Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
Truck Convoy Protests At The U.S.-Canada Border; Covering The Advent Of 3D Printed Rockets. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired February 11, 2022 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: But, soft. What light through yonder window breaks? It is the Friday and it is awesome. I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to our
last show of the week. In several places along the border between the United States and Canada, convoys of large trucks, tankers and farm
equipment have blocked the passage. These are demonstrations that started two weeks ago in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. Initially truck drivers
were protesting a new rule in Canada that required them to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to cross the border. If they`re not
vaccinated, they have to spend two weeks in quarantine before they can drive through the country.
The demonstrators call their protest "The Freedom Convoy", and while Canada says almost 90 percent of its truckers are fully vaccinated and eligible to
cross the border more groups have joined the protests, speaking out against other COVID restrictions like mask mandates, lockdowns and limits on how
many people can get together. The impact this is having isn`t just on border traffic. Car companies including Ford, General Motors and Toyota
said they`ve had to decrease production or temporarily close plants because they aren`t able to get the supplies they need to make as many cars. Though
some public monuments have reportedly been defaced, the protests have been largely peaceful.
But Canadian government officials haven`t been lawful. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the demonstrators quote, "don`t have the right to
blockade our economy or our democracy or our fellow citizens daily lives." A protestor interviewed by CNN said he lost he job because he didn`t take a
COVID vaccine and it`s not right for companies to be able to take away people`s livelihoods over that. The blockade that started in Ottawa has
spread to other border crossings between Canada and the U.S. Similar "Freedom Convoy" events have been reported in Australia and New Zealand.
And this week, American government officials said they`ve seen indications that convoys are being organized in the U.S. also in opposition to vaccine
mandates for truck drivers and other restrictions. U.S. officials say demonstrations could impact the Super Bowl on Sunday or President Joe
Biden`s State of the Union speech on March 1st. Authorities say they haven`t seen calls for violence with these demonstrations. They`re expected
to be peaceful, but officials are working with law enforcement to make sure communities are protected.
10 Second Trivia. The first rocket to reach space was made in what country? Soviet Union, United States, Germany or China. In the early 1940s`, a
German V-2 rocket became the first manmade object to reach space.
In 2016, company was founded with the goal of producing rockets, as in using giant three-dimensional printers. Over the past six years, the
company has raised a fortune from investors, $650 million as of last summer according to CNBC but one big question is will these things fly. No one
knows yet. The organization has delayed its maiden launch dates several times. It`s blamed COVID, changes to it`s flagship rocket`s design, changes
to it`s engine and materials. One day it`s founders hope to build a production facility on Mars, but first they`ve got to get their rockets off
the Earth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What your watching is a rocket being sculpted by a giant 3-D printer.
TIM ELLIS, CO-FOUNDER OF RELATIVITY SPACE: This -- this really is creating the "Star Trek" applicator sci-fi feature that we`ve seen in movies for
many decades, but no one aspired to build it to scale yet but we`re doing that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tim Ellis is the co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space. Ellis believe his team has found a way to make cheaper and more
reliable rockets using their 3-D printers they`ve named Stargate. And what are the advantages of 3-D printing a rocket?
ELLIS: Yes. So the advantages really are around automation and part count reduction. So usually and really for the last 60 years, you still walk into
any aerospace factory around the world rockets or other wise, and they`re still building products one at a time by hand with millions of individual
piece parts and these giant factories full of fixed tooling. It takes billions of dollars and year to set up and iterate and change, and so
really the 3-D printing approach we`re doing is the holy grail for automation in aerospace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And printing rockets means Relativity can build them much faster. Ellis says his team can currently print a rocket in about five
months, and is working to cut that build time even further. Being able to build a rocket in 60 days, 30 days, is that pace really necessary?
ELLIS: It -- it is because it`s about the rate of improvement. So, I think, every 60 days we can build a better version and a better version. So it`s
really about the -- the, kind of, rate of practice because people learn much faster by doing rather than just simulating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does your approach impact the cost of the rocket? Because rockets, as you pointed out, are incredibly expensive
traditionally.
ELLIS: Yes. So -- so versus other rockets of a similar payload cost built traditionally, we -- our rocket is about a quarter of the cost, of other
launch vehicles currently flying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Terran-1 here.
ELLIS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is your baby.
ELLIS: Yes. This -- this is the baby. So, yes, this is Terran-1. It`s the world`s first entirely 3-D printed rocket fuselage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The company says Terran-1 will launch in 2022. If all goes well, it will be the first of many launch vehicles Ellis and his team
will print in their Long Beach, California factory. In fact, Relativity`s already hard at work on their larger, reusable heavy lift rocket the
Terran-R. Wow, that`s a pretty serious printer right there .
ELLIS: Yes. Yes. And it`s really just the early days too, I think that`s -- that`s --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Ellis, getting to space is just part of the mission. Fundamentally changing the manufacturing process from big
expensive things like airplanes or wind turbines is just as important.
ELLIS: We`re starting with rockets, but I really see us as the world`s first application layer 3-D company. I -- I think 3-D printing will be able
to build much better products faster. It`s really about increasing the speed of learning and lowering the barriers of entries for trying
experiments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, zero.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If this all sounds very ambitious, that`s because it is. Ellis and many on his team have a lot of experience for building
rockets for firms like Blue Origin and Space X, and have raised over $1 billion in funding in just the last year. But Relativity has yet to put a
rocket into space. You guys are building rockets, in a completely different way, in an industry that is inherently risky and about reducing that risk.
Have people been suspicious about this new approach?
ELLIS: You know, we`ve sold more rockets than any other company in history before lunch. So I think, you know, people are quite confident in this
(inaudible) today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the proof is in the pudding and you guys haven`t flown yet.
ELLIS: Haven`t flown yet, but all the momentum is there and you`re definitively right. We`ve got to -- we`ve got to show what we`ve got but
major parts of the rocket have already flown a simulated mission on the ground, and so I`m quite confident we`ve gotten over the hump where 3-D
printing a rocket is now inevitable, truly inevitable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: A woman in Maine got a phone call recently saying her lost cat was found. Two problems, one the phone call was from a shelter in Florida,
1,400 miles away. And two, she didn`t own a cat, so he -- she had owned a cat six years ago. Her name was "Ashes" and she`d run away during a
birthday party. The shelter used a microchip to find her original owner. No one knows how "Ashes" got to Florida and she was a little beat up with a
cold, some missing teeth and a coat that needed healing. But $1,800 later, "Ashes" is back home and thriving.
Was she "catawalling", she was "caterhauling". Her American "crosscatry" journey might not have taken so far as a "Himalayan", "Siberian", "Persian"
or "Norweigan" one. She might not have cross the "Turkish"border or the "Savannah" but it still wasn`t "Siameasy", even if she took a "cabby". She
rang up quite a "tabby". Her owner simply "Maine coonded" believe it. I`m Carl Azuz. Today`s shout out takes us to Marine City, Michigan where we`re
happy to see the students of Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School. "Cats" all for CNN.
END
