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CNN Live Today

British Hostage Appears in New Video; Yemeni Sentenced to Death for USS Cole Attack

Aired September 29, 2004 - 10:00   ET

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

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


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Carol Lin. Daryn has got the day off.
Another video of British hostage Kenneth Bigley has surfaced. That tape aired on al Jazeera television. And Bigley's brother tells CNN he has received an e-mail suggesting Bigley will be released. We've got more on this developing story coming up in about 30 minutes.

And the Saudi national who planned the attack four years ago on the USS Cole has been sentenced to death by a court in Yemen. A Yemeni man also got a death sentence for his role in the October 200 bombing, which killed 17 sailors. Four other conspirators received prison terms ranging from five to 10 years.

The Canadian Embassy in Beijing says little -- or saying very little right now about today's bold bid for freedom by 44 North Korean refugees, including eight children. By the time Chinese security officials realized what was happening, all but one of the group scaled the embassy fence. The refugees say they want to go to South Korea.

And the color-coded, terror alert system, or something similar, may be in the works in Russia. The country's senior security official confirms that a national alert system is being planned. Igor Ivanov says the details are not decided yet. He does say though that recent terrorist attacks in Russia reveal the need for a systemic response to various threats.

And in baseball, announcement is expected to today to move a Major League team back to Washington, D.C. That team is the Montreal Expos, which has been looking for a new home for the past couple of years. Tomorrow marks the 33-anniversary of the Washington Senators' move to Texas, where they became the Texas Rangers.

Live this hour, $10 million is on the line. The first privately developed manned rocket ship is about to head for space. Our correspondent Miles O'Brien is covering the flight and will have a live report in seven minutes.

But in the meantime, President Bush's debate homework is done. And he heads to Miami today. But before reaching the site of his test against John Kerry, the president is making another Florida stop.

CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, here with a preview. Good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I'll try to talk observe the construction noise right next door. It is not to be overstated the importance of the next 48 hours for President Bush. He's going to be traveling to Lake Wales area in Florida to survey the hurricane damage from Jeanne. This is in central Florida. It is a fast-growing, swing area; it could be critical to a Bush win.

Now, this is the fourth visit in some six weeks that the president will visit the state of Florida. Florida, as you know, pounded by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. Each time President Bush visits there, he stands side by side with his brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, and promises -- offers more federal aid. So far the president requesting some $12 billion in total for assistance.

Now Democrats are accusing the president, they are saying this is just political. That this is grandstanding. Republicans, the Bush administration saying this is the president's job to actually try to assess the damage and take care of the people that are there.

There are still many questions, however, just what kind of impact the hurricane damage and the situation in Florida is going to have on the elections, whether or not people are actually going to come out to the polls and vote.

Now later today, President Bush travels to Miami, of course, to prepare for that debate. This first debate tomorrow. His closest aides say that the president is ready, they are confident that he is going to win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY MATALIN, BUSH-CHENEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: We feel like we're in a good position in this debate. Again, because the president knows what he thinks, why he thinks that -- the way that he does, what he wants to do in the future, where he wants to lead the nation. And that stands in stark contrast to his opponent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, senior Republican official I spoke with said that what they expect from the president, all he needs to do is to be -- appear knowledgeable, likable and connect with the American people, not to mispronounce the names of foreign leaders, as he occasionally. But does say that his opponent, Kerry, has a more ominous task. That he is really going to have to change his style, his platform to actually make a difference in those poll numbers -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Suzanne Malveaux, live at the White House.

We're going to have much more on what John Kerry is doing today and the Democrats' response to President Bush's visit to Florida.

But we've got some news happening out in the Mojave Desert in California. We're talking about big bucks. SpaceShipOne's dress rehearsal was a success. Let's go to Miles O'Brien out there.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. SpaceShipone is on the taxiway; headed toward the runway now, carried beneath the belly of the craft they call White Knight, a twin turbo jet. The pilot of SpaceShipOne is once again, Mike Melvill who on June 21 became the first civilian to fly a civilian craft to space. The first civilian astronaut.

There you see, as the sun rises here in Mojave, California. Concerns about the wind have abated. The wind has dropped off significantly. And apparently, we're good to go for a flight of the White Knight and the launch of SpaceShipOne in just a few moments. A couple of aircraft going up with it. As a matter of fact, three chase planes, a small aerobatic plane called an extra, a Beach Craft Starship, which will fly kind of in the mid altitudes. And an Alpha Fighter trainer, which will go to the highest of altitudes to capture pictures all on the way.

There's that Beach Starship, the pilot and owner, Robert Scherer. That plane designed by Bert Rutan's shop and built by the Beach Craft Corporation.

Joining me is Burt's brother, Dick Rutan, who has no direct link to this particular project but is a close watcher of events here at Mojave Airport. Of course, in 1987 flew around the world in the Voyager aircraft.

Dick, how's the team feeling this morning? And how is Mike Melvill in particular feeling?

Dick RUTAN, EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOT: Hey, everything's on track. Everybody has the normal concerns and they're very serious but there's no major glitches. The wind looks like it's going to die down real fine. And everything looks great.

O'BRIEN: How much pressure on the team this morning? And how are they reacting to the pressure, perhaps more importantly?

RUTAN: Well, this is immense. This is immense. You know, this is the big one. This is the X-Prize for the $10 million. We got to do it right the first time. And here, we've never carried this big a load to this altitude before. So this is a first.

O'BRIEN: And when you say a big load, we should point out, Carol, the craft is designed to carry three people. That's the rules of the contest. And will carry the equivalent weight of three passengers. But will only have Mike Melvill on board. The additional weight will be made up by various personal effects from the SpaceShipOne team. We're talking about Teddy bears and trinkets, and tools and family photos, and the like.

I assume you might have contributed a thing or two to that.

RUTAN: I would say that I have a couple of items on board, too. O'BRIEN: But we're told we won't be seeing those items on e-Bay. This is something that is important to the team, to give them memento of what's going to happen today.

What's the biggest concern? We talked about the wind. There's any number of things that obviously can go wrong. As you see, by the way, the first chase plane is taking off right now. That's the extra, it's a small aerobatic craft that will do photography at the lower levels, and will fly right down to the surface with the SpaceShipOne.

RUTAN: He's the low chase. He'll pick them up for the low chase and actually count down the wheel height as the spaceship is touching down.

O'BRIEN: Right. In any case, as we were talking, we were talking about the myriad of concerns that are on people's minds this morning. Why don't you run through them?

RUTAN: Well, there's most of the things they've already done before, they're kind of fine-tuning it. They've fine-tuned the White Knight and they've polished it. And they did some special things for laminar flow to get every inch of altitude they can before they drop it. Because every foot that they're low is like four foot that they lose.

O'BRIEN: Right.

RUTAN: So it has to go at the maximum altitude. However, the winds look awfully good this morning.

O'BRIEN: Now, we should point out, on June 21, when they did in fact reach the threshold of space, 100 kilometers/62 miles, they did so by the slimmest of margins. It was just a couple of hundred feet above and beyond that, right?

RUTAN: Point-one percent.

O'BRIEN: Point-one percent.

RUTAN: That's point-one percent.

O'BRIEN: And that's probably a little tighter than they wanted it to be. What happened was, of course, Mike Melvill got into some wind shear up there. Kind of had to correct for that, put him in at a little different trajectory. And as a result, the altitude wasn't what they anticipated.

RUTAN: Right. It has to be flown very precisely to make the altitude. The rumor is they're going to try to break the X-15 record. Which is a hundred and -- 354,000

O'BRIEN: OK.

RUTAN: Now, that's a little bit higher than the 100 kilometers that we need to go to. O'BRIEN: So, that is possible. Three hundred and fifty-four thousand feet, which is equivalent to what we're talking about here right?

RUTAN: Well, the altitude we need to go to for the X-Prize is 328,000.

O'BRIEN: Right.

RUTAN: But there's the X-15, and they're trying to break that one too, if they can.

O'BRIEN: Yes. And in the meantime, we have a little bit of radio chatter going back and forth between the team right now. What sorts of checklists are they going through right now out there on the tarmac, as they get the various craft ready here?

RUTAN: OK. One special thing with this one, because they want to make sure they can carry that extra payload to altitude and have a good margin on the X-Prize, they've filled up the nitrous tanks. That's the oxidizer. They've filled it all the way up, and that needs to have just the perfect temperature, because there's not enough, what they call olage (ph) in the top of it to maintain the pressure. So they're really concerned about that. But the last thing I heard, the checks that the temperatures looked real good right now.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's see if we could -- I don't know if we can hear some of these radio chats. Perhaps we can hear those as we talk here.

And when you say -- what we're talking about is a combination of tire rubber and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide, laughing gas that provides the oxygen. It's the oxidizer because you're up at such thin atmosphere. You wouldn't have oxygen to burn anything. Tremendous amount of thrust, a big kick. It only goes for, what? Sixty-five, 70 seconds or so to get the rocket from 41,000 feet to space, correct?

RUTAN: That's right. Now, when they drop him, he's only being dropped about 130 knots, or maybe 150 miles an hour. Now, when they light that rocket, within about 80 or 90 seconds he's gone over 2200 mile and hour. Straight up at Mach 3.3 when he leaves the atmosphere.

O'BRIEN: And what is he feeling at that point? A lot of Machs? A lot of G forces? What's he feeling...

RUTAN: When you see the picture of Mike when he lights it, they drop him. He arms it. And then he fires a switch and boom! He's thrown back in the seat like that. And then he has to fly it very precisely to get the right trajectory to get it going straight up. It's quite a ride.

O'BRIEN: It's quite a kick. I bet that's a ride you'd like to take yourself someday.

RUTAN: Well, of course.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Naturally. I don't know what you have been able to hear on the radio, where they are on the checklist and what's going on.

RUTAN: OK. Well, they're pre-departure checklist down at the end of the runway.

O'BRIEN: How long does that typically take for them to do all that?

RUTAN: No. They should be going here pretty quick. It's not a long checklist procedure. Looks like the winds are in good shape. So they'll finesse their checks and just in a handful of minutes, you'll see the White Knight take off.

O'BRIEN: All right. All right. We're going to leave there with Dick Rutan and the White Knight, as they go through their final checklist. As soon as we see that craft rolling down the runway, Carol, we'll get back to you and we'll bring you some pictures of it -- Carol.

LIN: Good deal. We're excited. Thanks, Miles.

We've got much more ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, as you're looking at a beautiful sunrise and an exciting mission out of the Mojave Desert in California.

We'll be right back.

O'BRIEN: It's the small SpaceShipOne with Mike Melvill. Who's flying White Knight right now?

RUTAN: Brian Benning. Brian Benning is the pilot. And I see the engines are running clean and it's looking real good.

O'BRIEN: Everything sounds good. And what they will do right now, Carol, it will take them about an hour's time to get to altitude. They are going to try to squeeze out every bit of altitude they can, get up to about 41,000 or so feet. Maybe a little more.

RUTAN: They're going to try to get just under 50,000.

O'BRIEN: Get up to 50,000 feet. And then at that point, after another series of checklists, they'll drop that small craft, SpaceShipOne, from the belly of White Knight. And Mike Melvill will hit the switch, which will light that candle, as they say. And off he goes.

RUTAN: Right. Now, he's going to light that as soon as he can. As soon as they drop, there's an orange light. I mean he fires the arm light and then the firelight. Just as quick as he can.

O'BRIEN: You don't want to lose any altitude in the process because -- let's listen for one sec. RUTAN: OK. The White Knight just got clearance from the control tower here to go over Joshua Approach Control. And there the radar, it will handle him in the restricted area, as he climbs to altitude.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, off they go, Carol. It's going to be about an hour's time before we actually have the flight of SpaceShipOne. We're going to watch this descent and get some pictures for you. And feel free to drop on back...

LIN: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: ... we'll give you a progress report as White Knight climbs to 50,000 feet.

LIN: Clearly, we're dropping in and out here because I thought we were going to break. And suddenly, we saw the picture of it taking off. Miles, quick translation question. When you guys talk about lighting the candle, what does that mean? I mean he gets to a certain altitude. And then what? It's like a booster rock that pushes him up?

O'BRIEN: Yes. Essentially what he -- he is -- when he is dropped from White Knight, the engine is not firing at all. As soon as he gets clear of White Knight, he fires the igniter, which lights up that rubberized fuel that they have. Essentially tire rubber. The oxidizer is put in, which provides oxygen. And out comes a tremendous amount of thrust and off he goes. Pretty much on an elevator ride straight toward space, and an elevator ride with quite a kick, I might add, Carol.

LIN: Mm-hmm. Quite a kick. What does that feel like?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's quite a bang at first. I think the maximum amount of Gs that he feel's, three to five Gs is actually on re-entry, isn't that right, Dick?

RUTAN: Yes. The maxi -- he gets about five Gs on a re-entry, but that's sitting. You know, that's straight-down Gs. The acceleration he's going to fire his eyeballs in, that throws you to the back of the seat, not down.

O'BRIEN: Eyeballs in. So, Carol, he's kidding. He'll be straight back into him and he'll feel like, you know, I guess a drag racer would feel, as he unleashes the drag racing craft. It's a kick, they say.

LIN: And what on board, Miles, do they have that actually protects them and prepares them for this kind of mission? Spacesuits, helmets?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's a shirtsleeve environment, believe it or not. He wears an oxygen mask, but he's not wearing a pressure suit. What they've done, instead of setting this up where it requires a pressure suit, like you might be familiar with, as we look at White Knight there. Live pictures as it makes its assent.

They basically created some redundancy in the shell of the SpaceShipOne as a couple layers. So if there's a problem with a puncture, or some sort of depressurization, it has another layer to protect the pilot. The idea was not to bulk everybody up when they send these heavy space -- in these pressure suits.

RUTAN: So if you think about it, the environmental system is a hermetically sealed capsule. And he opens when he closes the door. He seals the pressure here at Mojave. And then he goes all the way up, and all the way back. And his ears don't pop or anything. And the only reason he has an oxygen mask on is to take care of the vapor that the pilot breathes out, that it won't gets on the windows so he can't see. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have to have an oxygen mask.

O'BRIEN: All right. There you have it.

LIN: That's amazing. Hey, Miles, so how long do you think we're going to be bouncing back to you? Because we don't want to miss anything.

O'BRIEN: OK. We're good. We've only been -- it's only been airborne now for about four minutes. It takes them a good, you know, hour to get to the altitude they desire. So but feel free to drop back in. We'll keep you posted. And we've got a tracking camera, which should give us some good shots, as it gets higher and higher. Beautiful day as you can see here in Mojave, so we should get some good shots of this first attempt at that $10 million -- sorry, X-Prize -- Carol.

LIN: Gorgeous. All right. Thanks so much, Miles.

Stay tuned. CNN LIVE TODAY on all of the big stories and live pictures out of California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: All right, still much to talk about. Hurricane Jeanne, which is now basically a rain machine and is leaving a huge mess, as it marches north through the eastern United States. One person has died, reportedly in Patrick County, Virginia, after flooding caused by washed away a house.

And high water is also a problem across parts of eastern Pennsylvania. Right now, Jeanne is soaking New England. And it's expected to move into the Atlantic over the next couple of hours.

All right. A lot of people out of work these days. And in Florida, this is something to think about as you try to rebuild. You ever think about being your own boss but you don't know where to begin?

CNN/FN personal finance editor Gerri Willis is here with the today's "Top Five Tips" on starting your own business.

Hi there, Gerri.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN-FN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, Carol. Good to see you. Do you want to tell your boss good-bye? A lot of people do but they don't want to spend a ton of time on a new business. We've got tips. No. 1: think about the web, particularly e-Bay. If starting your own shop, for example, you might think about driving all over town to talk to managers of the strip malls, try to negotiate a deal.

Far easier to go on the web; start your own store there. At e- Bay, you can start your own shop online. Now, you'll have to pay some fees. You'll pay fees for putting goods online. when they're sold and if buyers use a credit card, you'll have a fee for that, too. In fact, the fees add up to something like 10 percent of the value of the goods you put on. But it's a good place to start if you're new to the business.

LIN: You bet. Also, you say you don't have to be creative. That's kind of unusual advice.

WILLIS: You know, I know, Carol. Everybody thinks you've got to spend a ton of time thinking of your concept, getting the marketing right. What if you're just starting say, you're opening your own tax preparation store? It doesn't take a ton of thought. People know what that is. Or maybe you're just opening up a dry-cleaners shop. It doesn't take all that much time. Don't get stuck thinking about the best idea, the most creative idea. Get cracking'.

LIN: Yes. Because it means, you know, you'll actually get started.

WILLIS: Right.

LIN: And you don't need a storefront, either.

WILLIS: Yes, you can just stay home. And guess what? Guess who's going to help you out? The government, the IRS will give you a big fat tax break to buy the computer, to buy the desk, whatever you have to buy. But make sure that you're using that space in your home for the office and doing business only. You can't -- the kids can't do their homework there. You can't be eating lunch there. Otherwise you'll lose the tax deduction.

LIN: Right. Right. And do you need to get professional advice? Do you need to go back to graduate school, something like that?

WILLIS: Well, you could roll op up your shirtsleeves and go back to graduate school and spend a lot of time, a ton of money. But it's better just to benefit from other people's experience. Easy way to do that is the nonprofit association called SCORE. You can find it on the web at score.org. They have ex-managers, retired managers who will give you a ton of advice. There are other web sites you see here too that can give you help as well. Careerone-stop.org, go to their business center on that web site.

And don't forget about the old SBA, you know, Small Business Association very important for people who are start starting their own business.

LIN: What about money? Do you need a lot of upfront cash?

WILLIS: Well, we just mentioned the Small Business Association. It's a great place to go if you're looking for free money. Start there, you can get something called a basic 7-A loan. This is one of the big loan programs they have. Average loan there, $166,000.

LIN: That's pretty good.

WILLIS: And they even give you more than that. If you want something smaller, let's say you're starting with a really small business, get a micro loan from the SBA. Make application because at the end of the day, whose money do you want to use, your own or the government's?

LIN: You bet. But how picky are they about -- I mean, you know, everybody would be applying for $100,000 if they could get it from the government.

WILLIS: Carol, you'd be surprised. It's about how detailed your documentation is when you turn it in. And if you are really describing a business that's going to make money, bottom line, less time, more making money, people get these businesses launched much, much fast.

LIN: And real quick question. Are there income qualifications? I mean let's say you have a pretty good job now, so you've got a substantial income. But maybe you want to quit and do exactly as you said, say good-bye to the boss, do your own thing?

WILLIS: Right. Absolutely. No income guidelines if you want to start your own business. You can do it whether you've got money coming in the door or not. But so many people, Carol, they want to make sure that they're not spending all of their time on that new business. Our tips today for lazy people who want to start their own business, and do it in their spare time, not all the time.

LIN: All right. Lazy people or just plain busy people.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: You bet.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Gerri.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

LIN: In the meantime, we're going to be talking about reaching for the stars and hoping to catch a $10 million prize along the way. Can Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne be the first civilian team to make the mark? Make mark, at least a milestone? And we're going to show the attempt coming up this hour.

Plus, this fiery crash in Rhode Island leaves one heroic rescue. We're going to bring details straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Coming up on the half hour, these are the stories right now in the news.

President Bush today takes his fourth tour of hurricane damage in the last six weeks. The president plans to inspect a Lake Wales, Florida citrus grove struck by Hurricane Jeanne. And later, he's going to travel on to Miami for tomorrow's -- tomorrow night's presidential debates.

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Aired September 29, 2004 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Carol Lin. Daryn has got the day off.
Another video of British hostage Kenneth Bigley has surfaced. That tape aired on al Jazeera television. And Bigley's brother tells CNN he has received an e-mail suggesting Bigley will be released. We've got more on this developing story coming up in about 30 minutes.

And the Saudi national who planned the attack four years ago on the USS Cole has been sentenced to death by a court in Yemen. A Yemeni man also got a death sentence for his role in the October 200 bombing, which killed 17 sailors. Four other conspirators received prison terms ranging from five to 10 years.

The Canadian Embassy in Beijing says little -- or saying very little right now about today's bold bid for freedom by 44 North Korean refugees, including eight children. By the time Chinese security officials realized what was happening, all but one of the group scaled the embassy fence. The refugees say they want to go to South Korea.

And the color-coded, terror alert system, or something similar, may be in the works in Russia. The country's senior security official confirms that a national alert system is being planned. Igor Ivanov says the details are not decided yet. He does say though that recent terrorist attacks in Russia reveal the need for a systemic response to various threats.

And in baseball, announcement is expected to today to move a Major League team back to Washington, D.C. That team is the Montreal Expos, which has been looking for a new home for the past couple of years. Tomorrow marks the 33-anniversary of the Washington Senators' move to Texas, where they became the Texas Rangers.

Live this hour, $10 million is on the line. The first privately developed manned rocket ship is about to head for space. Our correspondent Miles O'Brien is covering the flight and will have a live report in seven minutes.

But in the meantime, President Bush's debate homework is done. And he heads to Miami today. But before reaching the site of his test against John Kerry, the president is making another Florida stop.

CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, here with a preview. Good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I'll try to talk observe the construction noise right next door. It is not to be overstated the importance of the next 48 hours for President Bush. He's going to be traveling to Lake Wales area in Florida to survey the hurricane damage from Jeanne. This is in central Florida. It is a fast-growing, swing area; it could be critical to a Bush win.

Now, this is the fourth visit in some six weeks that the president will visit the state of Florida. Florida, as you know, pounded by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. Each time President Bush visits there, he stands side by side with his brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, and promises -- offers more federal aid. So far the president requesting some $12 billion in total for assistance.

Now Democrats are accusing the president, they are saying this is just political. That this is grandstanding. Republicans, the Bush administration saying this is the president's job to actually try to assess the damage and take care of the people that are there.

There are still many questions, however, just what kind of impact the hurricane damage and the situation in Florida is going to have on the elections, whether or not people are actually going to come out to the polls and vote.

Now later today, President Bush travels to Miami, of course, to prepare for that debate. This first debate tomorrow. His closest aides say that the president is ready, they are confident that he is going to win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY MATALIN, BUSH-CHENEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: We feel like we're in a good position in this debate. Again, because the president knows what he thinks, why he thinks that -- the way that he does, what he wants to do in the future, where he wants to lead the nation. And that stands in stark contrast to his opponent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, senior Republican official I spoke with said that what they expect from the president, all he needs to do is to be -- appear knowledgeable, likable and connect with the American people, not to mispronounce the names of foreign leaders, as he occasionally. But does say that his opponent, Kerry, has a more ominous task. That he is really going to have to change his style, his platform to actually make a difference in those poll numbers -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Suzanne Malveaux, live at the White House.

We're going to have much more on what John Kerry is doing today and the Democrats' response to President Bush's visit to Florida.

But we've got some news happening out in the Mojave Desert in California. We're talking about big bucks. SpaceShipOne's dress rehearsal was a success. Let's go to Miles O'Brien out there.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. SpaceShipone is on the taxiway; headed toward the runway now, carried beneath the belly of the craft they call White Knight, a twin turbo jet. The pilot of SpaceShipOne is once again, Mike Melvill who on June 21 became the first civilian to fly a civilian craft to space. The first civilian astronaut.

There you see, as the sun rises here in Mojave, California. Concerns about the wind have abated. The wind has dropped off significantly. And apparently, we're good to go for a flight of the White Knight and the launch of SpaceShipOne in just a few moments. A couple of aircraft going up with it. As a matter of fact, three chase planes, a small aerobatic plane called an extra, a Beach Craft Starship, which will fly kind of in the mid altitudes. And an Alpha Fighter trainer, which will go to the highest of altitudes to capture pictures all on the way.

There's that Beach Starship, the pilot and owner, Robert Scherer. That plane designed by Bert Rutan's shop and built by the Beach Craft Corporation.

Joining me is Burt's brother, Dick Rutan, who has no direct link to this particular project but is a close watcher of events here at Mojave Airport. Of course, in 1987 flew around the world in the Voyager aircraft.

Dick, how's the team feeling this morning? And how is Mike Melvill in particular feeling?

Dick RUTAN, EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOT: Hey, everything's on track. Everybody has the normal concerns and they're very serious but there's no major glitches. The wind looks like it's going to die down real fine. And everything looks great.

O'BRIEN: How much pressure on the team this morning? And how are they reacting to the pressure, perhaps more importantly?

RUTAN: Well, this is immense. This is immense. You know, this is the big one. This is the X-Prize for the $10 million. We got to do it right the first time. And here, we've never carried this big a load to this altitude before. So this is a first.

O'BRIEN: And when you say a big load, we should point out, Carol, the craft is designed to carry three people. That's the rules of the contest. And will carry the equivalent weight of three passengers. But will only have Mike Melvill on board. The additional weight will be made up by various personal effects from the SpaceShipOne team. We're talking about Teddy bears and trinkets, and tools and family photos, and the like.

I assume you might have contributed a thing or two to that.

RUTAN: I would say that I have a couple of items on board, too. O'BRIEN: But we're told we won't be seeing those items on e-Bay. This is something that is important to the team, to give them memento of what's going to happen today.

What's the biggest concern? We talked about the wind. There's any number of things that obviously can go wrong. As you see, by the way, the first chase plane is taking off right now. That's the extra, it's a small aerobatic craft that will do photography at the lower levels, and will fly right down to the surface with the SpaceShipOne.

RUTAN: He's the low chase. He'll pick them up for the low chase and actually count down the wheel height as the spaceship is touching down.

O'BRIEN: Right. In any case, as we were talking, we were talking about the myriad of concerns that are on people's minds this morning. Why don't you run through them?

RUTAN: Well, there's most of the things they've already done before, they're kind of fine-tuning it. They've fine-tuned the White Knight and they've polished it. And they did some special things for laminar flow to get every inch of altitude they can before they drop it. Because every foot that they're low is like four foot that they lose.

O'BRIEN: Right.

RUTAN: So it has to go at the maximum altitude. However, the winds look awfully good this morning.

O'BRIEN: Now, we should point out, on June 21, when they did in fact reach the threshold of space, 100 kilometers/62 miles, they did so by the slimmest of margins. It was just a couple of hundred feet above and beyond that, right?

RUTAN: Point-one percent.

O'BRIEN: Point-one percent.

RUTAN: That's point-one percent.

O'BRIEN: And that's probably a little tighter than they wanted it to be. What happened was, of course, Mike Melvill got into some wind shear up there. Kind of had to correct for that, put him in at a little different trajectory. And as a result, the altitude wasn't what they anticipated.

RUTAN: Right. It has to be flown very precisely to make the altitude. The rumor is they're going to try to break the X-15 record. Which is a hundred and -- 354,000

O'BRIEN: OK.

RUTAN: Now, that's a little bit higher than the 100 kilometers that we need to go to. O'BRIEN: So, that is possible. Three hundred and fifty-four thousand feet, which is equivalent to what we're talking about here right?

RUTAN: Well, the altitude we need to go to for the X-Prize is 328,000.

O'BRIEN: Right.

RUTAN: But there's the X-15, and they're trying to break that one too, if they can.

O'BRIEN: Yes. And in the meantime, we have a little bit of radio chatter going back and forth between the team right now. What sorts of checklists are they going through right now out there on the tarmac, as they get the various craft ready here?

RUTAN: OK. One special thing with this one, because they want to make sure they can carry that extra payload to altitude and have a good margin on the X-Prize, they've filled up the nitrous tanks. That's the oxidizer. They've filled it all the way up, and that needs to have just the perfect temperature, because there's not enough, what they call olage (ph) in the top of it to maintain the pressure. So they're really concerned about that. But the last thing I heard, the checks that the temperatures looked real good right now.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's see if we could -- I don't know if we can hear some of these radio chats. Perhaps we can hear those as we talk here.

And when you say -- what we're talking about is a combination of tire rubber and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide, laughing gas that provides the oxygen. It's the oxidizer because you're up at such thin atmosphere. You wouldn't have oxygen to burn anything. Tremendous amount of thrust, a big kick. It only goes for, what? Sixty-five, 70 seconds or so to get the rocket from 41,000 feet to space, correct?

RUTAN: That's right. Now, when they drop him, he's only being dropped about 130 knots, or maybe 150 miles an hour. Now, when they light that rocket, within about 80 or 90 seconds he's gone over 2200 mile and hour. Straight up at Mach 3.3 when he leaves the atmosphere.

O'BRIEN: And what is he feeling at that point? A lot of Machs? A lot of G forces? What's he feeling...

RUTAN: When you see the picture of Mike when he lights it, they drop him. He arms it. And then he fires a switch and boom! He's thrown back in the seat like that. And then he has to fly it very precisely to get the right trajectory to get it going straight up. It's quite a ride.

O'BRIEN: It's quite a kick. I bet that's a ride you'd like to take yourself someday.

RUTAN: Well, of course.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Naturally. I don't know what you have been able to hear on the radio, where they are on the checklist and what's going on.

RUTAN: OK. Well, they're pre-departure checklist down at the end of the runway.

O'BRIEN: How long does that typically take for them to do all that?

RUTAN: No. They should be going here pretty quick. It's not a long checklist procedure. Looks like the winds are in good shape. So they'll finesse their checks and just in a handful of minutes, you'll see the White Knight take off.

O'BRIEN: All right. All right. We're going to leave there with Dick Rutan and the White Knight, as they go through their final checklist. As soon as we see that craft rolling down the runway, Carol, we'll get back to you and we'll bring you some pictures of it -- Carol.

LIN: Good deal. We're excited. Thanks, Miles.

We've got much more ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, as you're looking at a beautiful sunrise and an exciting mission out of the Mojave Desert in California.

We'll be right back.

O'BRIEN: It's the small SpaceShipOne with Mike Melvill. Who's flying White Knight right now?

RUTAN: Brian Benning. Brian Benning is the pilot. And I see the engines are running clean and it's looking real good.

O'BRIEN: Everything sounds good. And what they will do right now, Carol, it will take them about an hour's time to get to altitude. They are going to try to squeeze out every bit of altitude they can, get up to about 41,000 or so feet. Maybe a little more.

RUTAN: They're going to try to get just under 50,000.

O'BRIEN: Get up to 50,000 feet. And then at that point, after another series of checklists, they'll drop that small craft, SpaceShipOne, from the belly of White Knight. And Mike Melvill will hit the switch, which will light that candle, as they say. And off he goes.

RUTAN: Right. Now, he's going to light that as soon as he can. As soon as they drop, there's an orange light. I mean he fires the arm light and then the firelight. Just as quick as he can.

O'BRIEN: You don't want to lose any altitude in the process because -- let's listen for one sec. RUTAN: OK. The White Knight just got clearance from the control tower here to go over Joshua Approach Control. And there the radar, it will handle him in the restricted area, as he climbs to altitude.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, off they go, Carol. It's going to be about an hour's time before we actually have the flight of SpaceShipOne. We're going to watch this descent and get some pictures for you. And feel free to drop on back...

LIN: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: ... we'll give you a progress report as White Knight climbs to 50,000 feet.

LIN: Clearly, we're dropping in and out here because I thought we were going to break. And suddenly, we saw the picture of it taking off. Miles, quick translation question. When you guys talk about lighting the candle, what does that mean? I mean he gets to a certain altitude. And then what? It's like a booster rock that pushes him up?

O'BRIEN: Yes. Essentially what he -- he is -- when he is dropped from White Knight, the engine is not firing at all. As soon as he gets clear of White Knight, he fires the igniter, which lights up that rubberized fuel that they have. Essentially tire rubber. The oxidizer is put in, which provides oxygen. And out comes a tremendous amount of thrust and off he goes. Pretty much on an elevator ride straight toward space, and an elevator ride with quite a kick, I might add, Carol.

LIN: Mm-hmm. Quite a kick. What does that feel like?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's quite a bang at first. I think the maximum amount of Gs that he feel's, three to five Gs is actually on re-entry, isn't that right, Dick?

RUTAN: Yes. The maxi -- he gets about five Gs on a re-entry, but that's sitting. You know, that's straight-down Gs. The acceleration he's going to fire his eyeballs in, that throws you to the back of the seat, not down.

O'BRIEN: Eyeballs in. So, Carol, he's kidding. He'll be straight back into him and he'll feel like, you know, I guess a drag racer would feel, as he unleashes the drag racing craft. It's a kick, they say.

LIN: And what on board, Miles, do they have that actually protects them and prepares them for this kind of mission? Spacesuits, helmets?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's a shirtsleeve environment, believe it or not. He wears an oxygen mask, but he's not wearing a pressure suit. What they've done, instead of setting this up where it requires a pressure suit, like you might be familiar with, as we look at White Knight there. Live pictures as it makes its assent.

They basically created some redundancy in the shell of the SpaceShipOne as a couple layers. So if there's a problem with a puncture, or some sort of depressurization, it has another layer to protect the pilot. The idea was not to bulk everybody up when they send these heavy space -- in these pressure suits.

RUTAN: So if you think about it, the environmental system is a hermetically sealed capsule. And he opens when he closes the door. He seals the pressure here at Mojave. And then he goes all the way up, and all the way back. And his ears don't pop or anything. And the only reason he has an oxygen mask on is to take care of the vapor that the pilot breathes out, that it won't gets on the windows so he can't see. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have to have an oxygen mask.

O'BRIEN: All right. There you have it.

LIN: That's amazing. Hey, Miles, so how long do you think we're going to be bouncing back to you? Because we don't want to miss anything.

O'BRIEN: OK. We're good. We've only been -- it's only been airborne now for about four minutes. It takes them a good, you know, hour to get to the altitude they desire. So but feel free to drop back in. We'll keep you posted. And we've got a tracking camera, which should give us some good shots, as it gets higher and higher. Beautiful day as you can see here in Mojave, so we should get some good shots of this first attempt at that $10 million -- sorry, X-Prize -- Carol.

LIN: Gorgeous. All right. Thanks so much, Miles.

Stay tuned. CNN LIVE TODAY on all of the big stories and live pictures out of California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: All right, still much to talk about. Hurricane Jeanne, which is now basically a rain machine and is leaving a huge mess, as it marches north through the eastern United States. One person has died, reportedly in Patrick County, Virginia, after flooding caused by washed away a house.

And high water is also a problem across parts of eastern Pennsylvania. Right now, Jeanne is soaking New England. And it's expected to move into the Atlantic over the next couple of hours.

All right. A lot of people out of work these days. And in Florida, this is something to think about as you try to rebuild. You ever think about being your own boss but you don't know where to begin?

CNN/FN personal finance editor Gerri Willis is here with the today's "Top Five Tips" on starting your own business.

Hi there, Gerri.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN-FN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, Carol. Good to see you. Do you want to tell your boss good-bye? A lot of people do but they don't want to spend a ton of time on a new business. We've got tips. No. 1: think about the web, particularly e-Bay. If starting your own shop, for example, you might think about driving all over town to talk to managers of the strip malls, try to negotiate a deal.

Far easier to go on the web; start your own store there. At e- Bay, you can start your own shop online. Now, you'll have to pay some fees. You'll pay fees for putting goods online. when they're sold and if buyers use a credit card, you'll have a fee for that, too. In fact, the fees add up to something like 10 percent of the value of the goods you put on. But it's a good place to start if you're new to the business.

LIN: You bet. Also, you say you don't have to be creative. That's kind of unusual advice.

WILLIS: You know, I know, Carol. Everybody thinks you've got to spend a ton of time thinking of your concept, getting the marketing right. What if you're just starting say, you're opening your own tax preparation store? It doesn't take a ton of thought. People know what that is. Or maybe you're just opening up a dry-cleaners shop. It doesn't take all that much time. Don't get stuck thinking about the best idea, the most creative idea. Get cracking'.

LIN: Yes. Because it means, you know, you'll actually get started.

WILLIS: Right.

LIN: And you don't need a storefront, either.

WILLIS: Yes, you can just stay home. And guess what? Guess who's going to help you out? The government, the IRS will give you a big fat tax break to buy the computer, to buy the desk, whatever you have to buy. But make sure that you're using that space in your home for the office and doing business only. You can't -- the kids can't do their homework there. You can't be eating lunch there. Otherwise you'll lose the tax deduction.

LIN: Right. Right. And do you need to get professional advice? Do you need to go back to graduate school, something like that?

WILLIS: Well, you could roll op up your shirtsleeves and go back to graduate school and spend a lot of time, a ton of money. But it's better just to benefit from other people's experience. Easy way to do that is the nonprofit association called SCORE. You can find it on the web at score.org. They have ex-managers, retired managers who will give you a ton of advice. There are other web sites you see here too that can give you help as well. Careerone-stop.org, go to their business center on that web site.

And don't forget about the old SBA, you know, Small Business Association very important for people who are start starting their own business.

LIN: What about money? Do you need a lot of upfront cash?

WILLIS: Well, we just mentioned the Small Business Association. It's a great place to go if you're looking for free money. Start there, you can get something called a basic 7-A loan. This is one of the big loan programs they have. Average loan there, $166,000.

LIN: That's pretty good.

WILLIS: And they even give you more than that. If you want something smaller, let's say you're starting with a really small business, get a micro loan from the SBA. Make application because at the end of the day, whose money do you want to use, your own or the government's?

LIN: You bet. But how picky are they about -- I mean, you know, everybody would be applying for $100,000 if they could get it from the government.

WILLIS: Carol, you'd be surprised. It's about how detailed your documentation is when you turn it in. And if you are really describing a business that's going to make money, bottom line, less time, more making money, people get these businesses launched much, much fast.

LIN: And real quick question. Are there income qualifications? I mean let's say you have a pretty good job now, so you've got a substantial income. But maybe you want to quit and do exactly as you said, say good-bye to the boss, do your own thing?

WILLIS: Right. Absolutely. No income guidelines if you want to start your own business. You can do it whether you've got money coming in the door or not. But so many people, Carol, they want to make sure that they're not spending all of their time on that new business. Our tips today for lazy people who want to start their own business, and do it in their spare time, not all the time.

LIN: All right. Lazy people or just plain busy people.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: You bet.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Gerri.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

LIN: In the meantime, we're going to be talking about reaching for the stars and hoping to catch a $10 million prize along the way. Can Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne be the first civilian team to make the mark? Make mark, at least a milestone? And we're going to show the attempt coming up this hour.

Plus, this fiery crash in Rhode Island leaves one heroic rescue. We're going to bring details straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Coming up on the half hour, these are the stories right now in the news.

President Bush today takes his fourth tour of hurricane damage in the last six weeks. The president plans to inspect a Lake Wales, Florida citrus grove struck by Hurricane Jeanne. And later, he's going to travel on to Miami for tomorrow's -- tomorrow night's presidential debates.

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