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SpaceX Launch on Hold; Coverage of the SpaceX Launch; Fuel Shortage in Florida. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 20, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People here on the waterfront of South Padre Island, watching this with bated breath as they wait to see what is exactly going to happen in this situation. So, we're trying to figure out, as I mentioned, if it's a weather issue, or if it's a technical issue that they are dealing with at this point.

But, as I mentioned, as we've been monitoring this for the last 30 minutes, SpaceX officials have been saying everything was on track, that there were no issues. They have been going through the process of loading 10 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen into the heavy booster, which is the bottom part of the rocket, and then the spacecraft rocket itself was all - was almost -- was already done as well. And they were also going through the process of cooling the entire system down. And all of that started happening about three minutes -- t minus three minutes to this launch. So, they've been saying that everything was on track.

But here, just about 40 seconds away from the launch is when they put it on hold. And, John, we continue to kind of wait and see if there's any other indication -- I'm not hearing anything right now. So, I would imagine they're in the process of gathering that and seeing if we can hear any other update to what the issues is with this morning's rocket launch.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, then let's listen in, Ed. They're talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Final pressurization was just a little bit long. That's not unusual. We've held at t minus 40 seconds before to pressurize. That appears to have been resolved. It's the same time on the second stage. They're working some final purging. We should know very shortly if that is cleared and if we'll continue the countdown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone, especially that person, is excited to keep going. Like John said, we should know shortly if we are able to continue. But as we mentioned before, we are able to hold up to 15 minutes and still be able to lift off today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, on Falcon 9 it's a little bit different.

BOLDUAN: All right, so we've been listening in -- learning it all with you at the very same time as they were on hold. I think they said that final pressurization was a little low is what I think I heard him say, and that the second stage they're working on doing some purging.

For more on what that is going to mean, I'm going to bring Miles O'Brien back in.

Miles, they just said that they can hold for 15 minutes and still be within the window and lift off. We'll jump in as they give us updates, but what do you hear in this?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, in this business you have to be able to operate under pressure, shall we say. And that's quite literal. It's -- you know, if you'll recall, it's scrubbed a few days ago, for lack of backfill kind of pressure. Imagine like when you're drinking water out of a plastic water bottle and you kind of - it crinkles if you don't get air back in it. Well, you don't want a rocket to crinkle. And so what they do is they - they take the gaseous methane and oxygen and kind of pump it back in the tanks so it doesn't crinkle. So, in this case, they had to fully pressurize all these fuel lines for 33 rockets. And it took a little longer than they expected. And so they went into a hold for now. They've got in total a 62 minute window. So, we've got some more time here to play around.

As you can see, as that - you see that -- what appears to be steam venting off the rocket.

BOLDUAN: Right.

O'BRIEN: That is liquid methane. But oxygen is kind of bleeding off. So, they've got to keep it topped off. At a certain point, they'll have to stop. Hopefully they can get the pressure where it needs to be.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Thank you, Miles. Stick with us.

BOLDUAN: Oh, it looks like the countdown just -- just started.

SIDNER: Just started again.

BOLDUAN: The countdown just started back up, Miles.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: So now at 26 seconds.

SIDNER: People are cheering. You can hear them there.

BOLDUAN: Let's listen in you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T minus 15 seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

(INAUDIBLE) operations.

(INAUDIBLE). Chamber pressure is nominal. (INAUDIBLE) 33 seconds into the test flight of the inaugural Starship vehicles. Tower cleared. (INAUDIBLE) picks over. The pulsing (ph) reports first stage engines nominal. What a sight from the ground cameras at Starbase. We're flying at twice the thrust of the same flight (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're throttle down and throttle back up.

[09:35:02]

We're going through the period of maximum aerodynamic pressure. As the velocity increases, the depth of the atmosphere is decreasing, lessening stress on the vehicle. The call out, max 2 (ph) now.

Continuing to watch the first stages as we head down range. One hundred seconds into flight.

Our next major activity is going to be set down of the first stage. Houston tracking station now acquiring the vehicle. With shut down we will get separation of Starship from super heavy (ph) and emission of the Starship engines. When Starship separates, it will light up six engines in a staggered sequence. And if all goes well, those six engines will burn for almost six and a half minutes.

Onboard here from Starship. And there's views of the rafter (ph) engines on the second stage as we prepare for stage separation. Now, after stage separation, the first stage will flip and begin a boost back maneuver for landing in the Gulf.

Continuing to fly. Two minutes 40 seconds. Let's get ready for main engine cutoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) cutoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beginning to flip for stage separation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As of right now we are awaiting stage separation.

First Starship should separate from the super heavy booster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Kate, right now it looks like we saw the start of the flip, but obviously we're seeing from the ground cameras, the entire Starship stack continuing to rotate. We should have had separation by now. Obviously, this is -- does not appear to be a nominal situation.

Yes, it does appear to be spinning. But I do want to remind everyone that everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake. There - and there, as we saw, as we promised, an exciting end to the Starship inaugural integrated test flight.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Obviously, something just went a little bit wrong despite the cheering you're seeing right now.

Let's bring in Miles O'Brien.

We did see the launch of the Starship rocket. All was going well. Then it ended with an explosion there, Miles. Explain what happened.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, you -- there will be a lot of discussion about this.

The one thing I did notice, John, as it went up, there was a shot where you could see the bottom of the rocket. As I told you earlier, there are 33 separate rapture engines on this vehicle. Six of them had not lit. So, whether that is related to what we just saw, I don't know. I mean without six engines, that would potentially affect the ability of the rocket to remain stable. And that could ultimately have led to what we've seen here.

Now, is that an actual explosion of the rocket or was a button pushed on the ground? The self-destruct button, which is designed to keep the rocket from flying into harm's way. We'll find out more about that as well.

Having said all of that, given all of the explosions that have led to this moment since 2005, this is serial number 24 for the Starship. And there have been several mishaps along the way, all of which they've learned from. You see that the team in Hawthorne, the young team, they're cheering. You know, they would probably try to characterize this as a pretty good success. They got past -- they light -- lit up most of the engines.

[09:40:01]

They got past the launchpad. Didn't damage it. And all of the data that they've gathered up to the point where things went awry will likely inform the next test flight, which is -- gives us another opportunity to meet once again.

BOLDUAN: It -- of course, we look forward to.

I think even right before Monday's attempt, Elon Musk said, as long as they don't blow up the launch pad that is a success in this -- in this critical test.

Miles, stick with us.

I want to get over to Ed Lavandera, who's on the ground.

Ed, one of the things that was unmistakable was the - was the sound from people around you over the sound from somewhere the roar of the crowd that we heard upon launch. Tell us what happened.

LAVANDERA: Look, I got to tell you, you're looking at a kid from the '80s who never got to see a space shuttle launch in person. So, this is the first time I've ever experienced anything like this.

SIDNER: That's awesome.

LAVANDERA: And it was surreal.

We saw the rocket take off and it was well past the top of the launch pad. And then all of a sudden we started feeling -- you could feel the rumbling. You could feel it in your -- in your chest and you were kind of shaking. That's how powerful it was. And it was -- it was really, really breathtaking. So, that was - and the crazy thing is, is like I - I think I knew that was going to happen, and it was still stunning to experience.

And it was almost moving like in slow motion from our vantage point. I know it's not moving in slow motion, but from our vantage point it seemed very slow. And at one point I was wondering, is it -- like, is it really going to get up there? And so now that's kind of the experience.

And the cheering here, we talked to one gentleman a couple days ago who had driven in from Georgia to be here for this week. You can almost tell he had like tears in his eyes as this was happening.

And then we saw it kind of go off to the east, leaving this large cloud trail. And even from there you could still hear and feel the rumbling sound. And then it was that -- what the SpaceX officials describe as the unplanned disassembly, which is just a technical way of saying that it all went terribly wrong. You could hear the rumbling from that from our vantage point. And just so you know, we are five miles from the launch pad, and we are many more miles from where this rocket ship disassembled over the Gulf of Mexico.

But, clearly, everybody here on the ground leaves here feeling like they've just witnessed one of the most historic events -- space travel events in their lifetime. Many people we've talked to here, guys, you know, they equate this to, you know, where they were when astronauts landed on the moon and orbited the moon for the -- for the first time. They view all of this kind of in those historic space travel terms.

So, an unbelievable day to be able to witness this here this morning.

SIDNER: I love to see your joy, Ed, at this - you now, that feeling of being a little kid.

We were just looking at some video and John Berman was also pointing out, as you look at it, you can see that it looks like some of the engines may not have been firing. There are 33 engines. And there were some dark holes in the bottom where you can sort of see the rocket going up. It is the largest, heaviest rocket that has ever been launched. And the reason why people were cheering is because it worked partially, but definitely, Ed, You had the situation where this was supposed to be reused, and that's a whole lot of money crashing down there in South Padre Island isn't it?

LAVANDERA: Well, yes, exactly. So, you know, this is unscrewed from a safety standpoint. Obviously, not ready to put humans on board this rocket. And it was at that three minute mark into the launch where the heavy booster, which is about 230 feet long, was supposed to separate from the Starship rocket. And then the Starship rocket was supposed to continue eastward around the planet, almost a full orbit, crashing into the Pacific Ocean around the state of Hawaii. That clearly hasn't happened. This wreckage is now somewhere in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico this morning.

So, clearly, still not -- a lot of work left to be done. But I think when you -- from the pros and the experts that know much more about space travel and this kind of technical work, you know, they view this as a success. On Monday, and Sunday night, Elon Musk was talking about -- he had

lowered expectations to the point where, you know, we thought we might be on the verge of seeing is spectacular epic fireworks show on the launch pad. That's what he says he was most concerned about is just some sort of technical mishap on the launch pad that would cause him to have to rebuild the entire launchpad, which is a costly and really kind of slows things down. But, so, I think, from SpaceX's perspective, clearing the launchpad, getting out over to the Gulf of Mexico, having it travel for as long as it did is probably considered a very remarkable achievement here this morning.

BERMAN: What you're looking at is video that they are feeding us of just before the moment where it exploded. It was supposed to separate here. There was supposed to be a separation between the rocket itself and then the spacecraft.

[09:45:01]

The separation did not happen. And then the explosion.

On the lower left-hand side of your screen, you can see what Miles O'Brien was talking about, the fact that of the 33 engines -- there we go.

SIDNER: Oh, my gosh.

BERMAN: There was the explosion right there. Of the 33 engines, that circle is gone now. You can see that six of them at least, Miles was counting, were out.

If Miles is still with us right now, they just replayed the moment of the explosion itself. And you saw the entire spacecraft in a way, Miles, doing these flips, but it's supposed to do some of those, but it's supposed to separate in the process?

O'BRIEN: Yes, that -- that was not -- that would be off nominal, as NASA might say. But -

BOLDUAN: I say that all the time. Yes.

O'BRIEN: But I think for a brief time - yes. For a brief time seven of the engines were out. So - and they - you know, the - these rapture engines are -- they can relight them. I believe they relit them a little bit. But clearly that that affects the stability of the rocket and maybe they couldn't, you know, they had enough loss of rocket motors that they had a stability problem.

You know, when you're -- when you're trying to get 33 rocket engines to all work in perfect synchronicity, that's -- that's a lot of things that have to go right, not just electronically, but also just sheer plumbing. And pressurization, as we were talking about, is very important.

And so this is, you know, this is exactly why they do these tests, to get the data they need to make it better the next time, presumably. So, you know, this is -- you know, Elon Musk has successfully set the bar at a good place, saying, hey, at least if the launch pad is intact, we'll call this a success. That's what I call defining -- putting the bar exactly where you want to put it, or maybe a little lower. But, you know, this will tell them a little bit more about how to make sure you lit 33 engines at the same time and keep them going.

Now, whether it blew up because of some sort of aerodynamic stress on it as it tumbled, quite possible. Or if somebody actually pushed the self-destruct button or maybe some combination, we should find out pretty soon.

BOLDUAN: That's a great point. And I - just, as we wrap up, and we're going to continue to follow much more of this, just partial success, full success, partial failure, whatever it is , it's very cool to be able to see this kind of progress in this space happening in real time and live. Just, I mean, seeing the successes and partial successes is very cool to see.

Miles, thank you so much.

Ed Lavandera, having the best day of his life down in South Padre Island, as he should be.

We're going to continue to follow this as we're going not be getting more information of what really happened and the details of it. And Miles is going to help make it into English for all of us.

It's great to see you guys.

We'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:27]

BERMAN: This morning, where is the gas in southern Florida? Gas Buddy is reporting that nearly 60 percent of all stations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, they're out of gas. This is partly being attributed to panic buying after last week's major storm that dumped 20 inches of rain in the area. Widespread flooding caused disruptions to operations of fuel terminals in Port Everglades. Officials are pleading that there is no need to panic. They say deliveries are up and running and are expected to increase to a regular pace over the coming days.

CNN's Leyla Santiago is at a gas station in Miami.

Leyla, no lines there, but I understand there's a reason for that.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, for this gas station in particular. Let's take a walk. I'll show you exactly why that is. You see this board over here? You're going to see a lot of zeros. That's because they don't have anything but diesel here. And I've got to tell you, I've been checking in on some of the gas stations here this morning, and there has been an improvement in lines for those that do have fuels. But, yes, like you mentioned, according to Gas Buddy, about 60 percent still don't have fuel. I mean, look right behind me, you see those pumps, they are covered right now in a lot of the gas stations down here.

Now the state, for its part, sent about half a million gallons of fuel down to southeast Florida. They even had law enforcement escorting some of those fuel tanks. I have seen them myself coming and distributing some of that supply.

But as you mentioned, John, you know, part of the problem here is that Port Everglades, which is a petroleum terminal, was inundated last week, and that is what caused some of the delays in distribution. And as I have visited multiple stations over the last few days, I have seen the frustration, seen and heard it, because there's a lot of honking sometimes out here. And I want you to listen to what some of the drivers are telling me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITA PONCE, MIAMI RESIDENT: Just, I'm hoping it'll be corrected soon because this is ridiculous.

SANTIAGO: Do you think enough is being done?

PONCE: No, not for the demand that we need here. So, you know, unfortunately, we're stuck waiting here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: OK, key word that she used their, demand, right? This is a supply/demand issue in many ways. And the mayor here -- and not just the mayor, a lot of officials urging people not to panic buy here because that is creating a demand issue. And they believe that once they get the supply moving, if they can tamper down a little bit on that supply - or, excuse me, on that demand, they can get things to sort of normalize over the next few days.

John.

BERMAN: And we are going to speak to the mayor in a little bit, Leyla. But if you take is empty, it's not panic buying.

[09:55:01]

You need gas if you want the car to move. But I do understand there is concern that people are going when their tanks are half empty or nearly full.

Keep us posted, Leyla, if that gas station you're at gets gas anytime in the near future.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Florida's board of education has now voted to ban teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity through high school, expanding the scope of the controversial law critics dub don't say gay. What was behind the decision and what LGBTQ advocates are saying about it this morning.

Also, a deadly tornado outbreak in Oklahoma. A look at the widespread destruction from those tornadoes. That's next.

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