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CNN Live Today

NASA News Conference on Discovery Mission; London Terror Investigation; End of IRA Violence?

Aired July 28, 2005 - 10:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Just after midnight, the Central American Free Trade Agreement squeaked by the House of Representatives by two votes. Twenty-five Republicans rejected the controversial pacts, while 15 Democrats broke rank and went along with the administration. The agreement eliminates trade barriers between the U.S., and five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. Supporters hope it will eventually boost U.S. exports. Critics fear it will result in the loss of U.S. jobs.
The house vote on CAFTA was a narrow victory for President Bush, and one he wanted very much.

Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us now from the White House -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, this is really an issue that the president invested a lot of his own personal political capital in, and of course it paid off. A big victory for the White House. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan saying a victory not only for the American people, but for those working overseas. We are told that the president made eight calls last night, four calls mid-evening and about four calls around 11:00 in the evening. As you know, it went it the wee hours of the morning.

Also, of course, Vice President Dick Cheney was on the Hill, at hand -- on hand, rather, between 5:30 and 10:00 or so to really put that pressure on some of those Republicans and those Democrats to pass this key legislation. This, of course, the president making a rare appearance on Capitol Hill. Several occasions before the Republican conference. On one occasion, we are told he spoke for about an hour and made the case this is not simply about opening markets, but also about creating the kind of environments that would secure national security for the United States, be in the best interest of the United States, would also provide rewards for those countries that have been critical allies when it comes to the war on terror, specifically those who have been offering assistance to the U.S. military effort, the mission, inside of Iraq. That is something that the president moved forward on.

Now, Democrats, of course, are not happy with this. As you said, there were a small group of Democrats that defected, but House Leader Nancy Pelosi putting out a statement of her own, saying "I oppose CAFTA because it is a step backwards for workers in America, and a job killer here at home." A vicious, vicious battle between the White House, Republicans and Democrats, but the White House certainly looking for a legislative victory. They certainly hope that later in the week perhaps they can get the energy, as well as transportation bills.

WHITFIELD: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much, at the White House.

There appears to be progress in Beijing. U.S. and North Korean envoys held a third round of one-on-one negotiations today. The session was held on the sidelines of the six-nation talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The talks include South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. The unprecedented pact between the U.S. and North Korea raised hope force a positive outcome. Both sides agreed to meet again.

Joining me now is Sohn Jie-Ae, CNN's correspondent in Seoul, South Korea, joining us here in Atlanta.

And, Jie-Ae, how is it that the six-party talks are in way altering the relationship between South and North Korea?

SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it is helping South and North Korean relations immensely, because it is preventing some of the things that are hindering South and North Korea relations from moving further. And South Korea and North Korea have been at odds for over 50 years. There have been hostilities. There has been no official end to the Korean War on the Korean peninsula.

Now in the past, South Korea has tried to further its relationship with North Korea, to get some sort of relationship going, but with the nuclear issue at hand, all relationships between the south and north have been frozen for the last three years. So South Korea has been very aggressive in trying to get the nuclear issue out of the way so that South and North Korea could get relations back on track.

WHITFIELD: So I imagine the tone has been very different, too. This meeting, compared to the last time they met last year, and then also in 2003. How has it changed?

SOHN: Well, South Koreans are taking a much more aggressive stand this time. South Korea's unification minister personally went to North Korea just a few week ago to meet with the North Korean leader, and he had a proposal for North Korea, and he said that South Koreans are willing to go into North Korea, build up its electricity infrastructure, and pump 2,000 megawatts of electricity from the south and the north, if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program.

WHITFIELD: So does the south take North Korea seriously, when North Korea says, we will seriously consider that?

SOHN: Well, South Korea really hopes so. North Korea is also concerned, of course, about the fact if this happens, it would be South Korea holding the switch. So, you know, if North Korea is in economic trouble now, I mean, imagine what would happen if South Korea threw the switch if North Korea did something wrong?

So North Korea is cautious, but signs are saying that North Korea's interested in what South Korea is offering.

WHITFIELD: And this is one of the conditions that is being offered?

SOHN: That is true.

WHITFIELD: And what might the others be?

SOHN: Well, there are a number of economic assistance programs offered, not only by South Korea but other nations. Not only in the six-party talks, but the E.U. is saying it is willing to step up and help North Korea out of its economic difficulties, which could, overall, be a very significant plus for North Korea, plus, it needs a security assurance by the United States, and that the United States has to step forward to do.

WHITFIELD: Is there any kind of timeframe, especially when it comes down to the assistance on electricity that's being offered as well?

SOHN: No, I think it's an as-soon-as-possible type of thing. North Korea is in dire economic need at the moment.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jie-Ae, thanks so much. Sohn Jie-Ae joining us. Ordinarily we see you from Beijing. This time, we get a chance to see you in person from Atlanta. Thanks so much.

SOHN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Missing in Philadelphia. Police are looking for a 24-year-old pregnant woman who vanished more than a week ago. The story on that coming up.

And dozens of Boy Scouts became sick at a memorial service for troop leaders. Hear what happened next. You're watching CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: NASA call it is a picture-perfect day on what is now the second full day of Discovery's mission. In moments, there will be a status briefing taking place at NASA's headquarters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. When that takes place, we'll be bringing that to you.

In Philadelphia, the search for a missing pregnant woman now boasts a $10,000 reward. Friends and family of 24-year-old Latoyia Figueroa have been combing fields and handing out fliers. She vanished 10 days ago after a doctor's appointment.

We get the details now from reporter Tina Kim of CNN's Philadelphia affiliate, WTXF.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TINA KIM, WTXF REPORTER (voice-over): Home video shot earlier this month shows Latoyia Figueroa, in the green top, playing with her daughter. Her loved ones don't know where the 24-year-old pregnant woman has been the last week, but they do know Figueroa, they say, would never neglect the needs of her seven-year-old girl, Ajanay (ph).

JOSEPH TAYLOR, UNCLE: She was definitely a good mother. In every sense of the word, she's a good mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wouldn't just leave her daughter unattended or anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wouldn't want to be apart from her.

KIM: Ayana Woodward (ph) has spoken with Ajanay, and says the child cries for her mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She say that she hopes she all right, and she wish that she'd come back.

KIM: Philadelphia police say a male friend last saw Figueroa about 3:30 p.m. Monday.

TAYLOR: Her being gone for so long, it tells me, it gets me worried.

KIM: Figueroa has not been to her job at a Center City Restaurant. She has not used credit cards or cell phone.

CHRISTINA LEWIS, FAMILY FRIEND: Her cell phone, just the answering machine just comes on, and she usually answers her phone.

LT. FRANK VANROE, PHILADELPHIA POLICE: We thought that it was alarming, and she could possibly be an endangered missing person.

KIM: Close friends say Figueroa has already been the victim of a crime. They say sometime in April, a woman attacked Figueroa outside her home where she lives with her kids and a great uncle. Figueroa told friends, the attacker kept hitting her belly.

LEWIS: We don't know who did it. We don't know nothing. The person jumped in the car and rode off.

KIM: Christine Lewis has no clue if there's any link. She just hopes Figueroa can hear her now.

LEWIS: Just come home, and everybody misses her.

KIM: In West Philadelphia, Tina Kim, Fox 29 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was reporter Tina Kim of our CNN affiliate in Philadelphia, WX -- WTXF, rather.

Now on to that NASA shuttle briefing, the status briefing taking place now. You're looking at Paul Hill. He's the flight's director, coming from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) PAUL HILL, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: ... among other things in order to provide some clearance to the payload bay for tomorrow's MPLM robotic operations, EDAs the day after that, and some EDA robotics work the next few days after that.

We've downlinked most of our asset data, most of our inspection data with only a few of the RPM photos to go, and just a few minutes of the last part of the crew's handheld video of the E.T. during separation. Most of that we brought down today. And we have a video to show you that has a few things in it, like some scenes from the rendezvous pitch maneuver. We have some example pictures from the rendezvous pitch maneuver, and a little bit of the crew flying the approach and the docking.

Now, this has been speeded up five times, but it gives you an idea how good the view is. And actually, the resolution as we played it in the control center, was heck of a lot better than this, and this is just from the video system on the space station. You can see we've got an excellent view the top of the orbiter, the nose cap, all the way around during the full-pitch maneuver, and even in this relatively poor resolution, you can make out individual tiles, you can see things like door seals around the landing gear door, you can make out the body flap, the elevans (ph), et cetera. Looks tremendous.

You can also see here that even with this speeded up, the crew had a lot of time on the station to snap the pictures of the bottom of the orbiter. Now, we took pictures all the way around, because the orbiter was there and we could do it, and it would give us just really great resolution and photo documentation. The ones we're primarily interested in are on the bottom of the vehicle and on the very top. This is the shot of Eileen flying down the V-bar, just before docking. And in that view, if you saw it in realtime, you could actually see the space station as it came down into the window view, and we made contact and docked. And here you see a replay of the crew during ingress when they first went inside.

Just before we began a few minutes ago, they were already in the process of pulling the ODSS up out of the latches. I expect by the time we walk out of there, it will be all the way out on the latches, and probably on the shuttle arm and on its way to be parked on the side and out of the way for tomorrow's operations.

Tomorrow's primarily robotics day. We're going to pull the MPLM up out of the payload bay with the station arm and install it on the station so the crew can go inside and start transferring the new hardware in and the old hardware out.

We have a few focused high-resolution inspections that we're talking about doing at the end of the day, and we reserved the second half of the crew's day for anything we saw in any of the data we pull down on flight day one, two or three.

We haven't yet settled on what, if any, focused inspection we're going to do at the end of the day tomorrow, but that's a process that's in work now. We'll have all of that finalized sometime tonight while the crew's asleep, and our robotics team has already started preliminary work on a few of the areas of interest in anticipation of any of those becoming final areas that we need more data on.

Tomorrow we'll also make some final preparations for the first space walk. That's on Saturday. And overall, we're now set to get on with the mission that the station's been waiting to see now for about two-and-half years. That's everything I have.

QUESTION: And, Paul, we have that one picture that was taken of the RPM photography?

HILL: That's everything I have, except for the one picture from the RPM photography. Taken with the 400-millimeter lens. The station crew is taking pictures with two different cameras, one with an 800 millimeter, one with a 400-millimeter lens. This shows the view with the 400-millimeter lens, and this gives you an idea of the extreme resolution we're going to have. Yesterday I referred to it as eye watering.

Even on this J-PEG shot that then loses some resolution when you put it on video like this, you can still pick out the tremendous amount of detail that our imagery analysts are going to have to work with. The raw data itself is much better than this. As I've already said, the views that we're really primarily concerned are either flat on top of the orbiter or all the way on the bottom. But this is a pretty good view that not many folks have ever seen, not to mention that video that we saw just a few minutes ago. That's a view that none of us have ever seen before, so this is great stuff.

We have very high expectations for what we're going to see in these RPM photography pictures. We'll and see how that turns out during the analysis that's going on through the night. That's everything -- John.

JOHN SHANNON, FLIGHT OPS & INTEGRATION: OK. Paul's here to talk about the operations team, and I have to tell you that the conduct of the team on the ground and the crew on orbit has been absolutely flawless and just outstanding, and they're getting all of the data that the engineering team needs.

And let me tell you a little about the engineering team. We're in the third day of this six-day process that I outlined for you two days ago. Most of the data gathering is complete. The -- there were really two objectives when we stepped into this flight from an imagery and a damage-assessment point of view. The first was to understand the health of Discovery, and to make sure that we understood what condition the orbiter was in and verify that it safe to re-enter. Two-part process to do that. The first is to use the orbital boom sensor system, the laser on the end of the boon, to do the scan of the reinforced carbon and carbon nose and one leading edge. And the second is for those pictures coming from the International Space Station that you just saw, to clear the tile area. That is the main way that do you it.

So those pictures from the ISS are coming down now. The imagery guys have them, and they're poring over them. The initial report is it looks extremely good, and we don't have anything to worry about on Discovery. However, I am preempting the six-day process that we're going to go through. We are going to continue to go through that and understand it exactly. The only additional piece of that data gathering will be tomorrow, when the engineering team hands to the ops team any area that they would like some additional focused inspections on, and Paul and his team will put that data together, and then hand that over to the engineers.

The second part was assessing the performance of the external tank. We have all the data we're going to get for that, and that is S.N. (ph) imagery, the imagery from the orbiter looking down on the external tank, and the realtime camera that we saw that was sitting on the liquid oxygen feedline, and the team is employing all of their tools, all their computer modeling, to go look at that. There are four areas that we're interested in. I think you've already heard about all of them. The biggest one, of course, was the air-loader, that pile ramp that is sitting along the side of the feedline. The initial estimate of the mass of the piece that came off of there was .9 pounds. That was determined by two different teams. So we're feeling fairly confident in that.

The other three areas that we're concerned about was the foam loss around the bipod area, the foam loss and the acreage (ph) behind the bipod, and then we lost little pieces off of one of the ice-frost ramps that holds the pressurization and cabling going up there.

So the team has a lot of information, they're poring through the data, and we'll work to understand that. You know, we have said, and I said two days ago, that this was a flight test. We certainly have gathered a lot of information on the performance both of the external tank and Discovery, and we'll take that information and we'll move out on it, and we have increased our understanding of the overall condition of the vehicle. That's all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we'll take questions here in Houston. Please state your name and affiliation. We'll just go right down the row, and we'll start with Bill.

QUESTION: Bill Harvey (ph) CBS with one for each of you, if I could.

For John Shannon, just looking at the quality of that 400- millimeter imagery, and obviously, we haven't seen the 800 yet -- well, we haven't -- can you tell us in general term what's you would get if you wanted to look at a nose gear tile, for example, with OBSS, versus the 800, which I'm assuming would almost put you down inside that cavity. Just in general, what the advantages are.

And for -- my mind's just gone blank. Paul Hill. Can you maybe share with us a little bit about how you keep your team focused amid what are obviously major distractions going on here with the tank and the future of the shuttle program -- things that are getting written and said about your program -- to keep your guys focused on the conduct of the mission? How -- what kind of a challenge that is?

SHANNON: The -- your first question, Bill, I think was -- the 800-millimeter pictures are so good -- and they are really, good. You can see a whole lot about tile concerns. What you don't see is depth. And if you had a gouge -- and right now we don't see any gouges that have any significant depth to them at all, but if you had a gouge that you could just see the white area, you wouldn't understand how deep it was, relative to the overall thickness of the tile. That was -- that was the primary motivation for developing the orbiter boom sensor system, was to be able to have a laser out there that you could go get the depth measurement and turn that over to the engineering team.

The 800-millimeter, you know, I -- saw the 400-millimeter zoomed in on that little area of the nose landing gear door that we had talked about two days ago. The resolution is amazing. It looks like it is just surface coating kind of chip thing out of it. It does not look significant at all. The team is going to go work on it. But, you know, if you had some major gouge in the tile, that's what the boom is going to give you, is that depth measurement.

HILL: For your second question, Bill, as far as the team focus goes, it's not too tough to maintain focus, because the job that we're engaged in right now takes 110 percent of our focus to do this job right. Although, sort of like I mentioned yesterday, we did talk about that, when our team came on today before the rendezvous. And I talked to them some about specifically what we've seen in ascent videos. And specifically what we're concerned about on the tank, or the areas of interest on the orbiter.

We talked about all that, and then we talked about, we have a job to do. We have a crew that's relying on us. We had a rendezvous and a docking that we needed to get through and then we had to hand off the OBSS, set ourselves up for all of these operations tomorrow, set ourselves up for the space walk the day after that. And we don't have the luxury of sitting around and thinking about what does this mean to the program? Or what are we going to do after 114?

We're still in the middle of living 114, and that, by itself, is pretty effective at keeping the teams focused. And we have trained enough that the team is very good at tuning out things like that, or various other things that would distract you say, back in the office, doing office work. When we're plugged in and on the ground, it's all about man space flight, it's all about taking care of Eileen Collins and her crew.

QUESTION: Thanks. Irene Hutts (ph) with Reuter's. I have two questions. First is for Paul. Can you talk a little bit about where you are in any planning for anything else you can do to leave the station -- to be on its own again for a while, such as extra water on anything with UVA suits or anything? And, also, the altitude boost, if that's going to be increased at all?

And then for John, you were scheduled to roll Atlantis out on August 3rd. And it you could just tell us a little about what you're planning on doing with that mission? Thank you.

SHANNON: I'm going to take both of them, because Paul -- the Ops team has been executing the plan, and it's as he showed you. It's a very ambitious plan. We did ask the ISS program at the mission management team yesterday to go think about if there are any things that we would do different, if we not going to fly the flight in September. That decision certainly hasn't been made, but, you know, you have to face reality. We had a significant problem that we have to go address and fix.

And the team is off doing that. I don't expect much to come out of that. I think we have -- have worked very hard to optimize the flight plan that we have, to put the space station in the best position possible. But we are looking that. That is something significant.

As far as the rollout of Atlantis, no decisions have been made either way. And as we go through the analysis of what happened on the external tank on this mission, that will flow into future decisions like that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) the Associated Press. With the grounding of future flights at this point, are -- do you think that the shuttle's outlived its life? And, secondly, another question as far as Eileen Collins earlier asked about the battery life in the sensors on the leading edge. She said there was some curiosity about that?

HILL: I'll take the second one. It's the easy question. Battery lifetime. We selected batteries for the leading edge impact sensors about a year ago that were designed to -- for the worst case entry environment. In particular, we were worried about things likes plasma leaking into the wing and we didn't want the batteries to explode. And that led us to selecting the battery that's on the aircraft or on the spacecraft right now.

Those batteries don't do very well when they get very cold, like they're doing right now up in orbit. And Eileen really was just asking us what do we think the temperatures are? How much longer do we think it's going to be before those batteries chill down and we're no longer able to downlink that data from the impact sensor system?

We've got all of the data down that we were looking for during ascent that would tell us whether or not we had any types of impacts. Engineering community's come back to us and already identified the timeframes that they wanted more data so they could better understand how the sensors worked. We've already also downlinked all of that data. So if the sensors go away now, we won't lose any data. The data's still stored in the system. We'll get it after the Discovery lands. But we wouldn't have access to it anymore, if we wanted to keep going onboard on bringing data down, or if we wanted rely on these sensors to detect things while we're in orbit.

So Eileen was really just looking for an idea of how we were doing there. And when I came off console, I had not yet gotten an estimate. But we still are on board and talking to that system, so it's still active today. And we were predicting it would stay with us for sometime through today or tomorrow, and we'll see how we do. We frequently do much better than the predictions.

SHANNON: As far as your second question, you know, I would just remind you that the shuttle is an amazing vehicle and it can do things in space that no other asset that anyone has can do. It can do things that -- like bringing down mass down that is not replicated by any other space vehicle.

You know, we've had a problem. We flew this flight with assets in a test plan that would go identify it if we had any problems. And we have found a significant one. No one is folding their tents, no one is down in the mouth. We have data. And all I see from the team is extreme determination to go and fix that problem.

QUESTION: Charles Hadlock (ph) with NBC News. Is there any indication that this much foam has fallen off other vehicles, other than Discovery and, of course, Columbia?

SHANNON: The -- from a historical perspective, you know, we have never had the assets to see foam lost from a tank like we do now. My opinion, based on the damage we have seen on tiles from vehicles that have come back, is that this is much less foam than we have seen overall. The thing that really concerns us is the powering floss, that that was a very large piece of foam. And that is clearly unacceptable and clearly has to go be fixed.

But many areas of the tank performed much better than they have in the past. And the main areas, the entertain flange (ph) area, where we had gotten fairly large divots on a regular basis -- and we just saw the one that came off the bipod area.

QUESTION: A follow-up question to that. If there is problem -- inherent problem with the tanks, is it worth going forward? Or should we just wait for the next generation of spacecraft?

SHANNON: You know, my opinion on that is that the design on this tank -- this is an iterative process. That, like I said, we have fixed a significant number of areas on the tank. We did not think the power ramp was a problem at all. We have now found out differently and we're going to go fix that piece, as well. So I think, with the flight that we have on the tank and the work that we're doing, that we can get the tank in good shape to go -- go fly again.

QUESTION: Nancy Hall (ph) with KTU (ph). It's sort of yet another follow-up to that. You've spent more than two years -- and a lot of people have said they really put their souls into making these corrections. And if there are still problems with the tank and the foam now that weren't corrected -- what degree of confidence do you have that another two months or two years that you'd still be able to correct the problems with the tank?

SHANNON: You know, it goes back -- it's almost the same question. The areas that we really concentrate on fixing, the bipod ramp, we eliminated that and put a heater in that area. That worked fine. The inner tank flange area, that was much better performance than in the past.

We did not spend a great deal of time and resources trying to change the design of the PAL ramps, and things were -- were put out there that we could go change it, but because you have a capability to inspect that area, the geometry of a PAL ramp, just when you're -- when you're manually spraying it, is much simpler than a bipod ramp. We built a pretty good set of rationales as a team why we -- why we should fly the configuration that we flew with. But we've learned something here.

That is -- that is absolutely the reason that we wanted to get all the data on the tank, that we spent the time and the -- and the money to go and put a camera we could downlink from the ET umbilical well area. It was to go learn these kind of things.

I would say that our knowledge of the external tank post main engine cutoff was not sufficient from an engineering standpoint. We understood that, and we've rectified that. So this is really the first flight that we have really good data on the tank performance. And we're going to take the information that we learned and go improve the tank.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This gentleman here, and then we'll go to the back rows.

QUESTION: Kevin Quinn with KTRK here in Houston.

Can you guys address, please, the larger picture related to ISS completion? With the grounding of the flight, do you feel that completion of ISS is still viable?

SHANNON: The -- you know, the grounding was I think -- I didn't hear Wayne or Bill say grounding of the shuttle flight. What I heard him say, and it's exactly accurate, is that we had a problem and we're going to go fix it.

And in reality, or past history would say that there is some period of time that that is going to take. But again, I don't see anything but resolve in the team, I don't see anything but determination in the team to take the information that we have and go rectify them.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A determined -- a determined NASA out of the Johnson Space Center there, saying that they want to try to get to the bottom, the root of the problem that they're seeing now with Space Shuttle Discovery after debris fell off the orbiter during its launch on Tuesday. But this morning, during this status meeting, we were also seeing some brilliant photographs coming out of NASA there, brilliant photos shared by NASA, images of an unprecedented turnover of the orbiter as the cameras are trying to examine any potential damage on that orbiter, as well as images of the meet-and-greet of the crews of Discovery, as well as those astronauts on the International Space Station.

Tomorrow, NASA says that robotics will be used to try and change out new hardware and old hardware. And they'll also begin making preparations for a space walk.

More on the NASA mission coming up.

Now more on other top stories we're following for you. A historic announcement today from the Irish Republican Army. We expect to hear any minute now from Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein. The IRA says it is ending its armed campaign against British rule in northern Ireland. Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed today's announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This is a step of unparalleled magnitude in the recent history of northern Ireland. The unionist community in particular, and all of us throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom, will want to see this clear statement of principle kept to in practice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Future space shuttle flights are on hold while NASA tries to solve a nagging problem. The piece of foam that fell off Discovery's external fuel tank prompted NASA to ground the shuttle fleet. Discovery is not believed to be in danger. It docked today with the International Space Station. Details straight ahead.

British police today arrested nine more people in last week's attempted bombings in London. But the search continues for three would-be bombers who are still on the loose. Today's arrests took place in south London. Details straight ahead in a live report from Scotland Yard.

And in Iraq, 49 suspected terrorists have been rounded up and detained over the past two days. That's according to the U.S. military. The detentions came during operations in Mosul, Rawa, and Talafar.

Welcome to the CNN LIVE TODAY. It is 11:00 a.m. in the nation's capital; 400 p.m. in Belfast, northern Ireland; and 11:00 p.m. in Beijing.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A high-flying rendezvous on the heels of a disappointing setback for NASA. The space agency has grounded the shuttle fleet, but Discovery's mission continues, and the crew is not believed to be in danger.

You're looking at live pictures of the space shuttle, linked up with the International Space Station for the first time in nearly three years. Those being taped pictures now.

The shuttle docked this morning after performing an unprecedented back-flip. The maneuver allowed the space station crew to photograph Discovery's underside, looking for any signs of damage.

Back on Earth, NASA is concerned about a chunk of foam that broke off from Discovery's external fuel tank during that liftoff. That led officials to ground all future flights. The foam did not appear to hit Discovery, unlike a similar incident that doomed the shuttle Columbia two-and-a-half ago.

NASA officials talked about Discovery's mission in a news conference just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL HILL, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: The orbiter continues to perform beautifully. The crew flew a picture-perfect rendezvous this morning. It went so well, as a matter of fact, it looked easy -- it even looked easy to us in the mission control room.

It was nominal by all measures. That's timing, prop usage, radar performance, lighting during the approach. Everything was just right on the rails, right out of the textbook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The problem of foam falling from the shuttle's external fuel tank is a problem NASA officials thought they had fixed. They spent millions of dollars, in fact, fixing it.

Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," our Miles O'Brien talked with the NASA administrator about what it will take to overcome this latest setback.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: I honestly don't know how hard it's going to be to fix the problem that you just saw on videotape there. We're going to have to examine that in some detail before we know that answer.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This particular piece of foam, which is sort of a wedge-shaped, it's very long, it goes along sort of some cable trays and a liquid hydrogen pipe, you can see the spot there -- that white spot is where it came off -- has been a problematic piece of foam in the past. It's hand-sprayed on, which are the areas that are of concern in general. About 10 percent of the foam is hand sprayed. And it has been looked at.

As you look back on it, was it not looked at thoroughly enough?

GRIFFIN: Well, in hindsight, obviously, I think, Miles, that would be -- would be true. If we had it to do over again, we would probably -- we certainly would do something more than had been done. The team that looked at it at the time decided that the PAL ramp foam that you're talking about was good enough to fly. That was an error. We're going to fix it before we fly again.

O'BRIEN: But there seems to be an inherent contradiction in their conclusion. The conclusion was it's good enough for fly, but we still need to make some improvements. Decipher that for me.

GRIFFIN: Well, there are a lot of areas on the shuttle where we know ultimately improvement should be had. We were not able to fix all of those, and frankly, we will never be able to fix all of those. At some point it's just time to retire the shuttle and move on to a newer, better system. The president and NASA have determined that that will be in 2010, and until then it's our goal to fly everyone as safely as we can do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we will bring you updates or developing news from NASA as it happens.

One week after the attempted transit bombings in London the focus is on finding three would-be bombers still on the loose. Police made more arrests today in that investigation.

CNN's Jonathan Mann joins us now from Scotland Yard in London with the very latest -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, on the same day that the people of this country learned that the IRA is giving up its weapons and giving up its war, they got very graphic ideas about the new kinds of weapons, the new war that they're going to face. Let me show you a picture that's front-page news all across this country.

This is one of the bombs that was found left behind by the bombers who killed 52 people here exactly three weeks ago. It's a conventional plastic bottle, the kind you might find in any supermarket, filled with explosives, detonator cables, very clearly visible running out the top. And then the whole thing surrounded by nails which have been bound to the bottle with plastic wrap to create shrapnel for when this bomb was exploded.

It was not. But police are still looking for men who might have more explosives and more plans.

As you mentioned, there have been more arrests. Nine men were arrested this morning in the Tooting area, a neighborhood of south London. Now, they are not believed to be among the suspected bombers that the police are looking for, but they are being questioned. The police are obviously trying to get any information they can.

Now, that arrest in south London comes after Wednesday night's arrest in another neighborhood nearby in the Stockwell area of the city. Three women who are held now on suspicion of harboring offenders in the connection with the plot one week ago, the botched bombings that, in fact, killed no one but that have caused so much concern, because three bombers at least are still believed at large.

A short time ago, the head of the police force here at Scotland Yard, Sir Ian Blair, talked about what the police are facing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER IAN BLAIR, LONDON METROPOLITAN POLICE: It's a race against time. There are -- you know, there are two possibilities. Either we found them, or they're capable of carrying out more atrocities. That's why we are pursuing them with such urgency. But we are getting a lot of help from the public. And we are continuing to carry out the biggest manhunt that the Metropolitan Police has ever done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Twenty different suspects or people are being held in connection with these attacks. But once again, the three crucial figures, the men who tried to set off bombs a week ago and failed, have not been found, nor have the people who equipped them, who trained them, or who inspired them. So the police still have an awful lot of work ahead -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jonathan Mann, thanks so much, from Scotland Yard.

Well, London authorities are racing against time. They're trying to piece together some of those clues in the two terror attacks in hopes of preventing another.

Bill Neely has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL NEELY, ITV NEWS (voice-over): Today's arrests prove this is a widespread and a multiethnic plot. The target: London, twice. The question now, where are the others? And are there more?

PROF. MICHAEL CLARKE, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT: It will be prudent to assume that there may be at least one or maybe two other cells who are at a relatively high state of readiness, and I'm sure that's the assumption that the security force is working on. And that's why time is so short. They've got to get this trail sorted out before it goes cold, and they've got to forestall a third or a fourth attack, which is standard terrorist planning.

NEELY: Security services are trying to build a jigsaw of the plot. They have some pieces, the four dead bombers, linked by their explosives and their target, London, to the second cell. Its four faces now known, one arrested. A fifth bomb recovered points to a fifth man.

The leader of the first lead cell is linked to the two British men who launched suicide attacks in Israel and to Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a plane. Many are linked to the mosque at Finsbury Park, and most came out of the blue.

But there are missing pieces. Who is the mastermind? Who's the recruiter, the financier, the planner, the chemist, the bombmaker, the safe house owner? The jigsaw has hardly begun.

At MI5 headquarters, agents know the bombers are two steps ahead. Desperate to prevent further attacks, they're analyzing phone taps, e- mails, computers, reviewing what they know, following suspects. They've recruited more staff from ethnic backgrounds. But it will take years before that pays off. DAVID BEN-ARYEAH, INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Israeli experience has shown that it can take up to eight years to plant an undercover agent. Their background story has to be developed. It's called their legend. It has to be refined. They have to then work very hard and quietly and subtly to become accepted.

NEELY: The key to catching these and future bombers is intelligence. The difficulty, none of these men were known to MI5 before they attacked. It's a race against time to catch Muktar Said Ibrahim and his cell, and to stop any others repeating an atrocity like this.

Bill Neely, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: In northern Ireland, has peace broken out? After the break, you'll hear from Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams about his new peace plan in that region.

And it's not called the volcano of fire for nothing. We'll tell you where this spectacular explosion happened and how nearby residents are coping.

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WHITFIELD: We want to take you now to northern Ireland, to Dublin, Ireland, specifically, where you see in a background a familiar face, Gerry Adams. He is the leader of Sinn Fein, which is a political ally of the Irish Republican Army.

Well, a major breakthrough according to sources with the IRA. It's an historic announcement.

They are promising that the IRA is ending its armed campaign against British rule in northern Ireland. It has been some time since anyone can recall by memory the IRA causing any political violence as they did on a fairly regular basis there in northern Ireland and in other parts of the U.K. But now Gerry Adams is going to be making this formal announcement as he's being introduced.

Let's listen in right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... take questions for Gerry and any of the other members of the Sinn Fein leadership here. So thank you again. And could I ask the people to turn off their mobile phones?

GERRY ADAMS, SINN FEIN LEADER: (SPEAKING GAELIC).

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, in a moment, when he does begin to speak English, making that historic announcement there, Gerry Adams with Sinn Fein, we'll be bringing that to you. Meantime, the fight between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Republicans has left nearly 4,000 people dead over the years. CNN's Matthew Chance takes a look at the period of violence known as the troubles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For centuries it's been a troubled land of conflict between Catholics and Protestants. The latest chapter, called the troubles in northern Ireland, has left thousands dead over more than 30 years.

British troops were welcomed at first in the late 1960s as protectors of minority Catholics demanding greater rights. But before long they were bitter enemies. The provincial IRA was formed, it says...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to try to get back to Matthew Chance's report in a moment, because now Gerry Adams is speaking English. We want to bring that to you right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ADAMS: ... lasting peace with justice. I want to commend the commitment of those who have taken this decision. I want to appeal as strongly as I can for unity and solidarity among Irish Republicans and nationalists on the island of Ireland and beyond, and for the struggle in this new dispensation to be carried forward with energy and enthusiasm.

The decision by Oglina Herend (ph) presents an unparalleled challenge and opportunity for every nationalist and republican.

(SPEAKING GAELIC)

There is a huge responsibility on us all to seize this moment and to make Irish freedom a reality. And I would urge all Irish nationalists and republicans and others, including those who have shown such commitment as volunteers in the IRA, to put their undoubted talents and energy into building a new Ireland.

Today's IRA initiative also presents difficulties and challenges for others. In my April appeal, I made the point that commitments, including commitments from the two governments, were reneged on in the past. History will not be kind to any government or politician who plays politics with today's developments.

And there's nye no possible excuse for the British and Irish governments to not fully and faithfully implement the Good Friday agreement. In particular, this means an end to pandering to those unionists who are rejectionists.

It means the British government must urgently address the issues of demilitarization, equality, and the human rights agendas. It means the Irish government must actively promote the rights and entitlements of all citizens, including those in the north.

It means the Irish government actively promoting Irish unity.

It means that unionists who are for the Good Friday agreement must end their ambivalence.

And it's a direct challenge to the DUP to say that they want to put the past behind them and make peace with the rest of the people on this island.

Today's IRA statement can help revive the peace process. It deals with genuine unionist concerns and removes from the leadership of unionism any excuse for non-engagement.

Republicans should not be surprised that our opponents will continue to try to defeat us. And in the short term, in my opinion, initiatives by the IRA are unlikely to change the attitude of those who oppose us in London or Dublin or within unionism. And we can expect this opposition to continue until we succeed in our endeavors.

But today's statement by the IRA is clear evidence of the commitment of republicans to the peace process. It is actually republicans leading by example.

I'm also very mindful that today will be an emotional one for many people. And I'm particularly conscious of all those who have suffered in the conflict. I want to extend my solidarity to the families of our patriot dead and to commit myself and our leadership to continue our efforts to win Irish freedom.

I'm also conscious of the many other families on all sides who have suffered. Let us all do...

WHITFIELD: All right. You're listening to Gerry Adams there, Sinn Fein leader, out of Dublin, Ireland, announcing that the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, will end its armed campaign, ending something like three decades of violence there.

The White House has responded, saying, "We welcome today's IRA statement pledging an end to armed campaign. This is an important and potentially historic statement."

We'll have more news right after this.

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WHITFIELD: Well, it's still sizzling outside in many parts of the country. Let's check in with Bonnie Schneider. She's in the weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Rehabilitation is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. military members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not just physical healing, but re-learning life and occupational skills.

You're looking at a live picture right now from Capitol Hill. And that's Representative Bill Young. He is among those who are pushing for plans for a new rehabilitation facility to assist fallen heroes.

Among others pushing for that plan, Senator John McCain, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator John Warner, and the VA secretary, James Nicholson.

A bit later on in this hour we'll be speaking more about the proposed Veterans Rehabilitation Center, the fallen heroes fund that will help back it. And we'll be talking with Senator John McCain. That's coming up in about 20 minutes from now.

Six-party talks continue in Beijing regarding North Korea's nuclear program. But you might be surprised to learn of an unlikely friendship. It involves North Korea's Kim Jong-il and an elderly South Korean woman. Ahead, your chance to see their story, only on CNN.

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