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U.S. Forces Launched Fifth Round of Strikes on Houthi's in Yemen; Communication Blackout Continues in Gaza; Netanyahu Opposes Push for Palestinian State; IDF Razing Cemeteries in Gaza; Russia Intercepts Ukrainian Drones, Ukraine Allies Creates Artillery Coalition; North Korea to End Reconciliation with South Korea; Trump's Legal Team Urge Supreme Court to Rule on Colorado Ballot; Ecuador Police Arrest Two Suspect Over Killing of Prosecutor; Ecuador Gang Violence Wave Prompts 60-Day State Of Emergency; Peregrine Lunar Lander Burns Up After Failed Space Flight. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired January 19, 2024 - 02:00 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 HOST: And welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on "CNN Newsroom." More than a dozen cemeteries in Gaza are targeted by the Israeli military. Why the IDF says it hasn't even exhumed bodies.
Ecuador cracks down on criminal groups detailing more than 2,000 people launching a major prison operation.
And this image captured by the Peregrine Moon lander just moments before its fiery end in the South Pacific. Why some say it wasn't a complete failure.
For the fifth time in a week, the U.S. has struck Houthi targets inside Yemen in hopes of stopping their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. U.S. Central Command says its forces destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed at the critical waterway that were prepared to launch.
The White House National Security Council spokesperson says the ongoing strikes are, quote, "taking away capability from the Iran- backed militants." The Houthis spokesperson said the group won't stop going after vessels they believe are linked to Israel and called the attacks by the U.S. and U.K. a persistent act of aggression. The U.S. president admitted Thursday that the Houthis remain undeterred. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, when you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Gaza is under a near total communications blockade that's been going on for more than a week now. Now, that's happening as Israel presses ahead with its military offensive there. Most phone and data connections are down, which aid workers say makes it nearly impossible to do their job.
Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again pushed back on U.S. calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state once the war with Hamas is over, a plan which Netanyahu has long opposed. And during a news conference Thursday, he argued Palestinian sovereignty would pose a serious risk to Israel's security.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translation): Any agreement, with or without agreement, the state of Israel must control security between the Jordan River to the sea. And the clashes of the sovereignty idea, I'm telling our American friends, I stopped at a reality which would have hurt the security of Israel. The Prime Minister of Israel should have the ability to say no, even to our greatest friends, when he has to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Well, the U.S. State Department says Israel's long-term security is impossible without an independent Palestinian state. A department spokesperson also said this.
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MATTHEW MILLER, SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: There is a historic opportunity that Israel has to deal with challenges that it has faced since its founding, and we hope the country will take that opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Scott McLean has been monitoring those developments and joins us now from Istanbul. And Scott, certainly Netanyahu's comments, I mean, it's his consistent position, but they're still causing quite a stir at this particular moment.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPOINDENT: Yeah, and we've already gotten some reaction from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and his spokesperson, which says that, look, security in that region is not possible without a Palestinian state. And Abbas's office is also putting some responsibility or some blame for the deteriorating security situation on the Americans because they say that America has simply blindly supported Israel's occupation.
Obviously, this is complicating and this is creating a new rift between the United States and Israel as well. President Biden and the Americans are frustrated increasingly that Israel seems to be quite happy to take American support but not necessarily always take its advice. You also have Prime Minister Netanyahu under pressure at home. He is facing protests over hostages. His personal popularity has sunk to new lows as well.
And of course, his coalition government relies on the support of Israel's far right, some people who, frankly, didn't ever support the two-state solution. People like his national security minister who's openly advocated for Israel annexing the Palestinian territories.
One former Israeli diplomat, Alon Pinkas, said that, look, Netanyahu is making these comments now for domestic consumption to satisfy his base at home. Obviously, President Biden has a range of options in response. He could publicly call out Netanyahu saying that he's not being a very good ally. He could also much more drastically condition U.S. support for Israel.
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But so far, American officials aren't really doing any of those options. Instead, they're content seemingly to just brush this off, saying that look Netanyahu has made these kinds of comments in the past and then later walked them back so they don't expect this to be the final word on it.
One U.S. lawmaker, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, came out of a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Ben Cardin came away with this conclusion. Listen.
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SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): We recognize that statements are made sometimes for whatever reasons they're made. We don't deny the challenges we have with the prime minister on this issue and the politics in Israel. But we think that there will be a new day once Israel is successful in eliminating the threat from Hamas. And at that time, we believe there's opportunities to move forward with peace in the region, which includes two states living side by side in peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: The difficulty though is that Netanyahu, at least in his press conference yesterday, Kim, gave no indication that Israel would be willing to quickly give back control of Gaza to Palestinians. He said that he will not settle until there's complete victory, and that means the demilitarization of Gaza. It means the full security control over Gaza by Israel and obviously Israel controlling everything that goes in and comes out. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Alright, so thanks so much Scott McLean in Istanbul. Appreciate that.
Earlier this week, Israel Defense Forces exhumed graves and removed bodies from a cemetery in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Officials told CNN it was part of the effort to find the bodies of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. It was not the only cemetery in Gaza damaged during the conflict. CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond has more and we just want to warn you, some of the -- some of it you may find some of the following images disturbing.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Gaza, even the dead cannot escape the indignities of war. More than a dozen cemeteries like this one in Jabalia, desecrated by the Israeli military. Gravestones destroyed, soil upturned, tread marks leaving little left for the living to honor their dead.
This is that same graveyard before the war. One month later, a series of tread marks can be seen on the northwestern edge. It is no exception. A CNN analysis of videos and satellite imagery found that 16 cemeteries have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli military since it launched its ground offensive.
As Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza, they crushed the graves of thousands of Palestinians between November and January. Janina Dill, co-director of Oxford University's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict, says destroying graveyards violates international law except under very limited circumstances.
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JANINA DILL, CO-DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS, LAW, AND ARMED CONFLICT, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Cemeteries are not military objectives. They are in fact what international law would consider an object that is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, like places of worship generally. So, this is protected from intentional attack. It can only be intentionally attacked or destroyed if it becomes a military objective.
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DIAMOND (voice-over): In some cases, like this cemetery in the Shajaiyeh refugee camp, Israeli bulldozers turn cemeteries into military outposts, parking armored vehicles behind freshly raised berms. The damage is often deliberate and progressive. Over two weeks in December, the military bulldozed more and more of this cemetery east of Khan Younis, building defensive fortifications.
CNN witnessed first-hand the results of Israel's bulldozing of graveyards while embedded with Israeli forces last week. The armored personnel carrier CNN was traveling in drove right through this cemetery in Al-Bureij, on a freshly bulldozed dirt road. And then there's this. Tombs opened at a cemetery in Khan Younis this week, bodies removed from their graves.
In a statement, the Israeli military acknowledged exhuming bodies from the cemetery as part of its search for the bodies of Israeli hostages. An IDF spokesman could not account for the damage to the 16 cemeteries identified by CNN, but said that in some cases there is no other choice, providing this photo of what it says is a Hamas rocket launcher at a cemetery in Gaza.
CNN could not independently verify where it was taken. The spokesman could not account for the military posts over graveyards, but said, we have a serious obligation to the respect of the dead, and there is no policy to create military posts out of graveyards.
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In at least one case, the Israeli military appears to have taken pains to maneuver around a graveyard. The Deir el-Balah War Cemetery, which holds the remains of many Christian and Jewish soldiers from World War I, left intact despite devastation all around.
At the Al-Tuffah cemetery, a very different picture. Residents say bodies were uprooted by Israeli bulldozers.
UNKNOWN (through translation): We are currently retrieving the corpses of the martyrs that are present in the cemetery. The occupation forces have run over most of them with their bulldozers, and we've only identified a small number of corpses and martyrs. As for the rest, their identities remain unknown.
DIAMOND (voice-over): South Africa cited Israel's destruction of cemeteries as part of its case, arguing Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies the allegation, but experts say cemetery destruction could be evidence of Israel's intent.
DILL: There's huge symbolic meaning to the notion that not even the dead are left in peace. It suggests that disrespect towards the kind of spiritual life of your enemy, their cultural property and heritage, it's evidence of an animus against your enemy that is unhelpful in this context.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli military is still desecrating graves in Gaza. At the Khan Younis cemetery where the military dug up bodies this week, the damage is extensive and all too familiar. Tombs destroyed, shrouded bodies sticking out of the soil, the dead roused from their final rest. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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BRUNHUBER: Alright, I want to bring in Yaakov Katz from Jerusalem. He's a senior columnist at the "Jerusalem Post" and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. Thanks so much for being on with us again. So, I want to go back to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments. I mean, what do you make of them and what that might mean given that Hamas has promised there can be no peace without a path to statehood? Are we just sort of back to the beginning here?
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Well, I think Israel is still searching for that victory, right? Hamas has to be removed from power in Gaza for there to be security and safety for Israel along its borders. And I would even say, Kim, for the Palestinians to have a future of their own independence state or as long as there is a terrorist entity that is willing to massacre children, men and women the way they did in October 7th and continue to hold on to Israeli hostages.
I was listening to the news before in that segment about the cemeteries, I don't understand what the world expects of Israel, right? They are holding onto 136 of our people. Of course, we're going to search for them potentially in cemeteries. This is part of the hunt for the citizens who were taken from their beds on that day of October 7th and brought to tunnels and to dark places in Gaza.
What Netanyahu is saying is that Hamas has to be removed from power for there to be security and safety, but I agree with you, is that Israel does need to articulate some sort of day after plan, a political resolution, and that Israel has yet to do. And that is what I think is causing some of that tension right now between the international community and the state of Israel.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so I want to ask you about that plan, but first talking about the international community here, as we heard, you know, Netanyahu's comments are in stark contrast to the Biden administration's position. What ramifications could this have? After all, Israel needs U.S. aid and weapons and Israel is already losing support among left-leaning Democrats and the GOP is becoming more and more isolationist?
KATZ: This is a big balancing act or very delicate and Netanyahu needs to somehow walk together with his government. Let's remember that on the right of Netanyahu, he has coalition partners who do not want to hear even the slightest talk of the prospect of an independent Palestinian state or the two-state solution which is what the Biden administration, the president continues talk about that. Secretary Blinken was here just a few days ago, continues talk about that.
So that is definitely the diplomatic horizon that the Americans want, but politically in Israel it's not digestible at the moment and that's why I think we're hearing Netanyahu say, I'm not going to give up Hamastan in Gaza to create a Fatahstan reference to the Palestinian Authority. And that is acceptable politically in Israel right now because yes, Israelis after October 7th have moved to the right.
But we do have to keep in mind is that Israel does need American support. We need American support for spare parts for our aircraft, for munitions, for the continued delivery of those supplies, for the diplomatic cover that the U.S. provides Israel to the United Nations and other places. Israel does not want to be isolated around the world.
Israel does not want to be seen as a country that is overly dependent on one of its partners like the United States that wants to remain a two-way street in that diplomatic and military alliance that it has.
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And therefore, Netanyahu is having a difficult time juggling his political troubles together with the need to preserve that intense and very important relationship with the United States.
BRUNHUBER: Alright, so on the plan, I want to touch on a provocative interview that aired with a member of Israel's war cabinet, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, who's been involved in the decision making in this war. And one of the things that he said was that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's responsibility for the October 7th attack is, quote, "sharp and clear," but also, he said that there has to be a vision for how to wind down the war, like he just said. And so far, there doesn't seem to be that kind of plan. Why is that do you think?
KATZ: Well, you know, Kim, that it was the famous military theorist, Clausewitz, who said that military action is only a means for political resolution. I think everyone gets that, but Netanyahu is refusing to articulate that plan because as I mentioned before, his political challenges domestically.
Gadi Eisenkot, by the way, a former chief of staff of the IDF who lost his son, Maor Eisenkot, inside the fighting in Gaza as a soldier during this war. He did say that Netanyahu is responsible. And the reason he pointed that out is because the prime minister has until now refused to take responsibility.
He's refused to say that maybe I made mistakes, maybe I had a hand in the blindness, the strategic blindness that Israel suffered from on the eve of October 7th that allowed Hamas to penetrate our border, to go into our communities, to massacre over 1200 people on that horrific day.
And Netanyahu refuses to accept that responsibility even though he is the prime minister, the head of this government. But I think that we have to come up with what we want to see happen afterwards in Gaza. And the problem is, Kim, there aren't a lot of potential candidates to take over the Gaza Strip. I don't see people lining up and saying, hey, we want to be the ones to come in.
So, it's either going to be Israel or we're going to have to find a way to work with the Palestinian Authority and that is something that we have to prepare the ground for to get them to reform to be less corrupt, less supportive of terror, for that to even be possible.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there. But again, appreciate your analysis, Yaakov Katz. Thank you so much.
Russia says it intercepted drones deep into its territory in the early hours on Thursday. The Russian defense ministry says one drone was destroyed over the Moscow region while another was intercepted just outside St. Petersburg. The Ukrainian intelligence source tell CNN the drones hit their targets in a successful mission.
Meanwhile, local officials in Ukraine say Russian attacks killed two people and injured seven others in the southern Kherson region in the past 24 hours. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says Ukraine's allies must combine their resources to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion. Here he is.
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DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: And the statistic to remember is that if we add up our economies, we are 25 times the size of the Russian economy. All we need to do is make our economic strength show, make it pay, and we will be able to help Ukraine bring this to a conclusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: In Paris, 23 of Ukraine's allies agreed to form an artillery coalition, which will help resupply Kyiv's shrinking stockpile of weapons and ammunition.
Alright, when we come back, North Korea says it no longer wants reunification with the South. Why that's raising alarm bells and fears the North may be prepared to take advantage of global chaos. That's coming up next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: North Korea claims it has carried out a successful test of an underwater nuclear-capable drone. The test came after joint U.S., South Korean, and Japanese naval drills earlier this week, which Pyongyang described as a serious threat to national security. Now, there are growing concerns over comments by North Korea that it's no longer pursuing reconciliation with the South. It's raising fears that the North may be planning to take advantage of conflicts in other parts of the world to launch a war of its own. CNN's Will Ripley has the latest.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Korean Peninsula staring down the barrel of a catastrophic conflict. That warning from one of America's leading nuclear scientists, one of two long-time North Korea observers who say Kim Jong-un is sending signals in state media. He may be prepared to take advantage of global chaos to exploit what he sees as weakness and vulnerability between the U.S. and close allies South Korea and Japan.
SIEGFIRED S. HECKER, PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: They're talking about war. They're talking about war preparations for their country. And so, we're quite concerned.
RIPLEY (voice-over): For years, former Los Alamos Director Siegfried Hecker had unparalleled access to North Korea's highly secretive nuclear program, seeing more than almost any American. What he's seeing now, he says, reminiscent of the lead up to the catastrophic Korean war more than 70 years ago. A chilling shift in leader Kim Jong-un's strategy, far more than the usual saber-rattling.
HECKER: I think this time it's different. He may have decided that it is time to actually take some actions.
RIPLEY (voice-over): For the past 30 years, North Korea's goal was normalizing ties with the U.S. Hecker says that ended in 2019, when summit talks in Hanoi, Vietnam collapsed. Former President Donald Trump and Kim walked out humiliating and infuriating the North Korean leader, riding his armored private train back to Pyongyang, empty- handed, perhaps giving up on U.S. diplomacy, making a strategic turn towards conflict.
HECKER: He may believe that there actually -- there is some way, sort of what one would say, what's a path to victory, that he may be thinking very differently than what our conventional thinking is.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Kim's confidence may be bolstered, he says, by closer ties with China and a deepening military alliance with Russia. North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui visiting Moscow just this week, also labeling South Korea a hostile country.
CHOE SON-HUI, FOREIGN MINISTE, NORTH KOREA (through translation): This is a political provocation.
RIPLEY (voice-over): And not just political. North Korea testing a new hypersonic missile, potentially nuclear capable, adding to Kim's growing arsenal. Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
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BRUNHUBER: South Korea's Prime Minister says he isn't worried over rising tensions with North Korea. Han Duck-soo spoke with CNN's Richard Quest in Davos, brushing off comments by Pyongyang that they were no longer pursuing reconciliation with the South. Here is.
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HAN DUCK-SOO, PRIME MINISTER, SOUTH KOREA: Without those kinds of provocations, the situation might be better. But we are not so much worried because we are so much accustomed to what they are. So, two things are clear. We will open our doors and windows for negotiations, dialogue and diplomacy. But up to now, North Korea has never accepted in a very, very serious way.
So, what we will do in between is that no options, but to make clear deterrence capabilities for us to deter their threats and dissuade them to, you know, not to proliferate. And also, you know, persuade them to have more interest in dialogue and diplomacy.
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BRUNHUBER: Attorneys for Donald Trump on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision removing him from Colorado's primary ballot. They also made a startling observation.
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The state's high court had ruled that the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist ban makes Trump ineligible to run for president again. Similar efforts are underway in other states, but they're now on hold pending the Supreme Court's decision.
In their brief, Trump's team said the move's, quote, "promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado's lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots."
With New Hampshire's primary now just four days away, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made her case to voters at a CNN town hall on Thursday night. Haley said her goal next week is to do better than she did in Iowa's primary, where she placed third. Haley answered questions about a range of topics, including Trump's defense argument that being president gives him total immunity from prosecution. But here's her response.
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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, if a president is doing something and its related, you know, whether it's terrorist threats or something like that and people die, that's one thing. But do you get just total freedom to do whatever you want? No, that's never the way it was intended to be. There needs to be accountability. No one is above the law.
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BRUNHUBER: Haley is believed to be moving towards friendlier territory in New Hampshire's primary. The state's republicans are more moderate and undecided voters can participate.
Alright, up next, we'll bring you the latest from Ecuador where a political assassination and other high profile violent attacks have gripped the country.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Two suspects have been arrested in Ecuador for their alleged involvement in the assassination of prosecutor Cesar Suarez. Ecuadorian police believe the prosecutor who is focused on pursuing organized crime was targeted by a gang. Suarez's murder is the latest in a recent slew of violent incidents that have prompted a 60-day state of emergency.
So far, Ecuadorian authorities have detained more than 2,000 people since the president signed a decree crackdown on criminal activities. CNN's David Culver brings us the latest from Guayaquil.
DAVID CULVER, SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ecuador's armed forces and national police working together on Thursday to enter a large prison complex.
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Now, one military source telling us that this is part of a scheduled visit so as to search for prohibited items as well as to maintain control.
But the timing is worth noting. It's coming a day after the assassination of one of these country's prosecutors, somebody who in this province was investigating terror groups, in particular. Among the cases Cesar Suarez was tasked with investigating, the takeover of the TV studio during a live news broadcast here in Guayaquil. Now that, of course, was really what awoke much of this country, quite frankly, much of the world as to what was happening here in Ecuador.
Now all of this is sparked off in less most recent surge of violence on January 7, if you go back to when this country was alerting the possible escape of one of their notorious gang leaders, known as Fito. Though they say possible escape because one top military commander telling me, well, quite frankly, we don't know if he escaped.
And that speaks to the dysfunction, and really somewhat of the disorganization within these prisons. And to the day after Fito's suspected escape is when President Noboa here declares the state of emergency. The day after that is when we saw violence sparked, not only in that television station and the takeover, but also, quite frankly in the streets here in Guayaquil.
And there were shootouts. One of them even claiming the life of innocent bystanders. And that's been the big concern is that this would cause collateral damage for a lot of the folks here, which is why many of them for several days wouldn't even leave their homes. Little by little, we see folks are starting to come back out, but they're still hesitant and they tell me that they don't question that this is still very much an active internal armed conflict as the president calls it.
But some even going a step further, they say this is war. And its one that they are determined to try to stand up against. But they also say, if it gets so a certain point, they may have no choice but to pack up and leave. And that speaks to a larger crisis in this region and really involving the U.S. And that is the migrant crisis.
For years, Ecuador has been known as the island of peace around what has been a Latin America that's a lot of turmoil. And so, if this falls into that destabilized state, then you have folks who would then flee and contribute to the ongoing crisis in the U.S.
Now to stop all this, President Noboa has been asking for resources, particularly from the U.S., so as to combat these terror groups. But as it now stands, they're in the midst of what is a very active campaign that has no signs of slowing down.
David Culver, CNN, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: We'll have the latest, U.S. mission to the moon fails but before it did, the lunar lander sent back this spectacular image from space. Well, coming up, what's next on the America's efforts to reach the moon again. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The Peregrine lunar lander has likely burned up over a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean after a failed mission to land on the moon.
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ANNOUNCER: And lift off of the first United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket launching a new era -- (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Well, it launched just over a week ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but hours after liftoff, it developed a fuel leak. It's the first U.S. spacecraft to attempt a lunar landing in decades. And a big setback for NASA and Astrobotic Technology's goal was to eventually transport a crew to the moon. Astrobotic posted on the last images captured by a Peregrine showing a stunning view of Earth with the sliver of sunlight around it.
A number of countries have attempted to land on the moon since 2000 with mixed success, as you can see there.
And joining us now is Sian Cleaver, Orion European Service Module industrial manager for Airbus Defence and Space. And her company helped to design and manufacture the legs for the lander.
Thanks so much for joining us here.
So, it never got to use those legs in the end. Take us through what we know about what went wrong.
SIAN CLEAVER, INDUSTRIAL MANAGER, AIRBUS DEFENCE & SPACE: Yeah. Thanks, Kim.
And, yeah, it was a -- it was a bit of a disappointment that we didn't get to see whether our landing system was pretty functional as we expect it to be. But nevertheless, we will fly again on the next Astrobotic mission, which is coming later this year with the same landing system.
So, at the moment, it's still not 100 percent clear what went wrong on the Peregrine mission. Although the engineers seem to think that it was a valve that leaked and cause an over pressurization of the tanks, which ultimately led to the mission and having to be changed in some way, let's say, I mean, they weren't able to land on the moon, but I understand that a number of their scientific instruments on board were able to collect data. So there was the worst, some small successes from this mission.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, nevertheless, it would have been the first American mission in some 50 years to land on the moon. Here's disappointment for especially younger generations, we've never seen an American moon landing of any kind of their lifetimes.
CLEAVER: Yeah, absolutely. But don't forget, this so much going on in the world of lunar exploration at the moment. I mean, this year alone, there's a number of these smaller and private missions going to the moon under the umbrella of the Artemis program. And then, of course, in the coming years, we'll also see those crude missions to the moon. So we will see in our lifetimes astronauts walking on the moon again.
So things are getting really exciting at the moment. We're just at the beginning of something.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you mentioned private. I mean, this would have been the first ever private company to reach the moon. So far, all of these successful efforts have been undertaken by nations. So what does this mean for the future of private commercial space exploration do you think?
CLEAVER: I think it's still promising. This is something new that were doing the last time we went to the moon and it was very much, as you say, nations on their own. But I think we've all recognized now that going to the moon, lunar exploration, going into space in general is huge and it takes more than just institutions to do that. We need to collaborate. We need to collaborate between industry and -- private and public industries to make this possible.
So, yes, this mission didn't quite go to plan, but there are many more coming. The field is growing and we will just see more and more in the coming years. And I do genuinely think it's an exciting time as there's a lot to come.
BRUNHUBER: A lot to come. I mean, we've seen, what, a few months ago, of course, we saw the Indian lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 land on the moon, but a spacecraft from Russia and one from a Japanese company also crashed this year. I mean, and we put on a list before he came on of some of those unsuccessful missions there. Does all about raise the questions do you think about the U.S. aims to put actual humans back on the moon this decade?
CLEAVER: Absolutely not. I mean, we know that space exploration is difficult. It's really challenging environment. And if you talk that going to the moon, especially landing on the moon, I mean, the moon's gravity is about a sixth of what we have here on Earth. It's a harsh environment. It's difficult to land.
It's a little bit different to Mars where we can use parachutes to slow our spacecraft down. We have to rely on engines when we're landing on the moon. So it's difficult. It's not easy. And yes, you're right. I think the statistics are just over 50 percent of the missions that have gone to the moon have been successful.
But don't forget of those six attempted crewed missions to the moon, all of those were successful. And I guess it's a little bit different in that respect. I mean, we're talking here about an uncrewed mission. It was a spacecraft that went to the moon, with scientific instruments on board. And it's a little bit different when you're designing and building those.
Yes, you have redundancy in your systems, but you don't have quite the level of redundancy that you do have when you're sending a crewed mission, for example, like the Orion spacecraft to the moon. There, we have really, really stringent requirements and that's why these things take so long.
[02:40:02]
Safety is our number one priority.
BRUNHUBER: Finally, going back to the Peregrine mission -- I mean, they knew sort of hours into it right away, basically, that they had a problem, yet they were able to still sort of help to -- you know, they kind of jury-rigged some solutions and were able to do a few things.
Do you think that that experience will have taught us anything? Do you think we learned something from the ability to read and react, to adapt in real time like that?
CLEAVER: Oh, absolutely. I think it's a real testament to the ingenuity of the engineers and scientists who were involved in that mission, but they managed to sort of salvage it as best they could. They manage to redirect it towards earth and safely dispose of it in the Earth's atmosphere. I think that's pretty impressive. And then, of course, like any of these missions, there will be an extensive review phase looking into all the data, trying to work out exactly what went wrong, and then, of course, corrective measures.
This is always -- this is standard practice in the space industry. We do a thorough lessons learned campaign after or during an after every single mission. And no doubt there'll be a number of changes made, particularly to their next lunar lander, which is due by the end of the year. There'll be significant changes there to make sure that this problem that never happens again.
BRUNHUBER: All -- we will be looking forward to that. I appreciate your time, Sian Cleaver in Germany. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
CLEAVER: Thank you
BRUNHUBER: And Japan could be hours away from making its mark on the moon. Japan's smart lander for investigating moon or SLIM spacecraft is expected to touch down on the moon surface just over seven hours from now.
The mission of the moon sniper, as its also known as to help scientists uncovered the origins of the moon. If successful, SLIM will mark Japans first on putting a robotic explorer on the moon surface, making it the third country to achieve such a feat in the 21st century.
Meanwhile, another space missions already underway. Have a look.
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ANNOUNCER: Five, four, three, two, one, ignition, engine full power, and --
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BRUNHUBER: Well, just hours ago, SpaceX launched its Falcon Nine rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a mission organized by the private space company Axiom Space. It looks like a mini United Nations.
Four astronauts are on board, including the first Turkish citizen to visit outer space, on a ticket paid for by his government. Italy's air force is paying for an Italian astronaut's ticket. And the European and Swedish space agencies are paying for the third astronauts, a Swedish test pilot, an American who also has Spanish citizenship, is mission commander, and they'll conduct experiments at the international space station for two weeks.
I'm Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next. And I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in 15 minutes.
Please do stay with us.
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