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Hearing On Trump's Special Master Request Set For Thursday; U.S. Intel Chiefs Assessing Security Risks From Seized Mar-A-Lago Documents; Fire Near Spokane Sparks Evacuations; Growing Concern As Shelling Continues Near Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant; Clashes Between Rival Libyan Militias Kill 23 And Injure 140; Biden's Student Loan Relief To Help Middle Class Borrowers; Thousands Of Migrants Bused From Texas To Northeast U.S.; Heat Waves And Drought Bring Surprises; Artemis I Launch Pad Struck By Lightning. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired August 28, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause live in Los Angeles.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, questions of national security at Donald Trump's stash of top secret documents at his Florida home. A look at what could have been at risk. Also ahead --
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MAYOR CHOKWE ANTA LUMUMBA (D-MS), JACKSON: If you are capable of getting out now, get out now.
VAUSE (voice-over): Fears of massive flooding in Mississippi as the governor declares a state of emergency. Water levels are expected to rise. We're live in the CNN Weather Center.
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VAUSE (voice-over): Also ahead, clashes between rivals in Libya leaving dozens dead and others injured. We'll have the latest report.
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VAUSE: A Trump appointed federal judge indicated she's likely to grant a request from the former president's legal team to appoint a special master to review evidence taken from Donald Trump's sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate.
The application for a special master is seen by many experts as having no legal benefit and is possibly a delaying tactic. Meantime, the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, will
advise senior lawmakers on the potential risk to national security posed by top secret documents being kept at Trump's Florida home. CNN's White House reporter Natasha Bertrand has more.
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NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: CNN has learned that the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, confirmed to lawmakers on Friday that the Intelligence Committee is working together with the Justice Department to review all relevant documents retrieved from former president Trump's Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
In a letter to the House Oversight and House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Haines said her office and DOJ are conducting a classification review of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
She also noted that the Intel Community will conduct, quote, "an assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents."
The letter came after several lawmakers called for the Intelligence Community to carry out this kind of damage assessment. And notably, it was sent the same day the FBI affidavit was released.
That revealed that Trump kept documents at his home that appear to include information about human sources, and other extremely sensitive intel sources and methods.
Now, according to that affidavit, the FBI's preliminary review of 15 boxes that Trump returned earlier this year revealed that 184 of these documents contained classified markings. Including 67 that were marked as "confidential," 92 marked as "secret" and 25 marked as "top secret."
Some of the documents retrieved even had "HCS" markings, which, according to the office of the director of National Intelligence, are designed to protect, quote, "exceptionally fragile and unique human intelligence operations and methods."
Now, Trump and his allies have given numerous and sometimes conflicting explanations for why he kept the documents, including that the former president has issued some kind of blanket declassification order before he left office.
Now the FBI did acknowledge that argument in the affidavit but the rest of that section is redacted. So it is not yet clear why they cited it -- Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Washington.
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VAUSE: And allies of the former president are dismissing the Justice Department's affidavit which led to the search. They say it is all politically motivated. CNN's Kristen Holmes has those details.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The reaction from Trump world has fallen into one of three categories, the first one being that public outrage and pushback. That's where you saw the former president Trump taking to his social media page, saying a total and public relations subterfuge by the FBI and the DOJ.
We heard from many of his allies publicly saying this was political and a witch hunt. Then you had the second category, Trump allies who went through this, people we have been talking to the last several days, who are genuinely concerned that Trump is in legal peril.
They're worried about the competence of his legal team and worried that this time is different and this time he doesn't have the same protections he had when he was in the executive office.
The last category that -- and these are people I spoke about, five of them, former staffers at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, who said that they were not at all surprised, that, in these documents, there were newspaper clippings and photographs and presidential correspondence.
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K. HOLMES: There were classified documents, documents that were unmarked, unfoldered, in essentially the wrong place. And they said this was because of Trump's recordkeeping in the White House and then, again, in Mar-a-Lago.
They said he was known to walk around and pick stuff up from one box, put it into another, that there was no rhyme or reason to it. He would rifle through papers. They said he was known to write on some of the documents, even when aides told him not to.
He would pick up a piece of paper being set aside and write notes on it to himself. So none of this came as a big shock. Another source told me one other example of this, I thought this was a good way to look at the way the system works.
Trump would keep some of these records close to him so he could show them off. And one example were those love letters, the correspondence with Kim Jong-un.
But again, another look at how there was not really a system in place and, again, this goes to a larger picture here of what they discovered, the sheer volume of documents. But this is one part of that, that his former staffers, former aides were not surprised to see.
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VAUSE: Our thanks to Kristen Holmes for that report.
Rivers continue rising ever higher in the state of Mississippi. Governor Tate Reeves declaring a state of emergency Saturday in anticipation of more heavy rains. The Pearl River, which runs through the heart of Jackson, the capital, expected to rise 36 feet late Sunday night. Jackson's mayor has a dire warning for residents.
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LUMUMBA: If you are capable of getting out now, get out now. Get out as soon as possible to prevent any incident or challenge with people trying to leave the area all at once. It is possible for approximately 100 to 150 homes to be impacted by this year's event.
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VAUSE: A fast burning wildfire near Spokane sparked a level 3 evacuation on Friday, which meant drop everything and leave now. Some residents say they were caught off guard by the sudden announcement.
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RYAN OLETZKE, EVACUEE: I had a friend text me and said, hey, did you know there is a fire behind your house?
So I hopped out in the yard, kind of looked back, didn't know; checked the internet and saw it was level 1. And then my wife and our kids were away and we just met back here. And you just told us it is level 3.
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OLETZKE: So, yes, time for us to leave, I think.
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VAUSE: Evacuation orders have now been downgraded as of Saturday night. The fire was 10 percent contained. At last report no buildings or structures have been lost.
In Oregon, the Rum Creek fire has grown to more than 4,000 acres south of Eugene, prompting the county sheriff to urge residents to leave. Strong winds pushed it to the south and to the east. One firefighter died when he was struck by a tree on Thursday.
Still ahead, flirting with disaster in Ukraine. Renewed shelling around Europe's largest nuclear power plant underscores why U.N. inspectors need to be allowed onto the site with great urgency.
Also, in Libya's worst violence in years, deadly clashes between rival militias raising fears the country is spiraling toward greater turmoil.
And we're a little more than a day away from the Artemis I rocket launch.
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VAUSE: Ongoing shelling around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant continues to raise fears of a nuclear disaster and adding urgency to calls for inspectors to be allowed access. The facility remains under Russian control while Ukrainian technicians keep the plant in operation.
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VAUSE: On Thursday it was knocked off the power grid for a day after artillery fire was blamed for damage to a power line.
Russian officials are telling state media they're prepared for any scenario at the plant, including potential massive evacuations. The IAEA said they hope to lead a team of experts to the site within days. For more, let's go live to London and Salma Abdelaziz for more on it.
There is a potential risk of a meltdown that could affect all of Europe, possibly the world. Others are saying, hang on; not so fast. There could be a problem but a local issue, not going beyond Ukraine's border.
What could potentially go wrong here?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think regard of the back and forth of the accusations, the idea that a nuclear power plant, the largest complex of its kind in Europe, is essentially part of the battlefield right now. It's highly concerning to not just Ukraine but the international community at large.
Just in the last 24 hours, Ukraine and Russia trading accusations that each side is shelling around that nuclear power plant. You had, of course, as you mentioned, last week, the power plant being cut off from the grid, cut off from electricity. And for the first time in its history its emergency services needed to be powered on.
Those needed to come on to keep the nuclear reactors cool, to avert the possibility of nuclear disaster. You pointed to President Zelenskyy, who has time and time again accused Russia of bringing the world one step closer to the possibility of a huge nuclear disaster.
Now let's just go through the history of what has happened in the last few months with this. This power plant was seized by Russian forces in the spring. They held control of it since that time, while Ukrainian engineers, Ukrainian workers on the ground, kept it running.
It has been reconnected to the power grid. So there is some semblance of calm there. But Ukraine is saying that Russia is essentially using this power plant as a military base, as a firing point, using it as an artillery position to hit back at Ukrainian forces, knowing full well that Ukrainian troops can't fire back on the plant without the possibility of a meltdown, of a disaster.
So this visit that is expected this week from the IAEA is an extremely important one, one that President Zelenskyy has been pleading for, one that the international community has called for and one that Russia is welcoming.
But what you're hearing over and over again from the international community is this visit will be able to ascertain the working conditions there, how well the plant is being run.
But what is really needed is to take this plant out of the battle zone, to demilitarize that area. That's something that Russia has said it is absolutely not willing to do at this time, John.
VAUSE: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you. Appreciate that.
After six months of fighting, the war in Ukraine seems to have reached a stalemate. Front lines have barely moved in weeks, if not months, and plans for a full Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south has yet to fully materialize.
Earlier I spoke with the former Ukrainian defense minister about what the country still needs and why the counteroffensive may look different than expected.
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ANDRIY ZAGORODNYUK, CHAIRMAN, CENTER FOR DEFENSE STRATEGIES: We do have manpower; the key problem is weapons. We still don't have enough weapons, which we've been asking to provide us. That includes artillery and multiple rocket launchers, most of all. That's something which is still -- we don't have in sufficient numbers.
But from the other side, we need to understand that a counteroffensive may not take place in the traditional sense. What we do right now, we decrease the capacity and capabilities of the enemy, of Russia.
And as soon as we see that this is a degree sufficiently enough, then we can do the next step. But currently we are destroying their weapons, destroying their positions on a daily basis, including in the Kherson area.
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VAUSE: Andriy Zagorodnyuk speaking with me earlier.
Deadly clashes in Tripoli are raising fears of Libya's instability.
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VAUSE (voice-over): Gunfire and explosions echoed across the capital Saturday as the worst fighting in years erupted between rival militias. The health ministry says the clashes killed at least 23 people, left 140 hurt.
The U.N. mission in Libya says neighborhoods were hit by shelling; so, too, hospitals, destroying dozens of buildings and homes.
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VAUSE: For more on this, CNN's Nada Bashir joins us. What do we know about how this latest round of fighting actually
kicked off?
It has been a slow boil for quite some time now.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. These clashes, these tensions have been simmering for some time now. This really centers on a months-long political standoff between two rival factions in Libya.
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BASHIR: You have the internationally recognized U.N. backed government of national unity based in Tripoli, led by the prime minister in the capital, rivaling the eastern base administration, which has appointed its own prime minister.
We saw back in May the allied forces in a failed attempt to seize control of the capital entering Tripoli and attempting to take back territory there. And since that failed attempt, we have seen simmering tensions between the two factions, clashes in other parts of the country.
And we have, of course, seen those eastern allied militias mobilizing around the capital. This really all came to a head on Saturday and in the last few days, where we have seen those militias entering the capital from multiple directions and launching attacks against those militias and fighters allied to the U.N.-backed GNU.
Now this has really raised serious concerns because we have seen some semblance of peace in Tripoli, at least for the last two years, as the country attempted to push forward with the U.N. brokered peace initiative.
This has raised concerns that this will push the country back into a state of sustained violence and clashes between rival militias. We heard from the United Nations yesterday, calling on all parties to return to open political dialogue.
But of course, those clashes continue and there are real fears that this could indeed spread beyond Tripoli. Now at this stage, this has had an immediate consequence, quite devastating consequence, as you laid out there; at least 23 people killed, more than 140 people injured.
But we heard from the GNU leader last night. He shared a video on Twitter of his visit to the capital speaking to fighters, allied to the GNU, commending them really for their work in what he described as defending the capital, defending the country.
He also commemorated those who had lost their lives. But he gave a stark warning to members of the opposition, saying the GNU remains committed to democratic elections and the time for political coups is long gone, that anybody attempting to seize control of Tripoli, of Libya, by any means at all undemocratic, would meet his fighters in the field. We have seen these sorts of clashes before, John. Libya is no stranger
to this violence, particularly since the end of the 2011 Arab Spring. We saw the outbreak of that 2014 civil war between rival factions.
The fear now is that Libya could once again be placed in a state of political paralysis and increased violence and, of course, people in Tripoli are fearful for the security and safety of their city.
Many have been unable to leave their homes as a result of these clashes. The call from members of the international community is for all parties to join a cease-fire and return to peace, to return to negotiations and to establish some sort of lasting political resolution -- John.
VAUSE: Nada Bashir with the latest from London.
In Argentina, 14 police officers have been hurt as dozens of people crowded the streets, showing support for former president and current vice president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. According to local media reports, four protesters were arrested.
This comes days after prosecutors called for Fernandez to be sentenced to 12 years in prison and banned from public office for alleged corruption while she was president.
Two Navy cruisers are passing through the Taiwan Strait, a routine transit. The ships are on a course which the U.S. says is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state and in accordance with international law.
In the past, Beijing protested when U.S. warships transited through the strait. This time they say they're monitoring, ready to thwart any provocation. Tensions have been high in the region after a visit to Taiwan by the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month. China responded by holding rounds of military exercises.
Still to come on CNN, Joe Biden following through on a campaign promise to forgive some student debt.
And they got caught up in a political game between red states and blue states. Migrants loaded into buses in Texas, sent to northeastern cities. We're following one family's journey after the break.
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VAUSE: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause here in Los Angeles, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
U.S. President Joe Biden's long awaited plan to cancel student debt is drawing mixed reaction from across the country. CNN's Ryan Young has our report.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my campaign for president, I made a commitment --
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden's announcement canceling student loan debt for millions of Americans created instant strong reactions. Is it too much or not enough?
What's your initial reaction when you heard that finally being announced?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like great, that means I don't have to pay on what I owe this less.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a lot of money given out to a small segment of the population and they didn't do anything to really deserve it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have mixed emotions about it.
YOUNG: For a small business owner, Bryan Lonsberry, the forgiveness plan isn't the right move. His family tighten their budget to make sure they kept paying their loans during the pandemic.
BRYAN LONSBERRY, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: We have done the sacrifices, the no-vacations and no out to eat. And now, I'm on the other side. And the reason it upsets me so much is are we setting the good example --
YOUNG: Bryan believes that the students should think about the financial impact before taking out giant loans that will affect their futures.
LONSBERRY: It's a little upsetting that we kept pain and struggled and through everything and then other people just gave up and quit and I wasn't raised to quit.
YOUNG: The president's plan could affect up to 43 million Americans and forgives federal loan debt of up to $10,000 for people making less than $125,000 a year. 27 million Americans with Pell Grants will be forgiven up to $20,000.
According to the White House, over 45 percent of borrowers or roughly 20 million people will have their debt fully canceled. It's a plan, President Biden first spoke about on the campaign trail.
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BIDEN: I'm going to make sure that everybody in this generation gets $10,000 knocked off of their student debt.
It was Mateo Gomez, who asked candidate Biden about his plans to help Americans, his age, achieve their dreams. MATEO GOMEZ, BARRY UNIVERSITY GRADUATE: I was asking him overall, does the American Dream still exist?
YOUNG: He points to the president delivering on a campaign promise despite wondering if more can be done.
GOMEZ: This is a first step for something. When looking at the campaign promise, he did say that. So I could say check.
YOUNG: As the president's plan continues to receive mixed reaction, one thing is clear, the high cost of college is something many believe needs immediate attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Education is so expensive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to get back to the core of why a school so expensive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like that there's a bigger problem on the cost of education.
YOUNG: As former students digested president's move to cancel billions in loans. For some, it's a welcome relief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the debt, I'm paying back the debt. So I will take it and keep it moving.
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VAUSE: CNN's Ryan Young with that report.
In what is perhaps one of the most heartless political stunts in recent times, the governor of Texas has sent nearly 9,000 migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C., in recent months, a not so subtle criticism of the Biden administration's immigration policies.
Governor Greg Abbott says it gives relief to overwhelmed border communities in his state and says the White House is ultimately to blame for refusing to secure the border.
What about the migrants themselves, the people?
How are they coping with an arduous move?
CNN's Polo Sandoval spoke with members of a Venezuelan family that was bused to New York.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The number of families seeking asylum in New York City, it is a number that continues to grow. Meanwhile, many of these family families are quickly learning the hardships they've experienced, they are far from over, even after arriving in New York City.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): To get merely an idea of what many of the people stepping off these border buses in New York City have experienced, just look at the images they're willing to share.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're resting here in order to continue our journey.
SANDOVAL: This video taken by Chrisman Urbaez and his partner, Anabel Gonzalez, earlier this summer. The young Venezuelan couple kept a video diary during their two-month, 10-country journey from Lima, Peru, to New York City.
They carried only their few belongings on their backs and occasionally their 6- and 9-year olds as they trekked through the infamous Darien Gap linking South and Central America.
It's a place where the northerly path for many migrants often ends in tragedy but not for this family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We made it. We made it alive. We made it, thank God.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): During the rest of their journey north, they swaddled their dog Max (ph), still a pup at the time, like a baby to sneak him onto buses and into hotels, fearing that they would be separated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There goes Sebastian and Criszanyelis.
SANDOVAL: But the actual blood, sweat and tears were all worth it for this moment, as they recount, the day they waded across the Rio Grande and onto U.S. soil for the first time, officially requesting asylum. After a brief stop in Texas, it was onto a bus and the three-day drive to New York City where they wait for the asylum cases to be heard.
What was your first impression of New York?
Anabel tells me reality set in once they reached the urban jungle that is their new home, that as much they want to start earning a living, they can't.
You see, they're among the thousands of recently arrived migrants who have to petition for a work permit after submitting asylum applications. It's a process that is taking up to a year according to New York City leaders.
Chrisman says he hopes the government can help him be a better provider for his family but more than anything else, he's pleading for the federal government to free his hands of the red tape that's keeping him from working legally.
MANUEL CASTRO, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR'S OFFICE OF IMMIGRATION AFFAIRS: Most of the families that I've spoken to, they want to get to work. They don't want to stay in shelters. They want to contribute to society.
SANDOVAL: Immigration Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro, an immigrant himself, echoing calls for a fast track solution. CASTRO: Immigration advocates across the country are calling on the
federal government to make it easier and make it quicker for asylum seekers to obtain their work permits. That's by far the biggest obstacle.
SANDOVAL: The Urbaez family says they won't risk their asylum cases by working off the books. They'll have to depend on the city's already strained shelter system until they can get the government's green light to start living their American dream.
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SANDOVAL: New York governor Kathy Hochul expressing interest in assisting these migrants but also calling on President Joe Biden to issue some form of executive action that would allow her to do that.
These families certainly well aware of the fact that, the sooner they can provide for themselves, the sooner they can pull themselves out of the New York City shelter system that is already nearly at capacity -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Brazil's presidential campaign is in full swing.
How do we know this?
Because president Jair Bolsonaro is seen riding a horse around the arena during Latin America's biggest cowboy festival in Sao Paulo. During the festival, he praised Brazil's agriculture industry for putting the country on the global stage. He will face off with his main rival in a debate on Sunday night.
No horses, no hats.
A humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, the death toll is rising from the climate crisis in Pakistan.
Also in other parts of the world, intense heat, record drought, millions suffering with food and water in short supply. More on those details when we return.
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VAUSE: Pakistan's flood crisis goes from bad to worse. More than 1,000 people dead from devastating floods, including 348 children; an estimated 33 million people in total have been affected by this.
Pakistan's minister of climate change posted these images online. Officials telling her that bridge was built five meters higher than the one destroyed 12 years ago in a superflood. She says the current floods are a climate-induced disaster of epic
proportions. While some are dealing with flooding, others suffer from a different type of extreme weather, drought, making life difficult but also at the same time uncovering some ancient treasures. Here's CNN Michael Holmes.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of Europe's largest rivers, the Rhine in Germany, dehydrated and shallow. Swaths of farmland in northern Mexico parched, dotted with dead livestock.
Millions in the Horn of Africa facing starvation, aid agencies warn. From Europe to the Americas to Africa to northern Asia, extreme heat waves and little rain is impacting communities thousands of kilometers apart.
After a month or more of unrelenting droughts across much of the Northern Hemisphere. But amid the global hardship and scenes of devastation, blistering temperatures and water shortages are also revealing prehistoric secrets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see claw marks.
M. HOLMES (voice-over): Emerging from the receding waters of the Paluxy River in Texas, dinosaur tracks, thought to be 113 million years old. The prints have been long preserved by sediment underwater. But amid ongoing drought in the southern U.S. state, they are now visible for what is likely the first time.
JEFF DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT, DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK: It's kind of a double-edged sword. Without the river, we wouldn't be able to see them, wouldn't know they were there. But once they're exposed, that's when they start to degrade, just like any other rocks. They're going to break down over time.
M. HOLMES (voice-over): Another ancient site revealed in a diminished reservoir in Spain, as the country battles its worst drought in decades. Dubbed the Spanish Stonehenge, this vertically arranged stone formation is thought to have been created by humans roughly 7,000 years ago.
And as drought drags on in China, another rare sight: receding waters of the Yangtze River uncovering ancient Buddhist statues, thought to be hundreds of years old.
GU YUNFENG, CHONGQING RESIDENT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I think the reason why our ancestors built this was because they wanted to pray for a peaceful world and a beautiful country. I hope that wish can be passed on forever. I hope the water levels can go up naturally and we may have a peaceful and healthy world and country.
M. HOLMES (voice-over): Ancient discoveries among the rare benefits of blistering temperatures and water scarcity wreaking havoc across the globe, one small consolation for millions, who are suffering in the new extremes of an increasingly warming world -- Michael Holmes, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, Afghanistan was suffering from a prolonged drought long before the Taliban surged back into power last year. Now they're reeling from deadly floods. Nearly 200 people dead after weeks of severe flooding.
Taliban officials say hundreds more have been injured and thousands of homes destroyed. They're appealing to the international community to send emergency assistance as well as long-term aid.
Wildfires burning in southwest China are mostly contained. Volunteers worked with firefighters to bring them under control. Severe drought and the hottest weather in decades helped spark the blaze; 1,500 people were forced to leave their homes but no injuries or deaths have been reported.
Still ahead here, we're a little more than a day away from the launch of Artemis I. We'll get an expert's view in just a moment.
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MIKE SARAFIN, ARTEMIS MISSION MANAGER: We're mindful this is a test flight. And we're mindful this is a purposeful stress test of the Orion spacecraft.
It is a new rocket and a new spacecraft to send humans to the moon on the very next flight. This is something that has not been done in over 50 years and is incredibly difficult.
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VAUSE: Artemis I mission manager there, Mike Sarafin, on the upcoming lunar mission. So right now, a little more than a day away from this uncrewed launch, it has been five decades since the last Apollo mission. Now the U.S. space agency is planning this historic return to the moon. CNN's Kristin Fisher has details.
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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a long time since NASA has had its own candle to light.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift off. FISHER: Eleven years since the last space shuttle launch, 50 years since the last launch of the Apollo program.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Eagle has landed.
FISHER: But now, Apollo's mythological twin sister, Artemis, is on the launch pad and ready to fly.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: To all of us that gaze up at the moon, dreaming of the day humankind returns to the lunar surface, folks, we're here.
FISHER: The Artemis rocket or SLS, is years behind schedule, billions overbudget. But it's also the most powerful rocket ever built. It's designed to launch people even deeper into space than the moon.
REID WISEMAN, CHIEF NASA ASTRONAUT: Our sights are not set on the moon. Our sights are set firmly on Mars.
FISHER: But first, it has to pass this test flight with only mannequins on board. Artemis I will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But Mission Control is at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Mission Control, Houston.
FISHER: The same place that controlled every Apollo and shuttle mission.
RICK LABRODE, LEAD FLIGHT DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS I MISSION: This is where it all happens as far as human space flight.
FISHER: Rick LaBrode is in charge of it all as lead flight director. He and his team have been training for this for years.
LABRODE: Flight day is a whole different ballgame. It's when it really gets real.
FISHER: After launch, the SLS rocket will separate from the Orion crew capsule on top. Orion will fly a quarter million miles to the moon and then go 40,000 miles beyond it. Farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has ever flown.
LABRODE: We're going to swing by the moon. And when we swing by it on the way there, we'll be 60 miles off the surface. It will be incredible. The pictures we get as we go by are going to be really impressive.
FISHER: After orbiting the moon for two weeks, Orion will head back to earth, hitting speeds of 25,000 miles per hour and temperatures half the surface of the sun, something engineers can't replicate here on earth.
LABRODE: The number one highest priority for the mission is to test the heat shield.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff of space shuttle Columbia.
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FISHER (voice-over): It was a damaged heat shield that caused Columbia to burn up on reentry, killing seven astronauts. Testing it before astronauts fly on Artemis II is crucial.
VICTOR GLOVER, NASA ASTRONAUT: For me, Artemis I is exciting. But it's really a steppingstone to get humans back to the moon.
FISHER: Victor Glover is one of 40 astronauts in the running to fly on Artemis II and Artemis III.
GLOVER: We explore for all people and now we can actually say with all people.
FISHER: As of now, weather conditions are 70 percent favorable for launch on Monday according to the U.S. Space Force. But this is Florida in August. There are tons of thunderstorms.
And today we got a really bad one rolling through the deputy space center. It was so bad that lightning actually hit the launch pad with the Artemis rocket sitting on top of it. And a NASA official says lightning towers around the launch pad appeared to do their job and protect the rocket.
But there is a team assessing if there was any damage. We hope to get an answer if that will impact whether or not this rocket can indeed attempt its first flight on Monday -- Kristin Fisher, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN aviation and aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien joins me from Pecos, Texas.
Thank you for being with us.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Good to see you.
VAUSE: Nine hours and 40 minutes before launch time; late Sunday night, early Monday morning.
Who makes the call, who are the factors which could determine, if it is a no call, if they don't go ahead?
O'BRIEN: There is a lot of things that could go wrong with a rocket, for sure. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the first female flight director in NASA history, is the person in the hot seat.
She'll be making those calls all along the way, listening to her team, who are looking at a myriad of instrumentation attached to that rocket, seeing if any of the pieces and parts are going wrong. There is a particular thing they'll be looking at. When they did the
dress rehearsal several months ago, there was a hydrogen leak, which -- they did the countdown right to that moment, were unable to resolve it on the pad.
And so they're going to be checking that out a couple of hours before T-zero and launch. And hopefully that hydrogen leak will have abated. But there is any number of other things that can go wrong in the world of space as you well know, John.
VAUSE: And Orion, the white shiny capsule on top of the rocket, where all the astronauts will be there for manned flights, it's being sent into the space as is?
I believe they're relying on backup systems, because there was a faulty power component that engineers discovered a ways back.
How does that work?
O'BRIEN: Well, they're leaning forward on this, is the way they're saying. There is no people on board. And so this does provide them an opportunity to -- the term NASA uses is buy down risk.
They would take more chances they would than if they were strapping people inside; stands to reason. This is about wringing out that Orion capsule as best as possible and, most importantly, seeing if the heat shield works really well as it reenters after its mission to the moon.
So they're going to overlook some things that would not result in the complete loss of the vehicle and press on, because they want this test flight to occur.
VAUSE: How important is the heat shield?
There seems to be a lot of focus on that.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, that -- as we all can recall, when we lost the Columbia crew in 2003, if there is a breach in the heat shield, it is catastrophic.
This particular capsule will be entering the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 25,000 miles an hour. The shuttle was about 17,500 miles an hour. I'll let you convert to kilometers. I apologize for not having done that.
But the point is, it is coming in a lot faster. That means it will be a lot hotter. And so they have a very sophisticated heat shield, a lot of instrumentation laced through it, to make sure it will do the job when people are on board. That is the number one priority of this mission, to make sure that heat shield does the job.
VAUSE: There are a lot of numbers when it comes to Artemis and one number which stood out, just over $4 billion, what the cost is every time there is an Artemis mission launched into space. That is an incredible amount of money. O'BRIEN: Gobsmacking amount of money. The inspector general's office
for NASA estimated the total cost of Artemis from 2012 to 2025 will be $93 billion. This is a gold-plated rocket, John.
It was sold to all of us as being cheaper and faster because it had a lot of leftover shuttle parts that are a part of it. It is anything but cheaper and faster. It has been a long haul to get to this point and way too expensive.
And meanwhile, Elon Musk at SpaceX, with his heavy lift rocket, which has moon and Mars ambitions, he claims he can do each launch for all of $10 million. So do the math on that. I think we're seeing, frankly, the end of an era here for this sort of rocket built by NASA on these very lucrative cost plus contracts.
VAUSE: Miles, great to have you with us.
[05:55:00]
VAUSE: We really appreciate your insights and your experience. Enjoy Pecos, Texas, thanks so much.
O'BRIEN: You're most welcome, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Please head over to cnn.com for an interactive look at this historic launch, scroll through the big numbers, from travel to temperatures it will endure to make the Artemis I mission such a monumental feat.
And the first female launch director at NASA's launch control center for the Artemis liftoff will lead the countdown for Monday's launch and for the other Artemis missions, including the one that will take the first woman to the moon.
She was a college senior more than 30 years ago the first time she visited the historically male dominated Kennedy Space Center for the launch of Discovery.
Before we go, a sweet way to celebrate NASA's launch of the Artemis I, Krispy Kreme Artemis moon doughnut will be available on Monday, the day of the launch.
Go out and get them. It is a cheesecake, creme-filled doughnut dipped in cookies and cream icing with a swirl of cookies pieces. Krispy Kreme has a history of missions to the moon. Its doughnuts were sold at NASA's Kennedy Space Center when the Apollo 11 lifted off in 1969.
I'm John Vause in Los Angeles. The news in North America, "NEW DAY," is next. Thanks for watching.
