Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Waiting For Discovery Liftoff; Bomb in Baghdad Market Kills At Least 62; Arab Language Web Site Says New Tape Osama bin Laden on the Way

Aired July 01, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

. BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And that is just beautiful. Hey, this is really awe inspiring sight rights here, a live look. Hey less than seven hours to liftoff for Space Shuttle Discovery. You see it right there.
From CNN Center this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is July 1st, a holiday weekend.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

NGUYEN: A big day, though, 8:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, and at Kennedy Space Center in Florida where you saw the shuttle. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.

HARRIS: Welcome back.

NGUYEN: Nice to be back.

HARRIS: Fingers crossed, picture perfect conditions right now.

NGUYEN: So far.

HARRIS: Knees, elbows, toes. Good morning. everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Thanks for being with us. Standing by at the Kennedy Space Center is our Miles O'Brien. And, Miles, good morning, sir.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony and Betty, good to see you. Picture perfect weather so far. Of course those clouds will build up as the afternoon progresses. We have one problem in the countdown I need to tell you about, a problem with a heater in one of the steering rockets used on orbit. It needs to be fixed before they fly. We're watching it very closely.

Other than that, so far a good countdown. We'll be back with more. We're going to talk to a former NASA astronaut and we'll ask him why he upsets Sally Ride so much, many years ago, in just a moment.

HARRIS: Miles, quick question. We've got the countdown clock right there in the lower right hand portion of the screen and then the clock over your shoulder. We've gotten a couple questions from folks at home watching wondering hey they don't match what is going on?

O'BRIEN: Yes. The only time that clock behind me there, matches the chronological time is inside of nine minutes. NASA has a series of holds built into its countdown, it gives them a sense of benchmarks so they know how to regroup and those holds can expand or contract depending on how things are going with the countdown.

I'm told it began during the Gemini Program when they were trying to launch two rockets to rendezvous with each other to sync them up; it was easier to build in all these holds and keep the countdowns in sync. That's why the clock, even though it says three hours, it's not three hours because look down on our countdown launch, 6:46. So viewers, that's the chronological thing on the screen there. NASA time is very different time indeed.

HARRIS: Viewers, the folks at home pay attention, first thing in the morning here, watching and Miles has the answer. Miles, thank you.

NGUYEN: That is why he is our space guru, Miles O'Brien we'll be talking with you shortly Miles, thanks.

HARRIS: Lets get a check now of other news happening right now.

NGUYEN: A bomb in a crowded Baghdad market kills at least 62 people. Look at these pictures. More than 100 others are wounded. Iraqi police say the car bomb exploded in the Shia neighborhood. CNN's Nic Robertson joins us live from Baghdad in just two minutes with the details.

An Arab language Web site says it will soon post another audio message from Osama Bin Laden. A previous announcement was made yesterday. Should say on Wednesday. And than an audio message from the al Qaeda leader was posted yesterday. CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor is standing by and will have an update in about three minutes.

Well, rockets struck the Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan, wounding ten people. Coalition military officials say Taliban extremists often fire rockets in a way that's often erratic and inaccurate. But this time a rocket caused damage and injuries. An investigation is under way to find the culprit.

HARRIS: Vice President Dick Cheney is undergoing what's being called routine medical tests today. Doctors at George Washington Medical Center in Washington are checking repaired aneurysms on the back of his knees and they are also checking the condition of his high-tech pacemaker placed in the vice president's chest in June of 2001.

Several new laws go into effect today in Georgia, one of them allows counties to post the ten commandments as part of a courthouse display with nine historic documents, those include the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact and the picture of the Statute of Liberty in response to several court challenges.

Tour de France favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are out of the race after being implicated nearly implicated in a doping scandal. Spanish investigators have been looking into a ring that allegedly supplied riders with banned drugs. Others riders are under suspicion and have been barred from the race, which starts this weekend.

Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: Lets get right to our top story this hour. One of the bloodiest attacks in Baghdad since the death of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. CNN's senior international reporter Nic Robertson joins us from there with the latest on these developments. Bring us up to speed Nic, a lot of casualties in this one.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of casualties Betty. The market where the bomb went off was crowded with shoppers getting in their shopping before the day, the heat of the day really got going. Police say what happened, a car bomb was left to the side of the road as a police patrol passed by through the busy market.

The car bomb went off. Now, this police patrol, would almost undoubtedly have been a shared police patrol, the neighborhood where the bomb went off is an almost entirely Shia neighborhood, a suburb on the northeastern side of Baghdad.

This bears all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack. So far police say 62 people have been killed, 114 wounded. There have been no claims of responsibility yet according to the police. This is the bloodiest single attack in about three months, Betty.

NGUYEN: Nic Robertson in Baghdad for us, thanks for brings us up to speed on that. We'll be checking in throughout the day.

Well for a complete coverage of breaking news and today's top stories you want to stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

HARRIS: In your face, out of sight that might describe Osama Bin Laden. An Arab language Web site says it will soon post a new tape from the al Qaeda leader, the second this week. Bin Laden is talking a lot but he is still as elusive as ever.

CNN's David Ensor has more on the most recent tape and the ongoing search.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The tape on which Osama Bin Laden praises al Qaeda's dead leader in Iraq is his fourth this year alone. Nearly five years after 9/11, he's still at it.

FORIS YOUNIS, FORMER FBI AGENT: I do think that's the million- dollar question, is why we haven't caught Osama Bin Laden.

ENSOR: Former FBI counterterrorism agent Foria Younis says it is a good question, but remember how long it took to find the fugitive bomber Eric Rudolph right here in the United States.

YOUNIS: Even having a good idea of who he was and where he was, it was still many years before we caught him. So in Pakistan, you can imagine multiplying those problems by 100 times and that's how difficult it is.

ENSOR: Bob Grenier who left the CIA three weeks ago after serving as head of the counterterrorism effort there, says Bin Laden has gone to ground in tough territory, and that's not just the terrain.

BOB GRENIER, FORMER CIA OFFICIAL: This is a fundamental hostile area. It's populated by people who are very sympathetic to the Islamic extremist cause, they are very xenophobic, they are xenophobic toward people in the next valley, let alone people from the west or the representatives of the federal government in Pakistan.

ENSOR: And lately Bin Laden's people have made it more difficult still, putting tapes on the Internet instead of Arabic language TV.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think these guys have wised to the fact that it's smarter to do it through the Jihad Web sites, A you don't get censored quote, unquote by Al-Jazeera which they complained about in the past and B it's much less mean able to detection.

ENSOR: Grenier the CIA man says getting Bin Laden requires more effort. Work very smart, he says, be persistent and some day, somebody is going to get lucky.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Want to get you now to the Kennedy Space Center and today's scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery There is a picture of it right now. As of this moment you can watch it live right here on CNN in less than seven hours. We want to put that countdown, in fact six hours 40 minutes and 34 seconds to be exact.

This mission is going forward, however amid some high-level dissent within NASA. Our own Miles O'Brien is intimately familiar with the inner workings of NASA and he is joined right now by former astronaut Mike Mullane, author of "Riding Rockets" the outrageous tales of a space shuttle astronaut. So Miles we turn to you to bring us up to speed on all of this.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much Betty. Mike Mullane was there in 1984 for the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery the most traveled of the orbiters, back on the pad three-and-a-half miles away from us. Mike, first of all, given the back-story here on this that's been all the discussion about falling foam.

MIKE MULLANE, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Right.

O'BRIEN: Back in 1984 you saw a fair amount of foam falling off the fuel tank then.

MULLANE: During launch we did see -- I did not. I heard the pilots in front of me (INAUDIBLE). I was a mission specialist behind the pilot, they were commenting about the small bits of foam flaking off.

O'BRIEN: I talked to the NASA administrator just a little while ago about his decision, lonely decision to override chief engineer and safety officers and say let's fly, even though there's foam to be fixed. Let's listen for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Every single space flight that this country or any country has ever done, has to weigh performance risks against safety risks, against cost risks and that's what we're doing here. Schedule matters. It can't dominate, it can't rule the roost but schedule matters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That whole issue of schedule pressure, your first flight before Challenger your other two after Challenger. You lived that whole experience it seems as if the same discussion is going on today.

MULLANE: Well, I agree entirely with what the administrator just said. I agree entirely with that. You have to balance schedule matters, risk matters, it is a balancing act. I think that they are doing an excellent job now of addressing the risks and balancing schedule and risks, and I think going back, I think, pre-Challenger there was a mounting pressure to keep expanding the flight rate that was seriously affecting safety. I don't see that now. I think that these folks are looking at all of the risks and looking at what they can do about them and making the right decision. I think it's a right decision for the launch.

O'BRIEN: Two things, there is a rock and hard place scenario here. Date certain of late 2010 to retire the shuttle fleet, 16 flights to finish that space station which the US remains committed to. It seems as if that's going to be a schedule problem.

MULLANE: Well first of all I don't know that anybody has established in concrete that we have to retire the shuttle in 2010. That's what they're hoping to do. I get the impression that Michael Griffin is not going to rush the schedule to meet the 2010 deadline and jeopardize safety while he is doing it. I think it's the right decision to fly today. They have the ability to inspect the heat shield; they have a safe haven to go to if there's a problem. I really think it's the right decision.

O'BRIEN: Your book is about cultural change at NASA back from the test pilot days to the days of, you know, real smart people, mission specialists, Ph.D.s and there's a lot of conflict built into that. You have the opportunity, I guess, to put your foot in your mouth and you did with Sally Ride. Tell me what happened.

MULLANE: First of all, like most military flyers, I came from planet arrested development and had no clue on how to incorporate professional women into a work force where I had never worked with a professional woman in my life and Sally wasn't just a professional woman a pioneer and a feminist pioneer. I told an inappropriate joke which I can't repeat here or -- because it's a family program, but that certainly didn't start my relationship with Sally off on the best foot.

O'BRIEN: Yes. That is in a sense what was happening then. NASA now facing another cultural change as the shuttle goes off into the sunset and this next vehicle comes along, will there be a new breed of astronauts that will come out of this?

MULLANE: Oh yes, I think there's a big change I see between the astronauts of my era and the current astronauts. In my era it was dominated by military fliers, combat veterans, Vietnam veterans and it's much more I think a much more enlightened work place. A lot of us from -- flying air force flying business, were certainly bringing a lot of baggage on board as far as working with civilians and working with females.

O'BRIEN: So that's kind of the cultural subtext of a lot of the decisions and debate that we've been hearing about. The debate coming to public attention like it did, the chief safety officer, chief engineer coming forward and saying we're no go, does that surprise you a little bit?

MULLANE: No. That's the way the system should work. I mean it should an open discussion, here's what I think and at some point somebody has to lead. There will be one leader. At some point that leader has to say I'm going or I'm not going. Michael Griffin said I'm going. And I think based on what I read that it was the right decision. Again they have the capability of inspecting that heat shield, they have a safe haven to go to if they see a problem, that being the International Space Station.

I would be willing to bet that the crew that's out there, when they go out there, they are not going to be concerned about the heat shield. They, like most -- like all astronauts, are going to be concerned about the 8.5-minute ride to orbit. That 8.5 minutes they're going to gain five miles of second in velocity, 250 miles. That's what's going to be on your mind. Not that heat shield.

O'BRIEN: Mike Mullane, author of "Riding Rockets" three-time astronaut, good to have you with us.

MULLANE: Thank you Miles.

O'BRIEN: Of course they will be saying the astronaut's prayer, which we know, let me be the one to screw up.

MULLANE: That's it.

O'BRIEN: Back to you in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: That's really fascinating stuff Miles. Thank you.

And you want to stay with us all morning long as we continue our coverage of the space shuttle Discovery launch. Miles will be back in just about five minutes with more from the Kennedy Space Center and at 3:00 p.m. Eastern a special live show hosted by space correspondent, who else, but Miles O'Brien.

HARRIS: Come on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I'm just wondering if we can root for this thing. Want to root for this launch.

NGUYEN: I always do.

HARRIS: I just ...

NGUYEN: You want to see it take off. Here is a live look again.

HARRIS: Well Betty you see the clouds back there.

NGUYEN: Earlier those were not there.

HARRIS: Right.

NGUYEN: We must point out.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: All right. Let's get to it. Shall we? Weather and safety, two main concerns as the space shuttle Discovery prepares for liftoff. Miles O'Brien is live at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and with him, a special guest, former astronaut Eileen Collins the commander of Discovery's last mission a year ago. Miles you are a connected man.

HARRIS: Yes he is.

O'BRIEN: You have to have all the right people. Stay with CNN, you always do have all the right people. You will find out what's going on with NASA and everything else for that matter. A couple of things to tell you about just to bring you up to date on the count down before we get to Eileen Collins.

The fuel tank is filled, Discovery is now loaded up with 500,000 plus gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, folks in the firing room not far from where I sit are hands off on the keyboards now because that's the rule for safety as the crew starts making its way and the close out crew goes out to look at the pad and make sure there's no problems externally with the space shuttle, ice build up one of the things they look for, anything that might be out of order.

In this case, of course we're watching those clouds build up and we're -- we'll be watching the weather very closely. But there is also one technical issue there is a heater inside one of the rockets that allows the shuttle to move in orbit, it is called the orbital maneuvering system, which has malfunctioned. They're working on that. If it is not working, the rules say the shuttle cannot launch. A lot of time to work on that, but we'll be watching that closely.

In the meantime, want to talk to Eileen Collins about delays. Anybody who's been in the astronaut corps as we look at the pictures and that cloud build up, still a beautiful day here, knows that there's all kinds of ways you get delayed as you get ready for flight.

We'll talk about weather today. In the run up to this, all kinds of technical issues. Certainly you as the commander in that down period between Columbia and the return to flight dealt with delay after delay. How do you keep your crew focused, how do you keep your eye on the prize so to speak?

EILEEN COLLINS, FORMER SHUTTLE COMMANDER: Well the key is you know you're going to fly some day. The crew has to be ready when it's time to go. The way I always thought of it in like a big y. Here you are in the middle of the y, go left and from, you can go right and fly. So you have to be ready for both. You need to maintain the attitude that mission success, safety, be positive, you're going to get a chance to fly in space. It's an exciting time for the astronauts.

O'BRIEN: We talked the other day with, I guess, Discovery's mamma, Stephanie Stilson. She is the flow manager for the vehicle. That is the person that takes care of the vehicle and gets it ready for people like you to go fly. We asked her about the delays between launches. Let's listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE STILSON, DISCOVERY FLOW MANAGER: It's better to fly as soon as possible all the time because that's what we do. We're in the business to launch shuttles. The guys turning the wrenches that are what they want to do. When they're out working long hours every day they're thinking about that next shuttle flight. When we have a situation where we have to take time between missions they get antsy. Want to get flying again. That's what we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: It's better to keep flying. I've heard that time and again, especially the people down here, you know you get rusty; it is just like anything right?

COLLINS: Well the orbiters like to be in space. Once they get up there, our shuttles do well. They like being there. When on they are on the ground too long we tend to have failures. I think the shuttle was built at zero gravity; it wasn't built to be here on the ground. But everything has to check out before you launch.

As the astronauts are ready, we have the frame of mind to go either way; again it's a really exciting time. The astronauts this morning are all pumped up, it is like going into the big game. You have the adrenaline flowing. And for the most part you feel like you're going to be safe. Any concerns that the astronauts have are going to be, you don't want to make a mistake.

You're focused on what you are going to do, you are focused on the mission, you think about your suit, your flight data file, the switches, what you are going to do as soon as main engine cut off happens, things start happening really fast. So you have to stay focused and not worry too much about the problems that can develop.

O'BRIEN: All right. Eileen Collins, thank you very much. Once again space shuttle Discovery is fueled up, the tanks topped off, we're looking very closely at the weather, the crew will be making its first appearance in just a little while and we are also watching very closely one bulky heater which if it isn't fixed could be a show stopper today. We are watching the weather as well.

Tony and Betty.

NGUYEN: Watching as those clouds are gathering. I bet the countdown is still going, 6:26:17 and still counting. Miles we will be talking with you shortly.

Hey you do want to stay with us all morning long as we continue our coverage of the space shuttle Discovery launch. Miles is going to be a very busy man. At 3:00 p.m. Eastern a special live show hosted by your very own space correspondent Miles O'Brien. Don't miss it.

HARRIS: Very good. And just a reminder you still have time to send in your e-mail responses. Here's our question, do you think NASA is rushing to launch the shuttle? Send us your thoughts. weekends@CNN.com. We'll read some of your responses in I guess about three minutes. We'll be right back. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. All morning long we've been asking you this question, do you think NASA is rushing to launch the shuttle? There has been a lot of concern about that falling foam. And you've sent in really great responses. In fact we have a question though.

HARRIS: Where's Miles? Miles, we have a question for you, this is from Steve from Palmerton, Pennsylvania. He wants to know, "Why don't they, why don't they embed something like fiberglass cloth into the foam to reinforce it against breaking up and just for a last ditch measure, why don't they put a Kevlar net around the outside of the foam to keep chunks from flying off and damaging the shuttle? What do you think, Miles?

O'BRIEN: These are -- he's thinking in the way he should be thinking. There are a couple flaws in the logic here. First of all there's a weight issue. You don't want to add a lot of extra stuff. Secondly, you put Kevlar on there, for example, and that just creates yet another debris hazard. If that stuff falls off which is much more heavy than the foam is, you might have a more serious problem.

I guess the question is, why did they put the orbiter and the people and all the sensitive things downstream of something that no matter what you do is going to shed. That's the fundamental issue. What they should have done is stuck the rocket on top of the orange tank and then you wouldn't have had a problem.

HARRIS: OK. All right. So perhaps just a basic design issue, design flaw. NGUYEN: Miles, you have the answer here. Can you talk to your folks and get that rolling?

O'BRIEN: Get right on it.

NGUYEN: Yes.

HARRIS: OK. Miles, thank you.

NGUYEN: Thank you.

We want to have a college rivals, colleagues in space, can the Discovery mission survive a Longhorn and Aggie both together going up in space? That's coming up at 10:00.

HARRIS: Something about them into it.

NGUYEN: Of course my long horns. Of course.

HARRIS: Up next buying a home when prices are out of reach. What the buyer is to do, that is next on "OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis. We will see you at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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