Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Latest NASA Surveyor Craft En Route to the Red Planet

Aired April 09, 2001 - 11:25   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: NASA has released 10,000 new images of the planet Mars, showing them free on the Internet right now. In the meantime, the latest Mars surveyor craft is on its way to the red planet.

The six-month journey began over the weekend, and our John Zarrella has an update for us now. He's in Miami this morning -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Leon.

I tell you that was a huge hurdle for NASA to get over, the launch of the vehicle. Of course, it was the first launch to Mars of a spacecraft since the loss in 1999 of both the Polar Lander and the Climate Orbiter. So very important for them to get this hurdle over with. As you said, six months to go before it reaches Mars.

Then the next big hurdle getting into orbit, orbiting the planet, and then beginning to -- the search for water and hydrogen and all these other elements that NASA's going to start looking for.

I just checked the Web site. Everything is going very, very well two days into the mission. The vehicle has got to go 286-million miles to get to Mars. It's already in 48 traveled over one-million miles.

There was a small little glitch and concern on -- before the launch on Sat -- during the launch Saturday when a -- an alarm went off in one of the solar-panel sensors. They said that's not a problem. So they're not worried about that.

The vehicle is in fine shape, they're saying now. It's in a cruise mode, as they say, on its way now to the red planet. But, of course, the most spectacular thing to see were the images that NASA sent back right during and after the launch. Let's take a look and a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one. Main engine. We have ignition and lift off of a Delta II rocket carrying NASA on an odyssey back to Mars.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZARRELLA: Now what looking at there are the high -- what you're looking at there are the high-definition images as the spacecraft pulls away from the launch pad. There's a wide shot, of course, of the vehicle.

The next thing you're going to see coming up here the separation of the solid rocket boosters. Absolutely fabulous. There are nine of those boosters in all that separate at different stages during the ascent through...

Now here -- you never have seen this. That's called the fairing blowing away. That's the nose cone. What you're looking at there was the spacecraft itself. That encapsulates the space aircraft.

And there it is. This is the second stage of the -- of the rocket separating from the spacecraft, after it burned out. It's still attached to the third stage-main engine, and that will have to ignite at some point down the road here. That happens about 24 minutes into the flight. It was over Europe at that time when this particular event was happening.

And that is the spacecraft spinning away, and -- much like a dancer does when -- or you see an ice skater -- to slow themselves down. There are weights attached to the vehicle, and they come out, these weights, and as it spins, the weights slow the vehicle down so, eventually, the spacecraft won't spinning so much. It will stabilize as it begins its journey out.

So a fabulous, fabulous show. Those were high-definition pictures, some of the most spectacular images that I have ever seen of -- that NASA has sent back -- Leon.

HARRIS: It's -- you're amazing us this morning, John. I don't see how NASA tops this one. First, they came -- I thought maybe perhaps it wouldn't be nearly as good as the pictures that -- that we actually got from Mars last time around, but they topped themselves with this one. What is to come on this mission? What should we expect to be seeing coming from Mars once this thing gets underway?

ZARRELLA: Well, what -- what we're going to see -- at some point, they're talking about turning a camera to the South Pole of Mars when they actually get close enough and maybe looking for where Polar Lander is expected to have crashed. That's coming up, but that will be six months from now.

Then it goes into orbit and begins its mission. Now part of the mission of this spacecraft is to find landing spots -- sites -- good landing sites for the 2003 missions.

In 2003, the next opportunity to go to Mars, there will be twin spacecraft that will be going on two separate rocket. They will be twin Landers with Rovers that are about yeah big, they say, which is considerably larger than the Sojourner Rover that went up on Pathfinder back in '96. So that's going to be some sensational events in the next couple of years that we can look forward to. And, again, keeping their fingers crossed at NASA that this one goes well. Hugely critical that they get this vehicles, the Odyssey, into orbit around Mars in six months, and they begin a successful mapping mission of the planet because of what had happened during 1999. But, right now, all is going well, and those pictures were spectacular -- Leon.

HARRIS: Boy, I'm tell you that was great. Thanks much, John. Talk to you later. John Zarrella reporting live this morning from Miami.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com