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Dozens Of Boeing Passenger Planes Are Grounded; COVID Numbers Continue To Decrease In The U.S.; Orbiting Laboratory Opens Up More To Commercial Visits. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired February 23, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to a brand new edition of CNN 10. I`m your host Carl Azuz. Hope your Tuesday`s going well. Airlines in several
countries have decided to keep certain Boeing passenger planes on the ground.
Boeing is among the largest aerospace companies in the world. One of its models currently flies with an engine made by another aerospace company,
Pratt and Whitney and there was a major problem over the weekend when one of these planes powered by one of these engines.
On a United Airlines flight from Denver, Colorado to Honolulu, Hawaii, there was an engine failure on Saturday afternoon. Passengers aboard the
plane and people on the ground heard a loud boom. The pilot immediately radioed a distress signal and turned the plane back toward Denver
International Airport.
Despite the explosion and the debris that fell from the plane onto some populated areas of Denver, no one was hurt either on the aircraft or on the
ground. Several of the 241 people aboard the plane said they held hands and prayed and after the flight landed safely back at the airport, people
cheered before they got off the plane.
The aircraft was a Boeing 777, the engine was a Pratt and Whitney Model 4000. As U.S. government investigators tried to find out exactly what went
wrong, a source told CNN they believe a fan blade in the engine came off and destroyed another blade leading to the failure. The Federal Aviation
Administration is recommending more frequent inspections of this specific engine and several airlines in the United States, South Korea and Japan are
following Boeings recommendation to ground dozens of these aircraft while the new safety measures are put in place.
There was a separate incident on Saturday involving a different Boeing aircraft powered by the same Pratt and Whitney engine. One of these engines
caught fire on a 747 cargo flight that was flying over the Netherlands. That also happened shortly after takeoff. The crew also made it back down
safely but the debris that fell from that plane did mildly injure two people on the ground. Boeing has joined the U.S. government in
investigating what happened there.
Bad news and good news related to corona virus cases in America. First the number of deaths in which COVID-19 was cited as a factor has reached
500,000 since last winter. The number of positive tests reported in the U.S. has surpassed 28 million but that`s not a record of all cases since
many people who catch corona virus have no symptoms and may not get tested.
The good news is that the number of new infections continues to drop in all but a few states. It`s the first time since last fall that the average
number of new cases has been less than 65,000 per day. Health officials don`t know exactly why there`s been such a decline. Theories include the
changing seasons. Flu cases have historically decreased after February.
In some places experts believe enough people have recovered from corona virus and developed natural immunities to it. Others say increased social
distancing, mask wearing and vaccinations are having an impact though not every health official agrees with that. One thing they are warning about is
that new variants or mutated versions of corona virus could still increase its spread. Virus` mutate naturally and officials say corona virus vaccines
may not protect as well against variants.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Eva Suarez in London where Prime Minister Boris Johnson set to unveil much anticipated roadmap out of
lockdown. The country has been in lockdown since January and the prime minister who wants to avoid a rise in hospitalizations and more (inaudible)
from the national health service will be setting out a slow, cautious and phased opening that he says will be guided by the data and not by
(inaudible).
The balancing act here is making sure that he doesn`t open up too quickly creating a breeding ground for new variants putting, of course, pressure on
a very successful vaccination program. The expectations that schools will open on March the 8th followed by March 29th when social gatherings will be
allowed outdoors.
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Dianne Gallagher in Rome. Italy is marking one year since the discovery of its first case of corona virus that
happened in the tiny town of Codogno in Northern Italy and triggered the first national lockdown in Europe.
Since then, Italy has had over 95,000 deaths from the virus and Italians are still living under travel restrictions and curfews. One thing has
changed. Italy has a new Prime Minister, Mario Draghi a well-respected economist and hopes are now pinned on him and his government to speed up
the vaccine roll out plan and come up with an economic recovery plan for this country.
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AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these construction projects was completed in 2011? Beijing Daxing International Airport, International Space Station,
One World Trade Center or Burj Khalifa. International Space Station was officially completed in 2011.
Of the $150 billion it`s taken to build the International Space Station, the United States has contributed about $100 billion and it costs America
about $3 to $4 billion a year just to operate the orbiting laboratory. That`s part of the reason why NASA wants private companies to get involved
there.
The ISS takes a significant chunk of the agency`s budget and NASA wants to focus more of its efforts in funding on Mars missions like Perseverance and
on returning people to the moon. For private astronauts to get to the ISS, the cost will be around $55 million per seat.
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RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The International Space Station represents the longest continuous human presence in low earth orbit. As a working
laboratory, the astronauts are its researchers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The amazing thing about the Space Station is that it`s a place where do research. We`re simulating aspects of future space
missions and at the same time we also have commercial providers that are coming in and becoming part of the space economy.
CRANE: The space economy is in many ways the latest form of the space race. Low earth orbit, the space occupied by the ISS, is defined by NASA as the
area in earth`s orbit close enough for easy transportation, re-supply and communication.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Low earth orbit gives you access to a place where gravity is no longer a dominant force like it is on earth. It also is a
place where you can potentially harness laws of physics in ways you can`t on earth to make products or other things that can`t be produced here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you`re going to have an economy in space, you`ve got to have supply and demand and you have to have the research capabilities
that a lot of small companies are now providing.
CRANE: Some commercial companies like Space Tango which facilitates manufacturing and research in microgravity already have a presence on board
the ISS while others have designs on starting their own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the ISS now government is the landlord if you will, we are on the platform with our partners. That`s not sustainable in the
long run because we have exploration goals. So we need to turn low earth orbit over to the commercial sector and then we become a customer. In the
last year or so NASA has pivoted starting to enable companies to learn that they can actually produce something in space.
CRANE: NASA took a big step in that direction with the announcement that private astronauts with approved research projects can pay their way onto
the ISS and companies can bid to use a port on the station. More and more it seems, the human presence in low earth orbit is set to expand in ways
that we`ve never seen before. Rachael Crane, CNN reporting.
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AZUZ: According to moving.com, hiring professionals to move you to a new home costs anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 on average. But what about moving
a home itself, a 139-year-old Victorian residence measuring 80 feet long. Developers wanted to put apartments in its old location so the owner spent
$400,000 to have it towed six blocks.
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AZUZ: It was a "mooving" sight. They must have had to search high and "bungalow" to find the craftsman needed for such a non-traditional
relocation. We don`t know if they had a "tooter" but to get a house "Victoriainto" it`s new home, you need more than mid-century modern ideas.
You need a "rivival" of innovation so the project doesn`t turn out "raunchy".
That brings us home for the day. I`m Carl Azuz and I`m shouting out Walter McGuiness, that`s the name of a high school in Red Wing, Minnesota where
folks subscribed and left a comment on our You Tube channel. CNN 10 returns tomorrow.
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