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Boeing Starliner Astronauts Could Return Home In 2025; Tropical Storm Debby Continues Slow March Up East Coast; Moscow: Ukraine Crossed Into Russia, Launching "Massive Attack"; Few Answers About Boeing Door Plug Blowout At NTSB Hearing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 07, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: All right, we want to get to some breaking news on the Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been waiting in space for weeks, at this point, after there were issues with their spacecraft. Now they could be there much longer.

CNN's Kristin Fisher is following this for us.

Alright, what's going on here?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: So right now, NASA is holding a press conference with reporters.

And on that call that's still going on, we learned that there is widespread disagreements within the agency, within NASA about whether or not Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is safe enough to bring those two NASA astronauts home, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Specifically, there's some issues with those thrusters that have been having problems for several weeks now up at the International Space Station.

And so now, something else that we've learned on the call, we have known for a while that NASA does have contingency plans in place, right, options, other spacecrafts available to bring these astronauts home if, indeed, Starliner cannot.

But on this call, moments ago, NASA really confirmed just how far along this contingency planning process they've gone. And what we've learned is that they have pushed back the launch of the next crewed mission to the International Space Station.

Crew Nine, four astronauts, including a Russian cosmonaut, that were supposed to be flying up and launching in mid-August, that got pushed back to mid-September in order for NASA to maintain operational flexibility.

And so what they're trying to do is have this option in place so that if they say Starliner's not safe, NASA can remove two astronauts from Crew Nine, that mission, which would free up two seats for Butch and Suni to eventually go back to earth.

But if they take that option and say that Butch and Suni have to come home on SpaceX's Crew Dragon and not Boeing Starliner, that means that Butch and Suni would be up at the International Space Station until February of 2025.

[13:35:00]

That's six months away. Supposed to be an eight-day mission in space, roughly, could be ex extended to February 2025. That is a huge, huge increase obviously.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Oh, its Gilligan's Island vibes. But I'm starting to -- I'm actually feeling very nervous. And I think a lot of observers are about this.

Will you join in on this conversation with us, Kristin?

Because we have former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force Colonel Terry Virts.

And, Colonel, you, we should mention, you know a little bit about being stuck for a little while so you also have some experience with this.

But just your reaction to this news?

COL. TERRY VIRTS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT & U.S. AIR FORCE, RETIRED (via telephone): Well, I think my first thought is I know that Butch and Suni are fine. They're having a good time. They're enjoying their time in space. And the other space station astronauts are probably glad to have them there. It's like free labor.

And the other second thought I had was I'm sure NASA is, you know, looking at every option and they're making sure everything is safe.

I talked to some friends of mine that have no concerns with the Boeing capsule. They think it's fine. There were some minor problems that they think they understand. But again, I'm not in those meetings, so I'm sure they're looking at every contingency.

JIMENEZ: And, Colonel, when they we're initially stuck in the first and second attempt to come home, there were also some concerns as well, oh, my gosh, what's happening.

And one former astronaut we spoke to said, well, this could actually be a good thing, in some cases, to try and gather more data, to try and get more information on what's going on.

That was in the initial stages. Does that mentality still apply when you're now weeks and weeks, over 60 days out, at this point?

VIRTS: Well, I know the top goal -- you know, I have friends at Boeing and I'm rooting for Boeing. It's an important American company, that they're trying to get this mission what they call certified. You know, it's like a final exam in college, you need to pass the course. So once they pass this mission, then they can fly operation crewed missions so they can launch just like the SpaceX capsule you're talking about. They can launch astronauts to and from the space station.

They really want to get that done so they're taking whatever time they need to - and from what they said, it sounds like they understand what the problems were and it's not going to be a problem for re-entry.

But again, I'm not -- I'm not in all of those meetings, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

KEILAR: Colonel, it seems like they've kind of shied away from this term "stuck," right? They don't want to say that they are. How do you look at that? Why shouldn't we maybe think about it like that even though we're know looking at several months maybe?

VIRTS: I guess it's like flying on American Airlines when the computer system goes down or something.

They don't like that term. When I was on my last flight in space, we had some rockets fail and, basically, we were stuck -- if that's the right word -- in space. And we didn't know for how long they had to do a safety investigation before they launched our replacement.

So we were up there in space. It was kind of like during Covid. You didn't know how long it was going to last and you were low on supplies. But these are not low on supplies.

So I think they're going to look at it as some bonus time in space more than they are being stuck. Because you never know when your next space mission is going be.

So I'm sure they're enjoying these extra weeks that they've been having.

KEILAR: Kristin, Colonel, thank you so much.

I hope they're enjoying their weeks. I'm a little worried their families would like them back, though. I'm going to tell you that.

JIMENEZ: Yes, eight days and I'll see you in a little bit. And now it's --

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KEILAR: Months.

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes. There's a difference.

KEILAR: All right, Tropical Storm Debby regaining strength over the Atlantic, poised to strike the southeast coast for a second time this week, bringing historic rainfall and potentially catastrophic flooding.

JIMENEZ: You can see some of the damage we've been getting in. These images are from Savannah, Georgia.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers is here with an update.

So, Chad, when will Debby make a second landfall?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Probably plus or minus two hours from midnight tonight. It's kind of hard to tell where the center is because there's not really an eye.

Even the hurricane hunters are out there flying through it and they go left and they go right and they go, was that it or was it over here a little bit more.

So we're still seeing, though, the rainfall, the heaviest stuff up near Myrtle Beach and now into North Carolina.

Where the center comes on shore, doesn't mean that much right now because there's so much dry air in the middle that there's not convection around the middle, there's not that wind speed around the middle.

In fact, that 60-mile-per-hour gusts that they found, that was well away from the center out in the Atlantic.

The good news is this begins to pick up speed and does it. It gets out of the northeast by the weekend. And that's the good news because a lot of places in the northeast, especially New York City and the Bronx and Manhattan picked up enough rain yesterday for the entire month.

So here's the rainfall that we've already seen from this. Everywhere that's purple, 10 inches of rain or more. And there are places that have picked up a foot and a half.

[13:40:00]

And it's still raining and it's going to be raining for a while. We don't have the tornado watch today, like I thought maybe we would have.

The Weather Service says severe -- the Storm Prediction Center is saying about a 20 percent chance of a tornado watch being issued. We'll see how that goes as the day goes on.

There goes the rain. Here is Friday into parts of Pennsylvania, but the heavy rain is still going to be in the Piedmont. It's still going to be in parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and then all the way up into Virginia.

So we could still see more flooding, even though it's winding down and it will make landfall. And when it does, when the center comes on shore, it will be a lesser storm again. But this storm still has a rainfall punch -- guys?

JIMENEZ: Yes, it will be wet.

Chad Myers, thank you so much. All right, just ahead for us, Russia says Ukrainian forces just launched a massive cross-border attack. We're going to tell you what we know about the assault and how the Kremlin is responding. Stay with us.

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[13:45:16]

KEILAR: We're looking at live pictures of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz and their arrival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, ahead of their second rally since Harris announced her running mate yesterday. There they are on the tarmac before they go on to this rally.

And then they will go on to another rally later today in Detroit, Michigan, as they are looking to shore up votes in the blue wall states. We'll keep an eye on this and we'll bring you more.

A potentially major turn in Russia's war on Ukraine. Ukrainian troops may have entered Russia.

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KEILAR: Moscow is accusing Ukraine of crossing the border into its Kursk region and launching a, quote, "massive attack."

Video shows a fighter jet over a road in Kursk. You saw that right there. And if confirmed this this could amount to Ukraine's most potent and far-reaching incursion into Russia in the two-and-a-half years since Russia's full-scale invasion.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is with us now with the latest.

Nick, what is Ukraine saying about this?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Nothing at all, which is quite remarkable, to be honest. And that there is really no other candidate potentially for making an incursion like this from Ukraine into Russia.

And it's been quite far-reaching. We see one town, Sudzha, which appears to have certainly Ukrainian forces in it, says -- described by its mayor as, quote, "very tense." But still, tentatively, in Russian control with evacuations ongoing.

That's about three or four miles away from Ukraine's border, which suggests that, indeed, Ukraine's forces have pushed further inside territory, too. So a significant area under attack, from yesterday as well, this building and it's momentum.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin saying this was a major provocation and accusing and Ukraine of being indiscriminate in its fire against civilians. A bit rich coming from the Kremlin, who'd been doing that to Ukraine for over two years now.

But his chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, has said quite clearly that they believe the advanced has been halted.

That's not really what we're hearing from local officials there, who are helping people evacuate from that area and, generally, I think trying to get a grip on what's happening with extra reinforcements teams rushing in that direction.

So unclear entirely what Ukraine's strategic goal was here. But they've certainly caught Russia off-guard. They certainly will be forced to deploy more forces in that direction.

Is there a wider goal? Well, some analysts are pointing toward a gas terminal in that area that is key to a gas transit from Russia, through Ukraine, on to Europe.

Yes, that's still happening three years in. It doesn't appear to have affected transit at the moment.

But there are other questions, too, about Ukraine really struggling with manpower. The Donetsk frontline is where Russia is slowly moving towards very important Ukrainian hubs.

Whether this was a good idea for Kiev to take essentially what seemed to be forces from its wider reserves into a battle like this -- it's embarrassing Moscow -- but is it costing them potentially less resources elsewhere? We fully don't know the answer to that right now.

But it's a sign, I think, of Ukraine trying to put forward the idea that it has a positive headline, catch Russia off guard, but is it really going to cause damage to Putin, apart from the embarrassment, frankly, today? We'll have to see in the days ahead -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, important questions you're raising there.

Nick Paton Walsh, we do appreciate the report.

[13:48:51]

And after seven months of investigations and days of testimony from Boeing's top brass, we are still no closer to knowing how a 737 Max was delivered without the four bolts needed to keep a door plug in place. Why is that?

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[13:53:24]

JIMENEZ: Today, Boeing officials admitted a mistake that helped lead up to the terrifying mid-air blowout on a Boeing plane, a mistake investigators say should have been caught before the plane left the ground. Now, in a rare hearing held by safety officials and NTSB, investigators reached out to the plane manufacturer on how its quality control system failed to capture the fact that the door plug was not secured.

CNN's Pete Muntean is covering this for us.

Pete, it shows how much, at this point, we still don't know. But what have we learned so far?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning about the new problems at Boeing that are just now coming to light. That workers at Boeing on the factory floor there in Renton, Washington, felt so pressured to do work fast that they felt like they were going to make mistakes.

Also that they created no paperwork on the work they did on the door plug itself. It ultimately blew out of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 back on January 5th.

What's interesting here is the new timeline and the mystery surrounding one big question here that keeps coming up over and over and over again. Both Boeing and the NTSB now say they do not know how that plane flew away from the Boeing factory without those four critical door plug bolts.

Boeing now says the door plug was removed some time on September 18, 2023, then the door plug was replaced because of work nearby on the fuselage, on some nearby rivets, the next day on September 19, 2023.

[13:55:00]

Now, under questioning here from NTSB investigators, Elizabeth Lund, who's Boeing's head of quality control, said Boeing still does not fully know who was responsible for closing the door plug without the critical bolts.

And that earned this response from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. Listen.

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIR: The name of individuals or an individual is not important to the NTSB. How this happened, how this occurred -- because it could have been anybody, right? How did that happen? We have not been able to accurately nail down.

Because you saw, at the beginning, where we had a graphic, which showed at some -- at this point, we knew it was open. At this point, we knew it was closed. What happened on the in-between? We don't know. And neither do they. That's a problem.

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MUNTEAN: Boeing also laid out new changes here that they're making to the door plug, including the design, to make it harder to close without the door plug bolts in place.

Also, an alarm in the cockpit for pilots to see if the door plug suddenly becomes open, it's not fully latched.

And some things are really simple, like the tag that they're placing on the door plug while the airplane is still in the factory. It says, in blue and yellow letters, "Do not open without talking to somebody in Boeing quality control."

Boeing trying to take this very seriously, but really taking it on the chin here -- Omar?

JIMENEZ: And a rear multi-day hearing that we're seeing here that, as I understand, is expected to go later into the afternoon, potentially, the evening as well. So a lot to learn here still.

Pete Muntean, I'll let you get back to it. Thanks for being here.

All right, minutes from now, Senator J.D. Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris will be holding dueling rallies in Wisconsin. We're going to bring you their remarks, live.

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