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Mission to the Moon Artemis II Launch; Sen. Mark Kelly, (D-AZ), is Interviewed About Astronauts Strapped Into Their Seats And Ready for Launch; NASA Tracking New Battery Problem But Countdown Continues. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 01, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: And thank you very much to my panel. You can now stream The Arena live or catch up wherever you want -- whenever you want in the CNN app. You can just scan that QR code below. And CNN Special Live coverage of the Artemis II "Mission to the Moon" starts right now.

[17:00:50]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at live pictures of the Artemis II rocket at the Kennedy Space center in Florida, where right now four astronauts are preparing to embark on a moon mission for the first time in 50 years. In just over an hour and 20 minutes, the Artemis II crew is expected to begin a journey that will take them around the far side of the moon, farther into space than any human has ever gone. I'm Boris Sanchez live at Kennedy Space Center. And behind me is the Orion spacecraft perched on top of NASA's SLS rocket. The spacecraft and the astronauts inside it are about to embark on a 10- day journey.

They will orbit Earth for a little more than a day before traveling on a figure 8 path, looping around the far side of the moon, then finally plunging back through the Earth's atmosphere, targeting a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off of California's coast. Just a few hours ago, the four astronauts made their way from the Neil Armstrong operations and checkout building to the launch pad. This crew accounts for a series of potential firsts, the first person of color, woman and Canadian to fly on a lunar mission. On board are mission commander Reid Wiseman, who spent over five months on the International Space Station. Victor Glover, the mission pilot who flew SpaceX Crew 1 to the International Space Station.

Mission Specialist Christina Cook is joining them as well, who set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. And Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, a member of the Canadian Space Agency, on his maiden voyage to space. Right now, crowds are gathering here in Florida and millions around the world are watching and with anticipation as we count down to liftoff.

Let's kick off this coverage right now with our panel. First, let's start with CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean. Pete, walk us through where the launch status is right now because we had indications that there might be a tiny glitch.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: So much has gone right today. The fueling went well and smooth, a dramatically clean countdown up until this point. And now we're hearing from NASA that there is an issue with the automated flight termination system, essentially a system that makes it so that if the rocket, the space launch system, veers off course, that it could self-destruct safely. It's also meant to protect those on the ground, the public and us here at the press mound just next to the vehicle assembly building with launch pad 39B off in the distance. It sounds like this is an issue in the eastern range, which is part of essentially the larger complex of bases here at Cape Canaveral that is part of the Space Force Base.

And it sounds like from NASA they're going to use old shuttle equipment to verify where this problem is and what exactly the problem is. The good news is the countdown has not stopped. Still an hour 20 and 50 seconds until launch. We don't want to jinx it just yet, although it seems that if this issue persists, it would be a no go and at the very least a delay. At the very most, a scrub for this launch when so much was going right today and the overarching theme from NASA was confidence, but not too much confidence.

SANCHEZ: As of right now, the mission is still a go. So it seems that NASA is confident that they will be able to manage this glitch before the launch window closes. Let's bring in the rest of our panel who's going to be here to join us on this historic day. We have retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and CNN aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien.

Cady, perhaps not the news that we wanted to hear, that there's this slight glitch, but again, NASA's very confident they could manage this.

CADY COLEMAN, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, I would say that they've planned the timeline that they've got room to manage, to try to manage anything that comes up. I'm not so sure that they are sure that they're going to do it, but they've built in time to do their best and see what they can do.

SANCHEZ: Miles, what do you make of this situation? It sounds like they're trying to use some analog equipment to handle this.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, this points out an interesting thing about this brand new rocket. It was built with old pieces. It has shuttle engines that actually flew on the shuttle, solid rocket boosters. There's one extra section, but the same design as the shuttle. The idea was to build this rocket faster by using parts harvested from previous technology.

[17:05:07]

But what they've discovered along the way is first of all, it makes things very complicated when you're trying to retrofit something that was designed in the late '70s into a 21st century vehicle. And on top of that, the flight termination system, which every astronaut wants to make sure that they know the person who's going to be pushing that button and usually leave a picture of their family with them to remind them of what that's all about. The flight termination system goes back to the analog days. And this vehicle, even though it's brand new, is using something from a previous generation. So it points out a bigger theme here, that this rocket is a rocket of the future, but also very much a rocket of the past.

SANCHEZ: I'm glad that, Miles, Cady, mentioned the 1970s, because that was really the last era that we saw the United States try to go for deep space exploration this way. Talk to us about the significance of Artemis II, what it means for the broader picture of where the U.S. and NASA eventually want to go.

COLEMAN: Well, it's where people have wanted to go. I mean, we're built to explore. And I think that no one's ever given up on the thing that they see in the sky it's the first place we pass on our way to the moon or Mars. And yet, you know, at that time in the '70s, it was not, you know, supported by the public. And now we've been -- we've been building for a long time to get ready to make this leap, not just to go and plant a flag on the moon, but to make the plans and make -- build a base there and actually stay.

And so that's, I think -- I know that I look up in the sky and I see the moon and I think about it differently, knowing that people are going to live there and probably all know them, right?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COLEMAN: And that it's just important that you realize that, you know, Earth and home is just bigger than we thought, and it certainly includes our moon.

SANCHEZ: I want to ask you more about that humbling experience of seeing home from all the way out there. But I do want to ask you, Miles, about the point that Cady brings up, the idea that not only are humans eventually going to live on the moon, but the moon is going to become a launch pad for bigger, more ambitious projects.

O'BRIEN: It's an ambitious goal, but we got a long way to go.

SANCHEZ: OK.

O'BRIEN: You know, there's a lot of things that need to be solved before human beings are going to get down to the surface of Mars and work in a practical manner. All kinds of issues, addressing radiation, the amount of equipment we can, as a practical matter, get on the surface of Mars and have enough fuel to return. These are all things, though, that you can work out a lot easier when you're just a few days away on the moon and have still real time communication. Remember, when you're on Mars, it's about a 35 to 40 minute round trip for conversations. It's very difficult to do a punchline to a joke when you go to Mars.

SANCHEZ: You got to get the timing right.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. Not good. Not good. SANCHEZ: Comedy is all about timing, as --

O'BRIEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- Miles well knows.

Guys, please standby for us because we want to go to Randi Kaye because thousands are here on the Florida coast to watch history unfold. Randi has arguably the best view. She's on the viewing platform that is closest to the rocket itself.

Randi, how does it look out there?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It looks pretty amazing, Boris. I'm just a little bit closer than you are. If you look here over my left shoulder, there is the rocket and the Orion capsule. And we are indeed about as close as you can get and still watch this liftoff safely when it hopefully happens around 6:24. This is the ultimate watch party.

NASA advertises this as a party in the heat zone. That's how close we are. We're going to feel the heat, we're going to feel the rumble. Just check out the crowd here. They've been here for hours just waiting for this launch to happen.

And I did get a chance to speak with some of the VIPs in the crowd. I spoke with Joy Odom, who is actually pilot Victor Glover's mother-in- law. And she told me that she is prayerful, hopeful and encouraged. She said when she saw him today, he appeared to her calm and confident and very, very focused. I also spoke with a good friend of Victor Glover's, family friend, she told me that she has mixed emotions as she sat here in the bleacher.

She's afraid, excited. And she asked him before he got -- before this, she said to him, what is the best moment that you're looking forward to? He said, splash down, in fact. And then I also met a few Canadians who traveled all the way here to watch Jeremy Hansen lift off, the Canadian that is taking part in the NASA lunar mission. They are really excited, but also a little bit nervous.

And then I did speak to Major Sellers. He is Victor Glover's friend since the ninth grade. Victor Glover is the godfather for his children. He married him at his wedding. He was the best man at the wedding.

And he said that he is very, very excited. He said that it's a mix of pride and fear, but he's very excited to be here and he said Victor wouldn't let anything happen. So a lot of mixed feelings here, but certainly a lot of excitement as we wait for launch here in the heat zone. Boris.

SANCHEZ: So much excitement. Randi Kaye, thank you so much.

[17:10:00]

It's not just the launch that is historic. As we mentioned a moment ago, the crew is history making as well. Pete Muntean is with us to walk us through the astronauts on this mission.

A lot of talent aboard, Pete.

MUNTEAN: So much talent on board. And the thing I would underscore here is that it seems that because this is essentially the most advanced test flight we have ever seen, there's some good piloting ability here from Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover. They are the commander and pilot, Christina Koch, the mission specialist, and then Jeremy Hansen, also mission specialist from Canada, it is a very international crew. And this makes up our crew that will also --

SANCHEZ: Pete, I'm sorry to interrupt.

MUNTEAN: Go ahead.

SANCHEZ: But it's with great news. So we just heard -- we just heard from our team that the range issue has been fixed. So now the mission is a go. And we are about an hour and 13ish minutes from the launch window opening and watching history unfold before us.

Pete, the range issue's fixed. So great to hear. Tell us more about the crew.

MUNTEAN: Well, and then I would think I would underscore today just how much has gone right today.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: And I have my model out because I just want to talk about the fueling, that was really the sort of skeleton --

SANCHEZ: Lingering issue.

MUNTEAN: -- in all of this.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: Hydrogen -- liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen in four different tanks, two for liquid hydrogen, two for liquid oxygen. The main stage, that was the biggest concern. And then the upper stage was also a concern. And during the wet dress rehearsal of eight weeks ago, which was essentially a dry run, pardon the pun, for this launch, there were issues with the fuel itself. And the problem is with liquid hydrogen, it's an incredibly small, in fact, the smallest molecule, making it very leak prone.

And so NASA was continually finding leaks in the rocket itself. And that was the biggest hurdle we cleared today.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: It seemed that that was where a potential snag could occur. And most of the fueling really went on without issue.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: The issue is, though, you have to keep hydrogen and oxygen at its liquid form at a very, very low temperature.

SANCHEZ: There's a --

MUNTEAN: And so we're seeing some of it vent off.

SANCHEZ: Yes. There's a ton of boxes that you got to check off.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: And quickly, Cady, if you could describe for us the feeling of anticipation as you're sitting there laying flat on your back in this capsule, hearing, yes, there's a thing with the range, we got to figure it out. But good news, we got it figured out. And now you're essentially just sitting there waiting, hoping that the rest of the boxes check off.

COLEMAN: Well, certainly there's this, you know, sort of like, you know, everybody's thinking and then -- and then -- and, you know, you're thinking, you're going. And then suddenly people talk about something and I think they just think about the team that is solving the problem. And they're going to solve it if they can. I mean, we go when it's right. And I think they keep a pretty level strain in the cabin.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COLEMAN: But I'm betting they're really excited right now.

SANCHEZ: I know you have some personal experience with some unexpected events happening soon after liftoff. You were telling me earlier that you had a challenge. At one point you had to decide whether a mission had to be aborted and you had to have effectively an emergency landing. How much of that gets worked out before you even get here in the tens of thousands of hours that you spend training for something like this?

COLEMAN: Well, my first thought when the problem was announced, which was really just as were clearing the tower, right, is that we had an electrical short. My first thought was that, you know, we just did this last week in a simulator because we did with literally, you know, a different electrical bus, but the same principle of got an indication of a short. We have to see what it means. Some of the computers have lost, you know, their alternate controller, so they've sort of made more conservative calculations. And we're just listening to mission control.

What they're seeing, is there a problem? We don't really know. And on board, our job is to think about what's the next. Is it too late to come back? And after it's too late to come back, where are we going to go next and can we still go there if we have another problem?

So we're always thinking about what's next. And those things happened all the way to -- we sort of sailed towards main engine cutoff. And then just before we were supposed to hear -- we heard main engine cutoff with a low level cut, meaning we ran out of fuel.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

COLEMAN: And those conservative calculations from the engines that they did because of the short, it turns out we had a fuel leak that was not something they could understand, but knew something was wrong. And that fuel leak would have been actually recognized by the engines and with a low level cut, would have been catastrophic.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

COLEMAN: So the combination of these two failures, we got to space. And I have to tell you that, I mean, our job was to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COLEMAN: -- one of a kind, 1.8 billion at the time.

SANCHEZ: And you were able to accomplish the mission. And we're fortunate that it all worked out and that you're back with the --

COLEMAN: It's true. So it -- so it happens, you know?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COLEMAN: And I -- and I mean, amazingly, really as soon as you're up there, that's done. We're OK.

[17:15:02]

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COLEMAN: What's next? Let's deploy the telescope.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And what is next for these astronauts aboard the Artemis II? The second hatch is just about to close, or I think it just has closed. We're obviously watching these events unfold closely as they happen.

Still to come on CNN, the astronauts critical flight path. Why every detail on this 10-day journey matters. We're going to speak with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about this ambitious mission and how one day this could be a stepping stone toward Mars.

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SANCHEZ: We're back with CNN special coverage of NASA's historic and risky journey around the moon. We are just over one hour from launch as we look at live pictures from NASA's Kennedy Space Center here on the Space Coast. There it is, Artemis II. This massive space shuttle -- space launch system, I should say that is about the size of the Statue of liberty and has 8 million pounds of thrust. Moments ago, NASA closed the spacecraft's hatch.

[17:20:07]

And you can see that as of right now, everything is a go. Well, let's talk about it with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us. What is your reaction to seeing this enormous vessel on the launch pad just about ready to go?

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Well, first, last I measured, I think it's way bigger than the Statue of Liberty. So just put that in context. And I'm impressed, finally, we're going back to the moon. By the time we get to the moon, they'll say, where you been? I'm thinking anybody on the moon would be asking us that.

As you -- we all know, it's been 50 years since anyone has been back to the moon. We're mimicking Apollo 8 in this journey. Apollo 8 went to the moon in December 1968, did not land, so fewer people remember that mission for that reason. But it did a figure 8 around the moon and came back. Excuse me, Apollo 8 orbited this one, will just do a figure 8 and come back.

But the point is, no one has been that far away from Earth, not only in the 50 years since Apollo 17, but because it's this huge looping figure 8. These astronauts will be farther from Earth than any human being has ever been before. That's kind of an interesting fact about this.

SANCHEZ: One of many -- can you walk us through the physics involved here? There's going to be a massive fuel expenditure to get off the ground. And on the way, the spacecraft is actually going to be relying on the moon's gravity to get it back. Sort of like a slingshot, similar to what we saw with Apollo 13, though that was unintentional.

TYSON: Yes. So, of course, you have to get off of Earth. And you remember what your grandma said, whatever goes up must come down. That's actually not true. There's a speed above which if you left Earth at that speed, you'll never come back.

And that's the escape velocity. So when Artemis II goes into Earth orbit, apparently it'll spend, you know, a day in Earth orbit. Why not? If you're going to check out the systems that, you know, life support and rockets and everything else. When it's time to leave Earth, it will go into a trans lunar injection, which will take its orbital speed, add speed to it, which will take it away from Earth en route to the Moon.

So it'll be nearly the escape velocity. It just needs enough speed to get into the orbital influence, into the gravitational influence of the moon, so that it will then fall towards the moon. And so people think that when you're in space, you're always burning rockets. No, in a sort of free transfer you get enough speed to start your journey that gets you to the crossover point. And in the crossover point, then moon's -- the moon's gravity takes you in.

But in this particular case, they want to go around the moon just once. And it'll take some -- you know, you've got to know what you're doing there. And the computers do, we presume, and it comes right on back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific. So we've done this before, and we just want to remind ourselves that we still know how to do it again.

SANCHEZ: And it's also a good way to set the table for future exploration. We were just speaking a moment ago here with the panel about how the next step is essentially a lunar colony and then creating a launch pad there that would potentially get us to Mars.

TYSON: Yes, so there are a lot of sort of nested layers here. So, for example, if we remember the Apollo era, every mission was an increment on the previous mission, for safety reasons, for familiarizing ourselves with something we've never done before. You don't want to just jump out there and miss intermediate steps where you could have learned something or where smaller errors can be corrected and not be catastrophic. That's the first point.

Second, it's not always the best thing to use the moon as a launch pad to go somewhere else only because we take advantage of the fact that Earth has an atmosphere, Mars has an atmosphere. That's good when you want to slow down, all right, otherwise you need fuel to slow down. And so to go to an airless --

SANCHEZ: Right.

TYSON: -- environment, it's not always the best place to call base if you're going to go places and then return. But if you're going to go to the moon and stay, then fine. And what's great about the moon, it's only three days away. You can have a whole trip within a news cycle, and nobody forgets about you. So I like the Moon because it stays with us the whole journey with the astronauts.

[17:25:06]

SANCHEZ: Yes, a lot of reasons to like the moon, that being a principal one, especially on this mission.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, thank you so much for sharing your expertise. Always appreciate your time.

TYSON: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course. So four astronauts are about to embark on the most challenging spaceflight of their lives. What could they be thinking right now? What could they be on their minds and as they lay flat on their backs with space in front of them?

My next two guests have been to space several times. Twins and retired astronauts, Senator Mark Kelly and his brother Scott, will be joining us next.

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[17:30:06]

SANCHEZ: CNN special coverage of the highly anticipated launch of Artemis II, which is now expected in less than an hour. You're looking at live pictures of Artemis II at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. This historic mission to the Moon bringing humans one step closer to the next frontier, Mars.

We're joined now by two space experts. Don't adjust your screens. They're twin brothers and both retired astronauts, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Scott Kelly. Thank you both so much for being here. First and foremost, what is your reaction now, being on the cusp of history, seeing it firsthand?

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ), RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, hey, I'm excited. I know the crew members are really excited about this. I'm sure their families are. NASA is. And I think the country is. I mean, this is something that can really unite us and bring us together. And we only got, what, 53 minutes to go? And these guys are going on an incredible ride here from Florida all the way to the Moon and back.

SANCHEZ: All the way to the Moon and back. Further than anyone has ever been, Scott.

SCOTT KELLY, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Absolutely. Further and, I think, faster --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

S. KELLY: -- than any other humans have ever traveled.

SANCHEZ: Yes. What does it mean to you to be here today witnessing this, given your time in space, giving everything that you've been part of as NASA gets back to the Moon?

S. KELLY: Yes. Well, one of my earliest memories was Apollo 11, 1969, the first lunar landing. So, for me, 50 years later, to be here seeing people fly around the Moon is really, really amazing.

M. KELLY: The only place that I would rather be than sitting right here next to you is sitting about two and a half miles in Orion --

SANCHEZ: I bet.

M. KELLY: -- on the launch pad.

SANCHEZ: What is it like to be laying there, as I was saying a moment ago, with someone you're very familiar with, Colonel Cady Coleman, laying on your back, going through that checklist? It's got to be nerve-wracking to a degree.

M. KELLY: It's exciting. You're focused. And, you know, in my case, you know, doing that four times on the space shuttle, you really just don't want to make a mistake. You know, they've got things that they have to do in order. Some of them are rather complex. But you're focused on the mission. And you're really looking forward to getting it started when that clock hits zero.

SANCHEZ: And when that clock hits zero, what goes through your mind?

S. KELLY: Well, you know, it depends, I think, on which launch it is for you. But, you know, a new rocket, no one's ever flown this before. In the case of, you know, the Canadian Jeremy Hansen, he's never launched into space on a rocket. And the first few seconds, you're like, holy crap, this is more energy than I thought.

As a matter of fact, I tried to explain. I flew a couple of years before he did. And for those two years, I tried to explain to him what launch was going to be like. And then when he landed on his first mission and the hatch opened and he came out, the first thing he said to me is I had no idea what that launch was going to be like.

M. KELLY: Yes, it's a crazy ride.

SANCHEZ: It's indescribable.

M. KELLY: Yes, and the simulator can't. The simulator does a really good job at the systems.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

M. KELLY: Doesn't even try or attempt to make it feel like what it actually feels like.

SANCHEZ: Eight million gallons of thrust is how people felt.

M. KELLY: Well, you know how it looks like you're going up really smoothly? I don't feel anything like that.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

M. KELLY: I mean, it feels like you're shifting like 30, 40, 50 feet in either direction very rapidly, like you're going down the railroad tracks on a runaway train at a thousand miles an hour.

SANCHEZ: That is a great way to put it. I wonder, Senator, what you think this means for the country. You were talking a moment ago about a unifying moment as we're divided in our politics and even on space exploration itself, there's a lot of folks that I've talked to out there that are wondering why spend so much money on these expensive missions when there are issues on land that that money can alleviate. What is your response to those folks?

M. KELLY: Well, I mean, a couple things here. First, on the unifying thing, right? It's good when we can come together as a country. We've got a lot going on, right? There's a war with Iran. There's a war in Europe. We've got rising costs and everything from groceries to rent to health care.

But why do we want to do this? Well, first of all, this is only something like Americans can do, right? We haven't seen the Chinese are attempting to go to the Moon. They can't easily do missions like this.

SANCHEZ: Senator, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I've just heard from one of our producers, and I want them to repeat it one more time to make sure I get this precisely right. There is a problem, a new problem, a temperature reading on the launch abort system battery. For someone who has no idea what that means, can you put that in context for us? M. KELLY: Well, it's likely, you know, the abort system that allows the Orion capsule to be pulled off the top of the rocket. If things start to go wrong, that system, obviously, if there's a battery issue, has a battery in it, and maybe it's not sensing the direct voltage or that, you know, the battery is fully charged. We'll see if it's something that they can fix. They might be able to fix it here in the next hour or two.

[17:35:07]

SANCHEZ: Yes.

M. KELLY: Right. The launch is supposed to be in 49 minutes, but they have a two-hour window after that.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

M. KELLY: So we'll see. These things often happen. And sometimes NASA can fix it there. Sometimes it might take a day or two. For big problems, you sometimes have to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

SANCHEZ: Right.

M. KELLY: Hopefully that's not the case.

SANCHEZ: Yes, they had a previous glitch with one of the systems that was addressed. And so hopefully we'll see this get resolved within the next 50 minutes or so. As you mentioned, the window is quite wide, so we may still see a launch tonight. And it seems NASA is confident that we will. Had you ever been part of a mission, Scott, where you weren't sure if takeoff was going to happen or not, and you had some of these issues, whether helium leaks or now this reading on the Orion capsule?

S. KELLY: You know, I've flown twice on the Space Shuttle. And in both those launches, I think in every launch of the Space Shuttle, there's always a possibility that you're going to scrub. It happened often. My two flights on the Soyuz, the Russian Soyuz, it was a little bit different because they never scrub in a launch in any kind of weather. So there was almost always a little bit more of a feeling that you're actually going to launch on the day you launch. But they just had different rules, different systems, different requirements. But in this case, you know, brand new rocket, first time, people on it, they may scrub and we'll launch when we're ready.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes. Senator, I wanted to get back to the point you were making a moment ago about unity being fostered, inspiration, ambition being fostered by watching something that is remarkable, an achievement that is truly sublime because it takes so much effort and work. And I imagine that there's an added level of presence and I guess hope for mankind when you're out in space, seeing the planet, seeing home from far away. Talk to us about that sensation.

M. KELLY: Yes, when you see this big round ball, let me remind folks, round.

SANCHEZ: Got to make sure they understand. Yes, it's round.

M. KELLY: For any of you deniers out there, it is round. Just floating there in the blackness of space. I mean, you get this like strong and deep sense about how we're all in this together.

S. KELLY: You know, you don't see political borders, right? When you're looking at the Earth from day. I mean, at night you see some, but it makes it makes it seem like, you know, we're all in this thing called humanity together.

M. KELLY: And we're not on an island in our solar system and there's no other place to go.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Sharing this pale blue dot. Senator Mark Kelly, Scott Kelly, thank you both for sharing your time and perspective. Appreciate you so much.

M. KELLY: Appreciate it. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Pleasure. Yes. Thanks so much, sir.

Coming up, crowds around the country and the world are waiting in anticipation of the launch of Artemis II.

[17:38:00]

Plus, we've got an up-close look at what happens when the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts separates from the rocket itself. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We're back live from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on the most ambitious mission that NASA has launched in more than half a century. Moments ago, NASA tracking a new problem. They're getting some unfavorable temperature readings one of the two batteries on the launch abort system. As of now, the clock is still counting down. Nearly 40 minutes to lift off. Let's bring back in our panel to discuss.

We've got retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, CNN aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien, and CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. Cady, I wonder what you make of this new tiny issue to resolve.

COLEMAN: Well, it's not tiny if it stops the launch.

SANCHEZ: Right, Right.

COLEMAN: So I mean, they got to look at, you know, is this a real temperature? Is there a real temperature problem? And if so, is it significant? And what are the limits? It could be a sensor. Maybe they got ways to look at that and just understand what the data is really telling them and whether they have a way around it. They make these rules about whether to go or not long ahead. And so we'll understand more soon.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt. Miles, what are you thinking about this latest?

O'BRIEN: Well, it underscores a key point here and it's worth pointing out to people that there is an abort scenario for this crew all the way from the ground, all the way up to three hours, I believe. And this was not the case with the shuttle. There was something called a return to launch site abort scenario. And Cady will tell you what astronauts called that. Basically the rocket would have to fly backwards, supersonic into its own rocket plume to do a U turn in midair and come back and land here. No one, that was never tried, no one ever really thought it would work.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And so the abort scenarios on the shuttle just didn't really exist like they do here. But the battery's got to work if you want that rocket on top of the Orion capsule to blow and separate from the stack. And so they're not going to launch if that's not right. So let's hope, as Cady points out many times these are sensor failures. They have other ways of checking things. Maybe it's just an aberrant thing and they can -- we can clear this thing before and still launch.

But it just points out, I mean, we're talking millions of parts, as some of the Apollo guys famously joked, all from the low bidder. And we are, you know, things will break and everything has to be just so to launch.

SANCHEZ: Yes. CNN's Tom Foreman is in the virtual room for us, and Tom is ready to show us what happens once the rocket is in flight. Let's watch.

[17:45:00]

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Artemis gets off the ground as we have been hoping all day, and passes through low Earth orbit, or LEO, about 100 miles up, all eyes are going to be on this, the interim cryogenic propulsion system. This is yet another booster and its main job is to push the Orion stack up here into a huge elliptical orbit around the Earth, the farthest point of which will be some 40,000 miles away plus.

Once that is done, the ICPS will also be done and it will break away from the Orion stack. Now, Orion is going to use it as sort of a space target to practice some maneuvers, but basically it's just going to start drifting back toward Earth, where it's expected to burn up upon re-entry. Then we will focus on Orion up here.

The crew capsule up top and the service module down below. The service module is an absolute workhorse in all of this, supplying water and oxygen and nitrogen and electricity to the crew capsule. The electricity coming from these huge solar arrays, which are about 23- feet long and can be adjusted so they always face the sun in the optimal manner.

One of the maneuvers you may see this whole stack do is a slow rotation, which you've probably seen in other spacecraft. Why do they do that? Well, in part to balance out the extreme temperatures of space where it can be oh so hot on the sunny side and absolutely frigid on the shady side. The service module is going to stick with the crew capsule for the entire mission up until re-entry.

But I'm going to break it away right now so we can talk just a little bit about the crew capsule because it is a wonder, 23,000 pounds at liftoff, shielded against space radiation and micrometeoroids. Let me blow it up to full size so you can see how big this thing is.

I'm 6-feet tall. This is 11-feet tall, more than 16-feet wide, making it the roomiest spacecraft that NASA has put out since the Space Shuttle with more than enough room for this four-person crew to live there for 21 days if they had to with their spacesuits and food and water and waste facilities and communications equipment, everything they need, even some exercise gear. And they'll appreciate that space because it's a very long journey from the Earth to the Moon and back 685,000 miles as Orion is expected to fly.

SANCHEZ: All right, thanks to Tom Foreman with that special view. We're back with the panel now. And Pete, you've got a view yourself of this capsule and the significance of this latest tiny glitch that NASA is trying to correct this battery issue.

MUNTEAN: You have to take the good with the bad. And the good news is that weather is now 90 percent favorable, 90 percent go for launch. The potentially bad news is the issue with the battery on the launch abort system.

That is the little tower at the very top of the Orion capsule. It has four different rockets on it. The battery there is 120-volt battery. That is where they're having issues with a temperature sensor there. Unsure if it's an errant reading, unsure if it's an accurate reading, 120 volts, we're talking about 10 times the power of your car battery, usually about 12 volts.

This is so critical for the launch abort system because it essentially enables the astronauts to go up and away from the rocket if there's a problem on the pad, low to the ground. This is key. And so if they are unable to figure out what the issue is here, this could be a big wrench in the system --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: -- to pardon the pun, but it is not necessarily a no-go yet. You can see that the launch clock is still counting down, 35 minutes, 35 seconds. If this occurs in the terminal count, a lot closer to launch time, around 10 minutes out, then we could see a bit of an issue.

And remember here, there are some aces to play. So the window, two- hour launch window, opens at 6:24 Eastern Time.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MUNTEAN: But it's a two-hour window until 8:24. So there could be some time here for the tens of thousands of folks involved in this mission to really sort this out. Although the closeout crew that was up there on the tower with the four astronauts in the Orion capsule, in Integrity, have now left the tower.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MUNTEAN: Seems that things are still moving forward, although there's this one glitch in the system.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Cady, just out of curiosity, do you happen to carry a 120-volt battery in the jacket that you're wearing now, by chance? We may need a spare.

MUNTEAN: We may need a hookup. We know someone who needs one.

COLEMAN: They make them smaller and smaller. I didn't know I brought a little bit of everything. I brought the phone book. You wish, don't you?

[17:49:58]

SANCHEZ: Yes, definitely. I mean, I asked you this with the previous issue that was resolved, but I have to think that for the astronauts on board, there's a little bit of frustration, just given that everything so far has gone right, and now it's like, oh, maybe it's just the sensor. Do you sense any frustration?

COLEMAN: You're allowed to be human. You're allowed to even just think, you know, we're probably not going to need that thing. We just want to go. And that's why, actually, NASA and the crew make these rules about, you know, what is OK. You make them so you're not making those decisions about what is OK in the heat of the moment. And it also might, I mean, this is their first time to strap in. You know, they know that it might not be their last.

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes, no doubt. And Miles, as we were hearing from Pete about the significance of how this all came together in our conversations today, you've emphasized that Artemis II, in a lot of ways, is an amalgamation of different projects that NASA has had. We were talking previously about the RS-25 engines and this Orion capsule itself being sort of integrated into this system. What's the significance of all these different parts coming together for this moment?

O'BRIEN: Well, Boris, this was a rocket system that was designed in Congress. I think we can just leave that out there and we can decide whether the rocket scientists might want to be involved or not. It might be a good idea. This was an idea that was born of politics, and a lot of NASA has been linked to politics since the beginning, of course.

The entire Moon race was geopolitics. But in this case, born out of decisions whether to go to Moon or Mars and cancellations of programs, this is what survived when Obama canceled the Moon mission that George W. Bush envisioned. And politicians held on to these pieces, quite literally, of the system and the jobs that go along with them in their districts.

And as a result, this rocket was designed a little bit like a horse by committee will get you a camel, right? And I think that's a little bit where we are on this. It'll be interesting to see as they get a little more of a tempo and cadence up, if they can sort of figure this machine out in its vagaries. Obviously, the shuttle, they figured it out over time.

But it's still, we had -- we would almost assume there'd be a scrub when Cady and the crew would go in. It was almost an astonishing day when they get in the first time and go. And I suspect they would certainly not be astonished up there if this was just a really glorified dress rehearsal today.

SANCHEZ: Well --

COLEMAN: I mean, because I mean, spaceflight is hard.

SANCHEZ: It is.

COLEMAN: You know, and a lot of things have to go right. And so they won't, I mean, that I think Miles was referring to the shuttle, right? A shuttle launch that it wouldn't be surprising to have a scrub, maybe for weather, but maybe mechanical.

SANCHEZ: Right.

COLEMAN: I've had both.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Let's go to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is at a watch party inside NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Ed, I imagine the mood there, a half hour or so until the liftoff window opens. Quite festive.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, if you can't be in Kennedy Space Center, this might be the next best ticket. This is just right door to Johnson Space Center, kind of educational building where they have a space. And there is a going on here behind me.

SANCHEZ: And the mood is electric. So as you can see, it's not only hard to launch a huge space shuttle. It's also hard to just go live from Houston, Texas at a watch party.

MUNTEAN: Rocket science.

SANCHEZ: Listen, these things happen, case in point. A lot of things have to go right. We've got about 30 minutes before the launch window opens. There is a lot to keep an eye on.

[17:53:53]

Coming up, what this historic mission to the Moon means for the United States and for the world. Who better to ask than Bill Nye, the science guy? Moments ago, NASA also saying that we are well on the timeline. So just about a half hour from launch, we're going to hear from Bill Nye and keep you updated with the latest on this mission to the Moon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: For those just joining us, welcome to CNN's special coverage of this historic space mission. For the first time in more than 50 years, humans are heading back to the Moon. I'm Boris Sanchez, coming to you live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind me is the Orion spacecraft, perched on top of NASA's SLS rocket. In just minutes, four astronauts are hoping to embark on the most demanding flight of their lives, one that'll take them 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the moon, the furthest humans have ever gone into space.

Let's check back in with the anxious crowds here in Florida to watch the momentous launch. CNN's Randi Kaye is closest to the rocket itself in the heat zone. Randi, what's the mood there among spectators?

KAYE: Yes. People are really, really excited, Boris. They actually just got a safety briefing because we are in the heat zone. So they just were told what to do in case anything does go wrong. But this is the hottest ticket in town. Take a look at this crowd here. They have been waiting out here in the sun in the clouds all afternoon. It's about $250 a person to join the crowd here in the heat zone for this Artemis watch party.

[17:59:54]

Now they have been going with ebbs and flows all afternoon as well as there are those little tiny disappointments, those little tiny glitches that you've been talking about. You hear the oohs and the ahs and then the cheers from the crowd as each little glitch gets fixed. So we hope that this latest glitch --