying liquid oxygen down toward the main engines. Now, take a close look at the piece which came off. Engineers found it on the base of the mobile launch platform. And that piece was just, really, about the size -- four to five inches, about the size of a pencil, the weight of a penny, and not a threat.

Here's the crack itself that they first noticed right in the circle there. You see it kind of on a diagonal there. Let's go to the next shot and show you what happened a little bit later.

They saw the crack, and then before too long, that cracked turned into a chip, rendering that piece to fall down. There you see it. It's kind of a wider shot. It's a little harder to see, but in there, there's that discolored triangle area there.

Even if that were to fall off, as the administrator said, during flight, it is not considered a threat to the spacecraft.

So -- but the concerns were, could ice form inside there, was there additional damage on the top side? Was there enough insulation in the absence of that foam? All those questions have come back with answers which put this launch in the green.

So we march down to the countdown, looking at a minor circuit breaker problem and watching the forecast, as always. Chad Myers helping us out in that regard.

And Chad, I've been looking at the radar. I see a lot of little systems out off the coast.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Is that going to build up as the day goes on?

MYERS: Usually it does. But it doesn't look like -- as it's making progress toward the coast, it's not doing that today.

Hey, Miles, I have a question for you.

O'BRIEN: Yes, sir?

MYERS: This orange tank that we know the foam is on, is that -- is that the old foam? When they go to recover the thing, do they take it off, do they put new stuff on? What's the story on that?

O'BRIEN: This is -- this is the only significant piece of the space shuttle that does not come home.

MYERS: OK.

O'BRIEN: OK? The space shuttle comes home, the solid rocket boosters have parachutes in them. They go into the water. They actually pull them back by boat.

This thing, the big orange tank, gets sent on a trajectory which sends it in toward the Indian Ocean in a million little pieces. And that's what makes it difficult for them. When they have the problems of this tank, it's the one piece they don't get back. So it's hard for them to figure out what went wrong.

MYERS: How come they can't put a net over it or something to stop that foam from falling off?

O'BRIEN: You know, they looked at that. It would increase the weight, and the net itself would pose another kind of debris problem, probably a more hazardous debris problem than the foam itself.

What they should have done is either put the foam inside, or here's the perfect design, actually, if you ask me. And many engineers will tell you they should have stacked it like this. I mean, this is a crude version, but the people and the reentry vehicle should have been on top.

Actually, some of the earlier designs looked a little bit like this, but you know how that goes. A horse designed by committee and compromise and all that.

MYERS: There you go.

O'BRIEN: And you get this.

MYERS: I love your little model there. That's awesome.

All right. Let's get to the weather real quick. I've only got about 10 seconds left.

(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

The U.S. military trying to decide what to do with a former Army private today, just one day after he was charged with rape and murder. The charges stem from an alleged attack by four soldiers south of Baghdad.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has more of the story from there.

Good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And it's the military and the civilian authorities. Civilians one now holding him, as a matter of fact, in the county jail here in Charlotte while they try and sort out who has jurisdiction, even as the investigation continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice over): He faces a possible death penalty. Twenty-one-year-old Steven Green accused of rape and murder. He's one of four investigators say participated on a brutal attack on an Iraqi woman and her family in Mahmoudiya, just south of Baghdad, on March 12th.

Authorities say Green and three others conspired to rape the 23- year-old woman. And after a night of drinking, the four went to the family's home.

It's alleged that Green shot dead the woman's relatives, including a five-year-old girl. According to an FBI affidavit, Green and another soldier then raped the woman.

The affidavit, quoting one of his comrades, says, Green then shot her to death. To cover up their crimes, the four set the house and dead victims on fire.

According to the FBI, these latest accusations against members of the U.S. military in Iraq came to light just two weeks ago during stress debriefing of soldiers. Those debriefings followed the brutal killings by Iraqi insurgents of two U.S. soldiers kidnapped from a checkpoint. They were members of the 101st Airborne Division, as was Green.

He was arrested in Marion, North Carolina. He was initially held here in Charlotte, processed in a civilian, not a military court. Green had been honorably discharged from the Army in March. He had left the military, said the FBI investigator, due to a personality disorder.

Private 1st Class Green was last stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, along with the others under investigation. Authorities plan to move him to Louisville, although they gave no timetable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: And this is just one of several violent incidents that is being investigated by the military. U.S. officials adamantly insist, nevertheless, that these are isolated incidents -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I wanted to ask you about this. Might these latest allegations maybe shed new light on the kidnapping of those two U.S. soldiers from the 101st?

FRANKEN: Well, what it certainly does shed is some feelings that perhaps some of the motivation here -- at least investigators are looking into this -- some of the motivation might have been a combination of guilt about the loss of their buddies and anger. That is one of the possible scenarios they're looking at. But they're looking at others also.

And again, it's very preliminary at this point. And as you might imagine, they're really not sharing a lot of details, certainly none beyond that affidavit so far.

COSTELLO: Bob Franken, live in Charlotte, North Carolina, this morning.

President Bush has just arrived at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. It is the first stop on the president's Fourth of July agenda.

White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux live at Ft. Bragg.

What's the president up to today?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be a very special day for the president. As you know, Fort Bragg really is a huge facility, a home to many military families, home to the 82nd Airborne, Special Ops, a parachute team known as the Golden Knights. All of these people together will gather, of course, and they really understand the importance of sacrifice.

About 115 U.S. soldiers from this facility lost their lives in combat in Afghanistan, in Iraq. President Bush is going to be visiting with about 5,000 soldiers and their families. And in a speech today, he's going to talk about the sacrifice that they have made, how grateful he is, the importance of staying with the mission in Afghanistan, in Iraq, as well as the larger war on terror.

Then we understand President Bush is going to be sharing a special lunch with some of those troops, then he's heading back to Washington afterwards, of course, back to the White House, where there from the Truman balcony with family and friends he'll watch those fireworks, as well as celebrate two days early his 60th birthday -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Suzanne Malveaux reporting live for us this morning.

Thanks very much.

We're expecting to hear more this morning from investigators in Valencia, Spain. Overnight, they recovered the black box from that horrible subway accident. The recorder may be the only way to tell what really happened in the crash, which killed more than 40 people.

As I said, they found that black box. We're going to go to Aneesh Raman as soon as we get him up in Spain this morning.

An amazing rescue at a train station in South Korea. A blind man falls on to the train tracks. Surveillance video shows him crawling and then lying down on the tracks.

People rushed the platform for help. Waving for help, I should -- there you see them.

What you don't see is a train approaching. Moments before it enters the station, the two subway workers jump onto the tracks and they push the man out of the way. All three are fine this morning. Police say the man may have been trying to kill himself.

Let's head back to Florida and Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol.

We're watching the countdown of the space shuttle Discovery, expected to launch at 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, weather permitting, technology permitting. The question is, that foam, that crack and that ultimately flaked piece of foam, was it a big deal or was it much ado about nothing? And in the case of foam, is there anything like a small deal? We'll ask the man who wrote the book on the Columbia disaster in just a few moments -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Also ahead, Americans love their beaches in the summertime, but are we loving them to death? We'll look at the state of our nation's coastlines.

And it's not the Fourth of July without the Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest. And this year, a plucky American could give the defending champ a run for his money.

We'll take you live to Coney Island.

But first, fireworks light up the sky last night in Chicago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures from the Kennedy Space Center. The crew on the space shuttle Discovery hoping to declare independence from Earth on this fourth of July. All indications are they might be able to do it if the weather holds. And the forecast is good.

Eighty percent chance weather will not stand in the way of the scheduled launch of Discovery and her crew of seven, 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time. They'll make their way -- a three-day chase to the International Space Station to bring them supplies, about 5,000 pounds worth. And, probably at the top of the list of the manifest, a crew member, Thomas Ryder (ph) of Germany, who will spend six months on the space station. The first time that space station will have a trio of crew members since the loss of Columbia three-and-a-half years ago. Since the loss of Columbia three-and-a-half years ago, we've talked a lot about the hazards of that big burnt orange fuel tank that you see there and the foam which envelops it. It was a pound and a half piece of that foam, about the size of a briefcase, that fell off about 80 seconds after launch of Columbia that caused that fatal breach in the heat shield leading to the demise of the crew 16 days later.

Mike Cabbage, who is the space editor of "The Orlando Sentinel," wrote the definitive book on this, "Comm Check," along with Bill Harwood.

And it's interesting how three-and-a-half years later, we're still talking about foam. I guess as long as the shuttle flies, this is going to be an issue.

MIKE CABBAGE, SPACE EDITOR, "THE ORLANDO SENTINEL": There is no such thing as a foam incident now that's not a big deal. In the wake of Columbia, even episodes like what happened yesterday, where you had a very small, some people would argue inconsequential piece of foam, come off on the launch pad, it's still going to be a big deal.

O'BRIEN: Let's explain to people just quickly what we're talking about. As you see a picture of that piece of foam, four to five inches in length, about the weight of a penny, half the weight that you would even be concerned about causing any damage, it was located up in here. And that's what you've got to be cognizant of, because anything upstream of the orbiter is of concern.

The people who do the computer modeling on all this say if something fell off in that spot, it might very well hit the bottom side of the orbiter where those fragile thermal tiles are. So that is why people get concerned, and that is why I think it's hard for people to understand how NASA, in short order, was able to bless this and say it's fine to fly.

CABBAGE: Even so, when you look at the procedures that they went through yesterday, they did all these detailed inspections at the launch pad. They went through their analyses to make sure that ice wouldn't build up on the part of the tank where the foam had fallen from. And other things. It makes sense that they've reached the decision that they have.

O'BRIEN: They were curious about whether there would be enough insulation. After all, the insulation came off. And they're also curious if there might be more damage which would lead to more foam- shedding there.

There is no question, when this launches, hopefully today, 2:38 p.m. Eastern, we're going to see foam come off. And this, in and of itself, is going to raise a similar scenario that we just went through. Small pieces are still going to raise a lot of attention. Maybe it's media attention more than engineering attention, but I think the engineers are pretty attuned to it, as well. CABBAGE: Every mission that the shuttle has ever flown, foam has come off. Every mission that the shuttle ever will fly, foam is going to come off. The question is, how big are the pieces that come off and, more importantly, or equally importantly, where do they come from?

We're going to see, as you mentioned, foam come off in this mission. In fact, we're going to see it in ways that we've never seen before because of all of the cameras that are now on the tank and that are giving us views of foam loss that we've never seen before.

O'BRIEN: This will be the most photographed shuttle launch ever, and in many respects we're seeing something that probably has been there all along. So we're attuned to a problem that NASA didn't know it had.

CABBAGE: You're absolutely right. Or, if they did know that they had it, it was -- it was not something that was going to cause a disaster. It was something that was a maintenance issue.

It was not a safety of flight issue. It was something that prevented turning the shuttle around rapidly for the next flight.

O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this. You talked to these engineers and pad rats, people out here all the time. Do you have the sense that there is either a morale problem, or taking it a step further, a bit of a crisis in confidence that goes along with all of this, knowing that you have -- you have the recognition that you have a flawed design all the sudden after all of these years? And an engineer doesn't like to fly something that has a flawed design.

CABBAGE: I don't sense a crisis of confidence as much as I do sort of the realization that over all of these years, they never really completely understood the foam issue and how serious it could be. And as you mentioned, it is a design problem, and there's no way that you can go back 30 years and fix that today. So they're just going to have to fly with it as is until the end of the program. And they're going to have to do everything they can to continue to mitigate the problem.

O'BRIEN: If you really look deeply at the roots of the history of this program, there's always been a rush, a desire to declare it more hearty, more operational, more capable than it really is.

Why?

CABBAGE: Well, in large part, it was to sell it to Congress and to the American people. As you mentioned, the capabilities of the shuttle when it first began and was first conceived in the 1970s really were exaggerated. And I think in some cases we're still sort of paying for those -- those things that they were saying in the 1970s today.

O'BRIEN: Well, one thing is for certain, the next vehicle to come should go to the moon, maybe Mars, if all goes well. The people, the reentry vehicle will be on top of everything that might shed debris.

Mike Cabbage, thank you very much.

Mike Cabbage the author of "Comm Check," along with Bill Harwood, the definitive book on the loss of Columbia, as well as the space editor for "The Orlando Sentinel."

Always a pleasure having you drop by.

CABBAGE: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: Coming up, the tricks supermarkets use to get you to buy more expensive, less healthy food. We have tips to make you a smarter shopper.

And later, America's public beaches. We'll take a look at what needs to be done to protect our coastlines.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In this morning's "House Call," a grocery guide to good eating.

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen enlisted a nutrition expert to rate two families on their supermarket smarts, and in the process dispense some healthy shopping tips for all of us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Enter two shoppers with the same mission, navigate a supermarket only slightly smaller than a football field.

Chris Carter shopped with his children, Breann (ph) and Lean (ph).

His challenge...

Trying to get a variety of different foods, get the kids to eat it.

COHEN: And Danielle Hnatiuk and 2-month-old Isabella.

Her challenge? Impulse buys.

DANIELLE HNATIUK, SHOPPER: I know what I need and I know what I want. And I shop. Unless I come here hungry.

COHEN: New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle, who spent an entire year studying groceries for her book, "What to Eat," is closely monitoring their choices. Nestle warns that foods are packaged and placed in a way that says, buy me, and the consumer has to buy smart.

MARION NESTLE, AUTHOR, "WHAT TO EAT": The entire purpose of the supermarket is to get you to buy more, not less. Whether those foods are the best ones for you or not is really secondary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eenie, meenie, minie, mo. OK.

COHEN: Both our shoppers scored well in the produce department. Lesson one, fresh food doesn't have to cost more than junk.

NESTLE: When the Department of Agriculture came out with a study that said that you could eat your -- that you could eat seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day for under a dollar, I didn't believe it. And I went to a store and I bought a pound of green beans. There they were, nine servings for under a dollar.

COHEN: Later, Danielle makes a wrong turn down a center aisle, where many products are heavily processed.

Lesson two, stick to the perimeter.

NESTLE: If you must set food in a center aisle, don't buy anything in a box. Or if it's in a box, make sure it has five ingredients or less.

COHEN: Chris (ph) also slips up at the end of an aisle.

Lesson three, be savvy to special displays designed to make you buy impulse items detrimental to your waistline and wallet.

NESTLE: Companies pay the supermarkets to place their products at eye level, which is ideal, or at the end of the aisles or at the cash registers.

COHEN: The food industry is quick to defend its practices.

TIM HAMMONDS, PRESIDENT, FOOD MARKETING INSTITUTE: We sell broccoli and brussel sprouts. Every family is different. You can't make decisions for them. They have to make the decisions for themselves.

NESTLE: Well, let's see what we have here.

COHEN: At checkout, Nestle shared her mantra: skip the process, load up on the fresh.

NESTLE: I would give this an A plus.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And Nestle says a good rule of green thumb is this: If it comes from the ground, it's naturally healthy. If it's packaged and claims to be good for you, read the nutrition label on the back. Those are the facts and not promotion -- Miles. O'BRIEN: It sounds like good advice. Appreciate that.

We are watching the space shuttle Discovery, fueled up. The ice team is out there. That's the inspection team looking to make sure there's no problems, ice buildup. In particular, on a spot where they had a piece of that external foam flake off yesterday.

There is one little glitch in the countdown. I don't think it amounts to much, but I'll fill you in just a little bit -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Plus, Kobayashi's title on the line today in the Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest. A look at the upstart American who could bring his eating empire to its knees.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida. I've got a little wider shot I want to show you to give you a sense of how the weather is shaping up.

Technically, it is not go for launch right now, and the reason should be evident when we show you this picture here. Lots of cumulus clouds that are building up on the horizon. You see them kind of off there, and it kind of looks a little bit menacing there. And if you look at the radar in a second, as I will, you'll see why.

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