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Millions in Texas Left without Power for Days; U.N. Chief Calls for Equitable Vaccine Distribution; Prince Philip in Hospital as Precaution; U.S.: North Korean Hackers Tried to Steal $1.3 Billion, Vaccine Data; Facebook Blocks Users in Australia from Getting News; NASA's Perseverance Rover Ready to Land on Mars Thursday; Conservative Talk Radio Host Rush Limbaugh Dead at 70; At Least 33 Dead from Extreme Winter Weather. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired February 18, 2021 - 00:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to all of you watching from around the. World I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Ahead this hour, a deep freeze knocks out power for millions in the United States. Many families are forced to sleep in their cars or even burn furniture to stay warm.

The U.N. secretary-general calls it the biggest moral test facing the world. How to make certain the coronavirus vaccines get to both rich and poor.

And 7 minutes of terror. NASA prepares for a daring landing on the surface of Mars. .

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BRUNHUBER: Millions of people in the U.S. state of Texas are still without electricity after a severe winter storm sent temperatures plunging. The deadly deep freeze literally has people struggling to survive.

Water treatment plants across the state are crippled and nearly 7 million people are being told to boil their water. Many are going to extremes just to keep warm. One family even burning their child safety gate to bring some heat to their home.

Others are huddling in their cars or warming centers. People who can get to grocery stores are lining up around the block only to find the shelves empty. Forecasters do not expect the temperature to get above freezing until at least Friday. CNN's Camila Bernal reports from. Dallas

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unlivable conditions in Texas. Frozen pipes bursting, flooding homes in bitter temperatures.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Right now there still remains about 10,000 megawatts that is off the grid and as a result is not contributing to power in the state.

BERNAL (voice-over): Substantial relief is still days away as more than 3 million remain without power. Utility companies are shut down unable to generate electricity.

TRICIA LANCASTER, TEXAS RESIDENT: We knew for a week that this was coming. So if we knew for a week that this was coming why weren't we ready? Our house is 32 degrees inside. We're worried about the pipes.

BERNAL (voice-over): Linda Shoemaker was forced to take her 101-year- old mother to this warming shelter overnight.

LINDA SHOEMAKER, TEXAS RESIDENT: As a mother, you know, you could freeze in the middle of the night so we had to find someplace to go.

BERNAL (voice-over): The mayor of hard-hit Austin says Texas should have been better prepared.

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-TX), AUSTIN: The community right now that is scared and frustrated, confused, angry and I am too.

BERNAL (voice-over): Governor Greg Abbott says the dangerous lack of power is not the state government's fault but a failure by ERCOT, the state's largest power grid management organization.

ABBOTT: ERCOT stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas. And they showed that they were not reliable.

BERNAL (voice-over): Some 90 percent of the lone star state's power is managed by ERCOT. Alone electric council operates mostly independent of other federal power grids and thus mostly alone in its efforts to restore power quickly and safely.

BILL MAGNESS, CEO, ERCOT: The operators acted with judgment based on their training to prevent an event that would have been even more catastrophic than the terrible things we've seen this week.

BERNAL (voice-over): ERCOT says the bulk of the blackouts are due to oil and gas plants shutting down in the cold.

ABBOTT: About 19,800 megawatts of gas power generation is still offline because of either mechanical issues or the lack of the supply of gas.

BERNAL (voice-over): But Abbott isn't letting his state's lucrative fossil fuel industry take all the blame.

ABBOTT: Our wind and our solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid. It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states.

BERNAL: And just to give you the big picture, 70 percent of the population here in the state of Texas is still under a winter weather alert. People are cold. They are frustrated. And they want answers as to whether this situation is going to get better. But the White House and FEMA say they are tracking this situation.

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BERNAL: FEMA already provided generators and say they are bringing diesel to support the infrastructure here, things like hospitals and the water supply. And also at the request of the state of Texas, they are bringing water and blankets.

But Texans say that is not enough. What they want is the state and officials to really figure out how to get their power back and how to get it back as soon as possible -- in Dallas, Texas, I'm Camila Bernal -- back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Ft. Worth, Texas, is Philip Shelley. He and his family are dealing with power outages in the middle of this cold weather.

Philip, thanks so much for making the time in what is obviously a super challenging time for you and your family. So I can see right now, you have electricity. Set the scene.

Where exactly are you right now and how are things?

PHILIP SHELLEY, TEXAS RESIDENT: Yes, we finally made it home. Electricity has been more steady today than it had been in the past. Still cold in the apartment. It flickers on and off at a moment's notice, so you're running, trying to get heat and maybe make a quick meal, if you can.

But that's kind of where we are at. We just hope it stays on through the night. The last couple of nights we had no power.

BRUNHUBER: I can hear in the background you're not alone. Tell us about your family. You are having a challenging time because of dealing with having a young child and a pregnant wife.

SHELLEY: Yes, that is honestly the hardest part. We can't do anything for her. We can only put so many jackets on an infant. So it's trying to keep her distracted and keep her warm.

We have had a couple of family and friends but it's like we go there and the power turns off and there's a water thing. She's an infant, she still uses formula and we have to have water. There's a shortage of water bottles. So that's been the hardest thing for me as a father and as a husband, is making sure that they're OK.

BRUNHUBER: Trying to stay warm is one thing, trying to get food is another thing. I understand there have been challenging, even trying to get food in stores.

SHELLEY: Yes, I went to Walmart earlier today and everything that you could have been in a refrigerator or freezer was gone. My biggest task was just trying to make sure I could get formula. And there was a big worry for me just making sure that I could feed my daughter.

BRUNHUBER: And those are your pictures, I should just tell the audience, we are showing there, of empty shelves and so on. I understand a lot of food has been spoiling because they have not been able to keep it cold.

SHELLEY: Right. And they're trying to move stuff around. The workers at Walmart are trying to do the best they can. But you know, it's tough when the refrigerators go out. The first night that the power went out, I actually went into Walmart and they closed because they could not serve anybody. So that was -- it's a challenging time for everybody, sure.

BRUNHUBER: Is it hard for you to believe, in the energy capital of the country in the richest country in the world, that this is happening right now?

SHELLEY: No. Not for me, just because the leadership, I feel like we have here in Texas, they don't take it seriously all the time. It's crazy driving around, just being in the car, trying to get heat. You have AT&T Stadium lit up. You have downtown Dallas lit up.

And then the communities like myself, where we are out of power for 24-plus hours, why is AT&T Stadium lit up?

Why is Ranger Stadium lit up?

Why are all these big, energy-consuming buildings, office buildings downtown, lit up and there's nobody there, while people are in their homes, freezing and worried about their children and elderly people?

It feels like they don't really care enough to fix the problem.

BRUNHUBER: We understand that things there are slowly restoring power. Let's hope that that trend continues. I know it is supposed to be still cold for a while, so we wish you, your wife and your child all the best, as you try and deal with these trying circumstances, as if we don't have enough to deal with in life right now.

SHELLEY: Thank you so much.

BRUNHUBER: All right, take care.

SHELLEY: Thank you.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.N. secretary-general says rich countries are getting more than their fair share of the coronavirus vaccines and some 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose.

He echoed a call from Mexico for countries to stop hoarding vaccines and make distribution more equitable.

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ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: The rollout of COVID19 vaccines is generating hope. But at this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community.

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GUTERRES: We must ensure that everybody everywhere can be vaccinated as soon as possible. Yet progress on vaccinations has been widely uneven and unfair. Just 10 countries have administered 75 percent of all COVID-19 vaccines.

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BRUNHUBER: In a virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council, he went on to say that, if the virus is allowed to tear through poor countries, it will just keep mutating and put the whole world at risk.

Meanwhile, Britain urged the U.N. to quickly call for cease-fires in conflict zones like Yemen to allow for vaccinations.

In the past days the U.S. has administered more than 1 million COVID- 19 vaccine doses worldwide, pushing its nationwide total past 56. Million most inoculations have come from Pfizer's vaccine so far, which, according to a new study, may protect against one of the more contagious virus strains. CNN's Alexandra Field reports.

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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Critical steps forward. New studies suggest the Pfizer vaccine can protect people against new variants of the virus including one first detected in South Africa. Regardless, in a statement Pfizer also said it's also continuing to work toward an updated vaccine or booster once a strain that significantly reduces the protection from the vaccine is identified.

CNN previously reported a similar study on the Moderna vaccine, which also appears effective against variants. This as two new reports from the CDC warn new variants could lead to a rapid rise in new COVID cases.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: The continued spread of variants that are more transmissible could jeopardize the progress we have made in the last month if we let our guard down.

FIELD: Progress seen across the country. New COVID cases are plummeting and down precipitously from the peak in early January but still averaging more than 80,000 new cases daily. More progress now hinges on more vaccinations. Dr. Anthony Fauci today pointing to studies showing vaccinations may also reduce the spread of the virus. His message --

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: When your turn to get vaccinated comes up, get vaccinated. It will have a very important impact on the dynamics of the outbreak in our country.

FIELD: But the awful winter storm crippling much of the nation now threatens to slow down the pace of vaccinations.

JEFFREY ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: It's having an impact on distribution and deliveries.

FIELD: Mass vaccination sites shutting down in some states.

ZIENTS: What we're encouraging governors and other partners to do is to extend hours once they're able to reopen.

FIELD: The deadly storm also delaying shipments of vaccines across the country, from Florida, where 200,000 Moderna doses haven't arrived, to New York.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: We're going to have to hold back appointments that New Yorkers need because the vaccine isn't arriving.

FIELD: Bad weather isn't the only slowdown.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the end of July, we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American.

FIELD: By July, a change from previous estimates.

FAUCI (voice-over): We were hoping that it would be by the end of April, but what has happened is that the doses that we were expecting earlier from the J&J likely will not be available for another couple of months after that.

FIELD: Given these concerns about new variants, a group of President Biden's former coronavirus advisers have drafted a memo, urging the more widespread use of N95 masks or even a mandate to that effect.

But that memo comes just days after the CDC updated its mask guidance, suggesting double masking instead. It continues not recommending the use of N95s for the general public, reserving those for the medical community instead, citing a lack in supply and other factors like cost, comfort and practicality -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: Colombia has finally started its vaccination program. The first dose went to a 46-year-old nurse. The government says it first released its vaccines to a rural part of the country to send the message that they are for all people from all walks of life.

Larger cities like Bogota will start administering their shots in the coming days. Colombia's outbreak is the second worst in the region after Brazil. And its vaccine rollout has lagged behind that of its neighbors.

South Africa also got off to a slow start but has now launched its COVID-19 vaccine campaign. Health care workers there are getting the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine after the government suspended its plans to use the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns it wasn't effective against the South African variant.

And among the first to roll up his sleeve, president Cyril Ramaphosa, who tweeted, just took the vaccine. He said it was quick, easy and not so painful.

Britain's Prince Philip is in the hospital. Queen Elizabeth's 99-year- old husband has not been feeling well for a few days but Buckingham Palace is stressing his state is a precaution. CNN's Max Foster has the details.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Prince Philip arrived at the hospital here in central London on Tuesday but the palace is emphasizing it was not an emergency admission. He was driven here; it wasn't an ambulance and he walked into the hospital unaided.

This is just a precautionary measure, according to the palace. It is not COVID related. All we know is that he was feeling unwell for a number of days, and his doctor advised him to go into the hospital to be observed and to get some rest.

The queen remains back in Windsor, where the couple have spent much of the pandemic but they are being cautious here, trying not to worry people by laying down some of the language that they have put in statements here.

But he is 99 years old. He is due to be 100 in the summer, so they are being cautious. That seems to be the reading all the statement and information we've been getting from the palace -- Max Foster, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: Myanmar's military is now targeting six celebrities in its effort to shut down protests against the country's military coup. Arrest warrants have been issued accusing the celebrities of encouraging strikes that have brought government offices to a standstill. Paula Hancocks is in Seoul with the latest.

So massive strikes, lots of arrests, gunshots even reported to CNN and now this.

Why are they after these celebrities?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this point, they are trying to target those who are in a position of authority, of power, of being able to galvanize these protests. We know they've detained a number of the former ruling party. We know they have detained some of those who've been on the streets. Now they are going after six celebrities who they believe have been

encouraging people to come out and protest against the military coup. I spoke to the wife of one of those men who was on that list, an actress herself as well.

She spoke about just not how scared they are -- they are in hiding at this point -- but also how angry they are. This is really a recurring theme of all the people we've spoken to on the ground in Myanmar. They feel it's their last chance to fight for democracy.

And that's what's convincing so many to continue to come out onto the streets. On Wednesday, we did what was described to us as the most significant, biggest crowd we have seen since this coup happened over two weeks ago.

This is Thursday, local time; we are starting to see people coming out onto the streets once again, smaller groups at this point. But we are hearing from many is this level of intimidation, of trying to scare the protesters by the military, is starting to have an impact.

You are still seeing many people coming out onto the streets. But considering you have an internet shut down, from around 1 am until 9 am, according to the internet monitoring service, NetBlocks, it's the fourth night in a row that's happened. It's generally within those hours that the arrests do occur.

Security forces going to the doors of those they want to take into detention. So there is a high level of fear within the protest movement. They are continuing the civil disobedience movement, they are determined they will continue to protest, to call for their democratically elected government to be put back into power.

BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much, Paula Hancocks in Seoul.

From movie studios to vaccine developers, North Korea is accused of hacking multiple companies around the world. Ahead, why experts fear these attacks could become more frequent.

Plus Japan's ruling party trying to take a step in the right direction and include more women in its big meetings but there is a big catch. We will explain that, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A day after North Korea was accused of trying to hack COVID vaccine developers, the country is facing new cybercrime allegations. On Wednesday, the U.S. charged three North Korean hackers with conspiring to deal more than $1 billion from banks and companies around the world. Will Ripley is following developments from Hong Kong. These North Korean hackers are clearly getting up to a lot of mischief

these days. Take us through these latest charges.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary, Kim. I've been following North Korean hackers since the Sony Pictures Entertainment Act. That was back in November of 2014. That was highly destructive. North Korea was angry about that movie, The Interview," and they did this hack and information dump that resulted in several executives tied to that movie stepping down.

That's just one example federal prosecutors are laying out. In this new, more than 30 page indictment, naming 3 North Koreans, who they say were working with a cyber army inside and outside of North Korea to conduct these attacks responsible for stealing an eye-popping amount of money, $1.2 billion , targeting traditional banks, cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, on 4 continents.

Their names Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il and Park Jin Hyok. North Korea says even though they were working in Pyongyang, they also traveled other places, like China and Russia, which makes it easier to conduct hacking operations that can't be directly traced back to the DPRK, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

And according to federal prosecutors who have been looking into this for more than 2, years that cybercrime targeting financial executions is a big part of this, there are also accusations coming out of South Korea, a South Korean lawmaker accusing North Korean hackers of stealing information about COVID-19 vaccines.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): For the first time in more than a year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seen in public with his wife. South Korean intelligence believes she may have been hiding out from COVID-19.

But you'd never know, it not a mask inside at this art performance on Tuesday. Kim claims his country is virus free. Foreigners in Pyongyang paint a very different picture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One diplomat told me there are checks everywhere, checks to get onto buses, checks to get into the diplomatic compound. He said it doesn't seem a country that is confident about its COVID situation.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A South Korean lawmaker says North Korean hackers stole COVID-19 vaccine data from U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, sharing his own handwritten notes on Facebook from a classified intelligence briefing but no official documents.

Pfizer told CNN it would not comment. South Korea's spy agency NIS says North Korean hackers targeted domestic biotech companies but denied mentioning Pfizer by name. The lawmaker insists he saw the intel, stating North Korea hacked Pfizer.

DANIEL WERTZ, THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON NORTH KOREA: But it certainly wouldn't be surprising if North Korea was trying to do everything they could to get information about the vaccine.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the latest theft claims. Diplomats routinely deny allegations of cybercrime.

A confidential U.N. Security Council memo shared with CNN last week accuses North Korean hackers of stealing more than $316 million, money that may have been used to expand Kim's nuclear and missile programs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if they can use it themselves, they might want to sell it to an interested buyer.

RIPLEY: Who would buy that information?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone who wants an extra research and development without having to pay millions of dollars.

RIPLEY (voice-over): In November, Microsoft accused North Korea of targeting vaccine makers, sometimes masquerading as World Health Organization representatives.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): Reuters reported accusations of another unsuccessful North Korean cyberattack that month, targeting British COVID-19 vaccine maker AstraZeneca. CNN spoke with a staffer at North Korea's U.N. mission, who called the report "fake news."

BRUCE KLINGNER, HERITAGE SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW FOR NORTHEAST ASIA: Cybercrime is a way of not only gaining currency for the regime but also to evade sanctions.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Former CIA deputy division chief for Korea, Bruce Klingner, calls North Korea one of the world's top three cyber threats, alongside Russia and China.

KLINGNER: Now that cybercrime is something that's much more lucrative, it's lower risk and it's lower likelihood of getting caught.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A small nation with a large cyber army, ready to strike at any time.

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RIPLEY: The Justice Department prosecutors actually went so far as to call North Korea a criminal syndicate with a flag, harnessing state resources and an estimated army of cyber warriors that could number 6,000 or more, according to the latest estimates from 2016.

It could've grown even more since then. But because North Korea is arguably more isolated now due to COVID-19 than ever before, getting accurate information, figuring out what's happening behind those closed borders is a huge challenge.

But these prosecutors say the North has what's called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the RGB. And they say that government sanctioned organization has been responsible for a lot of this criminal activity, which not only has brought in money but military intelligence as reported, intelligence about COVID vaccines.

And some of my sources are telling me we have not even seen anything close to the full potential of what the DPRK cyber army could do. If there was a conflict, they could launch attacks on things like infrastructure, power plants.

Keep in mind that even though North Korea, the average North Korean doesn't even have access to the internet, the North Korean hackers are very skillful and much of the rest of the world, which is so reliant on the internet, could be very vulnerable -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: The scope of this is really breathtaking. Thanks for that report, Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong. Appreciate it.

Japan's liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for much of the last 6 decades, now wants more female lawmakers to join its board but only as long as they don't do the talking. CNN's Blake Essig joins me live from Tokyo.

A bizarre story here, tied to the fury over the Olympics imbroglio. Explain this, if you can.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, it seems a bit of a tone-deaf approach to try to get more women involved in meetings. Just last week, sexist comments about women talking too much during meetings forced the resignation of the now former president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee, Yoshiro Mori.

What we are learning about this most recent proposal is the secretary- general Toshihiro Nikkei (ph) wants to include five women who can observe and, quote, "take a look" and to fully understand what kind of discussions are happening during certain ruling party executive board meetings.

Now these women will only essentially be allowed to observe and not speak. If they do want to speak, they can't; they can submit questions or comments in writing to the secretariat at the end of the meeting.

As you might expect, the social media backlash has been swift. Now many Japanese people here are outraged and angry with women, saying that a proposal like this and comments like what we heard from Yoshiro Mori, make them feel like second-class citizens and that, sadly, the male dominated liberal Democratic Party and really in general, the aging gerontocracy ruling Japan right now doesn't seem to be willing to change or are really aware of what the problem is.

So you know, in 2020, Japan ranked 121st out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. The reason for that, only 10 percent of female lawmakers are in the legislature and only 5 percent of women serve on executive boards at companies.

As hard as this might be to believe, Asian study in Japan experts I talked to say that the gender equality issues are actually getting better in Japan, although these last two weeks prove otherwise.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. A reckoning seems long overdue there. Blake Essig in Tokyo, appreciate it.

Australia is trying to regulate how news is shared on social media but Facebook is not having it. The showdown between the tech giant and the government next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back, everyone watching us. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I am Kim Brunhuber.

Well, if you're in Australia and want to read or share a news article on Facebook, well, it's not going to happen. The social media giant is now blocking news content after the government proposed a law that would force tech platforms to pay for it.

Well, CNN's Angus Watson is covering this live from Sydney. Facebook warned there will be consequences for this new law. The reactions seems extreme. Walk us through what brought us here and the reaction.

ANGUS WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, like so many places around the world, Kim, Facebook is almost a front page of the Internet users in Australia. But they woke up this morning, and they did not have access to any news sites.

That is because of the standoff that you mentioned between the Australian government and Facebook. The Australian government wants organizations, tech giants, to pay for the news that live on its platform. The news organization -- sorry, the tech organizations say that's not how it works, and have fought back against this.

But the law went through the Australian lower house last night, and they have yet to pass the Senate, but it looks likely they will in the next coming weeks, which has only intensified the standoff between the two parties.

Not, what Facebook have done is say, hey, we're not actually a news site. We don't need news to get our viewers and our users to subscribe. So we're just going to pull it off.

So what that's -- that's happened today, and there's been collateral damage to other organizations that Facebook has accidentally seen as news organizations as it tries to pressure the Australian government.

So what we've had today, Kim, is a situation where domestic violence help lines, government organizations, even the health departments of states here have had their Facebook pages pulled off the Internet. And that has made the government and people here in Australia, particularly irate as this pandemic continues and people need access, particularly to health information, Kim.

So we've got this standoff. Facebook not looking too good among the Australian public here at the moment -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. All right, thank you for that, Angus Watson.

They're calling it seven minutes of terror. That's what lies ahead for a NASA rover, on track to land on Mars in a matter of hours. We'll tell you what the mission is all about next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A NASA probe will try to land another rover on the surface of Mars Thursday. That sounds easy, but NASA says it's one of the most difficult maneuvers it has to deal with. The mission: to find signs of ancient life and pave the way for potential human settlement. Take a look.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A preview of a perilous descent on the red planet after months traveling through space. It's what NASA describes as seven minutes of terror.

The U.S. space agency's Perseverance mission plunges into the Martian atmosphere at over 19,000 kilometers an hour. It breaks with tremendous force, lurching downwards in temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Then it deploys a parachute, and at just the right moment, it releases a rover, rocketing toward a treacherous terrain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That all has to happen in about seven minutes, and it all has to happen autonomously.

MATT WALLACE, MARS 2020 DEPUTY PROJECT MANAGER, NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: This is one of the most difficult maneuvers we do in the space business. You know, almost 50 percent of the spacecraft that have been sent to the surface of Mars have failed, and so we know we have our -- our work cut out for us.

BRUNHUBER: If the daring landing succeeds, NASA's Perseverance rover will touch down at Jezero Crater, the site of a Martian lake more than 3.5 million years ago. There, Perseverance will help prepare for human life in the future and search for signs of ancient life in the past. It will also collect rock samples that will hopefully return to earth for the very first time.

The two-year mission is unlike any other, made possible by discoveries from NASA's four other rovers on Mars.

THOMAS ZURBUCHEN, NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FRO SCIENCE: Our journey has been from following the water to seeing whether this planted was habitable to finding complex chemicals, and now we're at the advent of an entirely new phase, returning samples. An aspirational goal that has been with the science community for decades. BRUNHUBER: Perseverance also promises many perspectives of the red

planet. The rover's microphones and 23 cameras can share sights and sounds never seen or heard before.

Also along for the ride, a drone-sized helicopter named Ingenuity. It will be the first to try flying on another planet. The new technology may help direct the Perseverance rover or even be a scout for future probes as NASA's latest mission to Mars charts new realms of exploration.

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BRUNHUBER: And Ray Arvidson is an earth and planetary sciences professor at Washington University and a member of Mars science team. Thanks so much for joining us, Professor.

So this is hugely exciting, but for those arriving cold, who hear about yet another rover on Mars and go, you know, Ho-hum, how would you sell them on this one?

RAY ARVIDSON, EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES PROFESSOR, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: It's an excellent question. So we've had multiple rovers on -- on the surface of Mars. Spirit and Opportunity back in -- landed in 2004, those were our mantra, kind of is there evidence for water in the past on Mars, and both of those rovers definitely found evidence. Fumaroles, hydrothermal vents, lake beds.

Curiosity, which in fact, we in fact, we commanded today, has been on the surface since 2012. Well, and that's moved on to was Mars habitable? And we landed on ancient lake beds where we found organic molecules and evidence that water was existent as a lake for a long period of time.

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Perseverance is completely different. We're going from water. Is it, there? Yes. Habitability? It was probably habitable early on. To actually biosignatures, searching with the instruments on board and also returning samples sometime in the next 10 years to get at direct evidence for past life. To accept that it existed. So it's evolution.

BRUNHUBER: Right. So I understand, you know, Perseverance, per se, is I like to call it is like Curiosity but smarter. Some of the equipment on there is pretty fantastic. You know, you have a rover shooting lasers at space rocks. It sounds like every kid's dream there.

So explain some of the cool technology they're using, like super cam, and what they're trying to find, exactly.

ARVIDSON: Yes, you're right. I mean, Perseverance is the same vehicle as Curiosity but more advanced instruments. So on the mast there's a very unique camera in color they can zoom in to get details.

There's another camera system that blasts out a laser, and then makes basically what's called plasma where you can do the composition of the rocks and the soil. Then the arm has instruments to actually identify organics. Lasers and

raman spectrometers, they're called, in addition to doing composition. That is a very, very tiny scale.

Then the coolest thing, you know, is drilling and getting those samples encapsulated and ready to kind of spin out on the surface, a few dozen of them. And they're about the size of your pointer finger.

BRUNHUBER: So they're going to cache those rocks for a -- for a visit later on. Another aim here to pave the way for a human mission. So specifically, what are they looking for in that context? How will that help?

ARVIDSON: Well, you know, what we're really doing is looking for those samples to get back to Earth, to look for evidence of life. And, you know, if they find positive evidence, biosignatures could be present in microbes, could be chemical signatures, whatever it turns out to be. But I think that really says humans and robots at some point will go together to Mars. Kind of like Antarctica. You know, a scientific exploration continent.

In this case, it's a scientific exploration planet. In addition to the fact that, you know, humans are explorers and will go there, one way or another.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, I can't wait to see. It will be tomorrow afternoon, Eastern Time here in the U.S. We'll all be watching.

Thank you so much, Professor Raymond Arvidson. Really appreciate it.

ARVIDSON: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: And thank you for watching the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. WORLD SPORT starts after the break. And we have Patrick Snell here with a preview. Patrick, a big slugging affair down under to tell us about.

PATRICK SNELL, WORLD SPORT HOST: Certainly, Kim. That is the case. Yes, blockbuster matchup between American great Serena Williams and her ongoing quest for a 24th Grand Slam title.

She was facing the Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka. This in the first women's semifinals on Thursday night down under. How did it all land? We'll have the full story for you in just a few moments. Stay with us here as CNN WORLD SPORT comes your way.

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