a devastating week in texas gets worse as the state confronts its latest water. this as the severe weather in the u.s. is causing delays in covid-19 vaccine shipments and deliveries. nasa's rover perseverance lives up to its name completing a 300,000 mile journey to mars. welcome to all of you watching here in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. this is kr"cnn newsroom."

hundreds of thousands of americans in the state of texas are bracing for another day in the dark as many face the freezing temperatures, the heat, food or water. so far millions of businesses and homes have had their power restored after harsh winter storms earlier in the week knocked out most of the state's power grid. now the bitter cold is facing another necessity. some 13 million texans are under boil water notices and some have no water at all. many have been lining up at public pumps while others have turned to melting snow. reports are pouring in across the state, frozen water pipes bursting. the city of austin alone says it has lost 325 million gallons of water after pipes burst from the

freezing conditions flooding homes and businesses. >> this is what we came back to. >> our whole apartment. look at the -- y'all, i cannot believe this. >> anger boiling over as texans endure more pain. millions are now facing a new problem, major water disruptions. this woman's apartment in dallas flooded. >> and now we ain't got [ bleep ]. everything that we brought here we don't have nothing, y'all. >> broken pipes, failing systems piling onto the pain texans have felt since sunday. the white house has declared states of emergency for texas and oklahoma with 23 million from texas to louisiana now under hard freeze warnings. >> we're just left sitting in a cold, darkroom in the middle of a night with a crying baby and an in pain wife. that's what hurts the worst. there's nothing we can really do

besides sit and wait. >> texas governor greg abbott pledging to reform the organization that runs nearly all of the state's power grid known as ercot. >> i'm taking responsibility for the current status of ercot. again, i find what's happened unacceptable. >> reporter: and saying an investigation is underway. >> we have already begun the process to make sure that events like this never again happen in te texas, and that starts with reforming the agency in charge of electric reliability in texas, which is ercot. >> reporter: people trying to do all they can to stay warm, evening burning a baby crib. >> this is the only way we can stay warm because the power is out. >> and this mother trying to keep her kids warm in the car. >> it's horrible. we've been driving around during the day with the heater on in the car just to keep warm. >> reporter: the water disruptions on top of everything.

>> it is too much to ask of anybody. people are angry and confused, frustrated and i am, too. >> reporter: the cities of austin and san antonio issuing boil water notices wednesday evening. >> this is a dire place. >> reporter: ercot saying they were actually only 340emoments from a more catastrophic failure. >> it was given seconds and minutes given the amount of generation coming off the system. >> reporter: at its peak, more than 3 million were without power. the vast majority have had their power restored. some may be days getting their power back and people here want answer urs now. >> i expect a full apology as to how the system handled and i expect some sort of solution so that this doesn't happen again. >> reporter: and most of the people that we've talked to over the last couple of days say they agree with the investigation. they want to know exactly what happened here in texas and why this became such a big mess, but

before they get any answers, they need to deal with the problems in front of them and for millions of texans, that problem is water. not just boil water notices, there are many people who don't have any water whatsoever so what they're doing is collecting some of that ice and that snow, putting it into buckets, taking it inside their homes for later use. in dallas texas, camilla bernal, cnn. texas senator ted cruz flew off to mexico for a family vacation, stayed one night, as word of his trip blew up on social media calling the get away a mistake. protesters are gathering outside of senator ted cruz's home in houston. people are holding signs calling on him to resign. cruz said he had regrets about his trip as he was returning home. >> yesterday the plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family.

that was the plan. i started having second thoughts almost the moment i sat down on the plane because on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. that's something texans have been doing across the state, but i also have a responsibility that i take very seriously of fighting for the state of texas and, frankly, leaving when so many texans were hurting didn't feel right and so i changed my return flight. >> sharon peterson is a resident of katie, texas. she has been battling with burst pipes. they have been camping out in a hotel with one bed for six people. sharon, thanks so much for joining me. i really appreciate it. before we get into what you've been through, just tell me how are you doing right now? >> well, i'm coming to you from the hotel bathroom so i think that pretty much sums up my week

so far. it's been a very long month this week, i guess you could say. >> take me through what exactly happened to your house. >> sure. so monday about 2 a.m. the power went out and we were out about 36 hours total. so when we woke up tuesday morning it was 39 degrees in our house and i have four children, 14 and under. two of them have special needs so it was definitely a time of bonding under a lot of covers. and so tuesday morning we decided we would pack up our stuff and head to our church to at least charge up our things because they had power there and power was kind of some places had it, some places didn't. it was kind of all over the place. and on our way there we stopped at walmart which happened to take hours to get through. by the time i got done the neighbor texted and told me that our power was back on and so we had been gone maybe two hours and when we opened the front

door there was water pouring out of our vents downstairs. >> oh, my gosh. we were showing some video there that you sent to us that just showed that water coming through the ceiling. yeah, we're seeing it right now. that must have been -- when you saw that, i mean, what went through your mind? >> i was just stunned. like i couldn't -- i didn't -- it's so hard to put into words because you think you've done -- you know, we kept our faucets dripping like we were told to do. we thought we were doing all the right things and we were just so relieved to finally have power on for a little while and then our house is basically destroyed. the plumber actually came this evening and he said there's so many cracked pipes at this point that he just thinks the whole house needs to be repiped. >> you sent some pictures of the lineups to get food that you've had to go through. and water as well. how are you coping with all of that? >> right. right now we're under a boil

water watch for the city of katy and the city of houston, pretty much anywhere around here. houston is 3 million people. when you tell 3 million people they can't drink water out of their faucets, of course the first thing that's going to go is bottled water. it's sort of like the hunger/thirty games around here trying to find what you need in a grocery store. it's just -- everything is gone. >> i know a lot of people are angry at what happened. your senator ted cruz leaving to cancun certainly didn't help. how frustrated are you at everything and at the politicians and the system right now? >> i think it's been really frustrating for us because we don't know -- we don't really know what's happening and these rolling blackouts were -- they just -- there was no kind of warning or anything or any kind

of, you know -- any kind of schedule to let us know when they were going to happen so you could prepare for them. it was just in and out, in and out and then boiling the water, that's really challenging when you're in a hotel room and you have four kids. so, you know, on the other hand though, i have seen so many neighbors, so many church members just step up and help each other and, you know, that's what the people of texas are like. you know, they're always looking out for their neighbor so i guess i choose to just focus on that stuff, what we can change, how we can help. >> that's a great note to end on, a note of hope there. and certainly we hope that, you know, all the best for you and your family. you've been trying to go through this by yourself let alone four kids, two kids with special needs. just horrific circumstances there. we wish you the best and, you know, hope the weather cooperates and finally you're

able to rebuild your home. thanks so much for talking to us. appreciate it. >> thank you. firefighters in san antonio, texas, are battling a huge apartment fire and the water supply is a big concern. about 75 firefighters are struggling as many of the hydrants on the scene are frozen due to the severe storm that passed through. they have to load up with water at a different location. one building is on the verge of collapsing. thankfully no injuries have been reported. the dangerous weather conditions are crippling the vaccine rollout. many have to cancel appointments and shipments have been delayed. the country will have to work double time to catch up. cnn's nick watt reports. >> we have five sites here in essex county. today they are all closed down. >> reporter: that's newark, new jersey. similar scene down in houston,

texas. every county run vaccination site is closed. >> vaccine shots will probably start again on friday. >> reporter: more than 2,000 vaccine sites are in areas with power outages, says fema. vaccine delivery delays from north carolina to california. >> while it might not snow in san diego, the snow is directly impacting san diego. >> reporter: because snow has fallen on delivery hubs in memphis and louisville, kentucky. >> we're talking about the national guard, and they will do this, about going down to kentucky and tennessee, which is where this stuff is currently located, and bring it back. >> reporter: the pace of vaccination was picking up before the cold took hold, but average shots in arms every day just took a little dip. >> we're going to have to make up for it as soon as the weather lifts a bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out, the people out. >> reporter: meantime, average

covid-19 daily case counts down 20% in a week, still high but going down for now. broader impact of all we've been through, still going through. drug overdose rates rose sharply when the pandemic hit according to early cdc data, which also reports that u.s. life expectancy fell a full year, first half of 2020, falling even further for latin x and black americans. sun is shining here in southern california but, still, the massive vaccination site at disneyland has closed down. lack of supply. the shipment just didn't arrive because of bad weather elsewhere in the u.s. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> all right. still ahead, a possible path to u.s. citizenship for millions trapped in legal limbo. we'll explain the details of president biden's plan to revamp

america's immigration laws. plus, biden administration signaled a willingness to talk with iran about the nuclear issue. now iran has responded so we'll have a live report from london just ahead. stay with us.

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the ongoing investigation into the january 6th riot at the u.s. capitol has led to about three dozen police officers being investigated for their actions that day. a spokesperson for the capitol hill police says six officers now have been suspended with pay and other details about their suspensions haven't been made public. in all, 35 officers are under investigation. the acting police chief says any officer whose behavior that day didn't meet the guidelines and would face disciplinary measures. president biden's $1.9 trillion relief package, they're optimistic it can come to the floor by the end of next week. while that's happening, the president is unveiling an overhaul of immigration laws that will put undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship. kaitlyn collins with the

details. >> reporter: president biden preparing to take a crack at his next legislative battle. >> there is a reasonable path to citizenship. >> reporter: democratic lawmakers unveiled what that reasonable path is, skintroduci the most far reaching overhaul in three decades. >> sometimes it seems that citizenship can defeat us before we try. i get it, i really do. congress has tried and failed in the past and we aren't naive about the challenges that we face. >> reporter: biden's plan would offer an eight year path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants while expanding worker visas and reducing restrictions on family immigration. it would remove the word alien from immigration law and replace it with non-citizen. >> everyone is entitled to be treated with decency, with dignity. >> reporter: passing immigration legislation in washington is like landing on the moon. it rarely happens.

politics have only become more polarized since the last time lawmakers tried. >> i think 2013 is the year of immigration reform, i really do. >> we all wish we didn't have this problem, but we do. we have to fix it. >> with a slim majority in the senate, democrats have acknowledged it will be tough to get the ten republicans needed on board leading some to suggest to break the bill up into small pieces. >> if you had a refugee bill, i'm not suggesting that, there are things i would deal by itself. >> reporter: right now they're not saying how the bill will become law or when. >> in terms of the mechanisms or the time line or the mechanics, you know, we are happy to have that conversation in the weeks ahead, but today we're just -- the bill is just being officially duped. >> reporter: what biden is proposing is a massive overhaul of the current u.s. immigration

laws. we have a note the united states has not passed a major citizenship bill since ronald regan was in office. the u.s. is aiming high, this is a bipartisan bill and get some republicans on board though we should know people like senator marco rubio and senator mitt romney have already expressed their opposition to what is being laid out in this bill. where it goes is still a massive question. kaitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. joe biden has two major foreign policy events coming up in the next several hours. it will be virtual this year. after that he'll lay out u.s. foreign policy goals to the munich security conference. iran has responded to a u.s. overture about restarting group nuclear talks.

the tweet from sarif says iran will release all remedial measures if they lift all sanctions the trump administration imposed. this is after the u.s. said they would sit down with talks with tehran before either side takes any tangible action for compliance. nic robertson is covering this for us in london. nic, the biden administration making overtures to iran. iran has some pretty significant pre-conditions. there seems to be a way forward. take us through the new developments where both sides have very significant pre-conditions. the u.s. said unless iran comes into full compliance that it won't sit down and talk to them but it did want to talk about extending the current jcpoa. iran's position was quite simple. the united states needed to get

rid of all of its sanctions and come back into compliance itself or there was a deadline on this or this coming weekend iran was going to let in the international atomic energy inspectors on short visit to iran's nuclear facilities. there was a deadline approaching this weekend. a diplomatic fix has been found and it indicates a softening on the position of the biden administration although this has been sort of explained as not giving in to iran but sort of going along with common sense to try to get around the table. and the fix is this, that the eu's foreign policy chief insights the united states to join all the other signatories to the jcpoa including iran how to move the process forward. the united states has taken a couple of small diplomatic actions to indicate to iran that

it's acting in good faith, that it's taken off restrictions on the diplomats in new york, their missions there, and it's also saying that it will not issue trump's demand that the u.n. snap back sanctions being pushed on to iran. but the issue of iran's compliance with the terms of the jcpoa big because they are well beyond the terms at the moment. this is a break through and this does seem to be the sort of diplomacy that president biden came into office promising. is iran going to take it up? i think the signs are good but we don't have a firm yes. what we heard from the iranian foreign ministry, iran needs to drop all actions but what he didn't do was say that there was a deadline. that's a chance for everyone to get around the table here.

>> speaking of making diplomacy a priority, remember president biden said diplomacy is back so now pivoting to the g-7, what are we expecting there? >> yeah. more diplomacy. biden back on the international stage bringing america with him. over the past four years since he was vice president he's obviously been ab sent, but this is much, much bigger than that. this is bringing the united states back. today is the day 30 days after he said the united states would rejoin the paris climate accord, this is the day it actually happens. the g7 which is a virtual meeting had leaders meeting ahead of what will be the real and expected to be in person summit in the u.k. later this year in june. president biden is expected to sort of announce again a

diplomatic shift. he has said that the united states, unlike president trump, is going to continue supporting the world health organization and he's going to manifest that by giving $2 billion to the w.h.o.'s covax facility which is a facility that gets vaccines to poorer nations. the hope is to get 20% of the needed vaccines to 92 poorer nations around the world. there's a big demand and 130 nations around the world haven't donnie vaccines. the criticism has been that 75% of all vaccines are going to the ten richest nations right now. biden is making a big overture there stepping up with real big money to help out poorer nations. that's a message expected to go down well. >> nic, always appreciate the analysis. nic robertson in london. a young protester in myanmar shot at a demonstration last week has died. her family tells cnn. so far she's the only protester

known to be killed. her death could become a rallying cry as the anti-coup demonstrations have entered the third week. police have arrested 500 people and the military is publicly going after six national celebrities accusing them of supporting the civil disobedience. no heat, food or water. tens of thousands of americans are still in the dark days after a powerful winter storm swept through the south. is relief from the cold in sight? we'll check on the weather when we come back, plus there is better news about covid vaccines from europe. scotland's first minister says there's strong and compelling evidence the vaccine program is bringing down the number of deaths. we'll have more on that. stay with us.

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and welcome back to all of you watching in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching "cnn newsroom." slowly but surely power is being restored to millions of americans in the state of texas. just over 200,000 homes and businesses are still in the dark after harsh winter storms swept through the region, but now one crisis is leading to another. freezing temperatures have knocked out water systems across the state leaving some 13 million texans under boil water notices or with no water at all. the capital city of austin has lost 325 million gallons of water after pipes burst flooding homes and businesses. firefighters in san antonio say the water supply is a concern as

they battle a fire. these harsh weather conditions are not over yet. more than 60 million americans are still under winter weather alerts. cnn meteorologist derek van dam is tracking the latest conditions. let's get right to it. when's it going to end? >> reporter: good morning, kim. here is a look at the 60 million americans that have the winter weather alerts in place today. you can see why such a large percentage of our population in the united states is covered by these alerts, because look at that, d.c., philly, new york to boston you're included within this latest round of wintry weather. believe it or not, this is all part of the same storm that brought the cold air and winter misery to the deep south. you ask when will it end? well, we have to be honest. we have to be frank here. we have two more mornings of temperatures below freezing for places like houston, shreveport, dallas, san antonio even south ward towards corpus christi.

we have hard freeze warnings in place for those locations. over the next two days we have the chance to shatter several cold records. there is light at the end of the tunnel. temperatures moving in the right direction. first we have to get over the morning lows that will be below freezing in dallas, little rock and austin through saturday morning but sunday into monday and tuesday, that's a whole other story. we'll start moderating and things will feel a little bit more normal. look at the comparison from yesterday to today. yesterday it was below freezing in dallas. today it will remain at about 37. we're seeing that temperature go up. that also means we're going through that freeze/thaw process that can damage and burst water pipes leaving the boil advisories in place and some of the disruptions in the water delivery. this is what we like to see in our maps, reds being replaced by reds and yellows. that means milder or warmer air is settling in.

things are going to get better. dallas will stay well above freezing by the end of the weekend and next week. temperatures nearing the 70 degree mark. check this out. here's the ongoing winter storm. boston to new york, 2 to 4 maybe hopefully higher snowfall totals with this system. potential for ice by saturday afternoon. a lot going on, kim. it has been a busy week keeping us on our toes. >> a statement of the obvious, let's hope that red comes soon as possible. thanks so much. >> yeah. well, as we mentioned, the winter storm is wreaking havoc on the coronavirus vaccine rollout. many americans can't travel to get their vaccine and shipping delays are adding to the anxiety. a senior white house advisor said everyone is going to have to work harder to get the vaccines out once the weather warms up. >> the best thing to do here,

respect the weather, understand it, not put people in harm's way. keep the vaccine safe and sound. remind people if they have a second appointment and it's delayed by a week or so, it's no problem. they will get their vaccine. we have to ask everybody in the country to work double time next week. that will mean longer appointment hours, more shipping hours. we're going to ask everybody to do their part and pull together. >> u.s. president joe biden will visit pfizer later today. it was initially scheduled for thursday but postponed because of a snowstorm in michigan. meanwhile in europe, we're hearing some good news about vaccines. scotland's first minister says there is, quote, strong and compelling evidence the vaccination program is reducing the number of deaths. pfizer biontech said the first vaccine trial for pregnant women were given doses. let's get more on these.

selma abdelaziz is in london. let's start with you. maybe not an unexpected result but certainly welcome confirmation of what we hope to hear. >> reporter: absolutely, kim. the first minister of scotland saying in a press conference yesterday that there has been strong and compelling evidence that this vaccine is indeed working. she said in this press conference that the latest data and figures show there has been a 60% decrease in the number of covid-related deaths inside care homes over the last three weeks. that's giving authorities the confidence to know that the vaccine is working, that the strategy of targeting care homes and the elderly residents there was the right strategy and they have the bit of protection from the virus that's needed. more positive news, boris johnson will be sharing the u.k.'s successes and delays in the vaccination. millions of people vaccinated

among this country's most vulnerable people having their shot. the prime minister will lay out in the speech that they want to give away any surplus vaccines to developing nations. u.k. has ordered 400 million doses. there's only a population of just over 65 million in the u.k. there should be a great number of surplus there to give to developing countries. they will give a pledge of 100 days, 100 day program if a new vaccine is needed, then they'll be able to develop that in a 100 day period. concern here, kim, is about variants and having an international plan around tackling the variants if they become a larger issue when it comes to the vaccination program. kim? >> yeah, absolutely. to you, melissa. pregnant women weren't included in previous trials. really young children weren't either previously, but finally we will get some data on that demographic. pregnant women who might be at higher risk.

>> reporter: that's right. the vaccine rollout will be moving on from older people to princeton's women of child bearing age. what are the risks for pregnant women? 4,000 women between 24 and 34 weeks pregnant will be tested to see what the risks are. this is important also, kim, because we know that what we've seen so far is that pregnant women have been found to get the most serious versions of covid-19 if they get infected. one study in washington state suggesting pregnant women may be more at risk of getting infected to begin with. these will be important findings for pfizer to share as pregnant women begin to share whether or not to take up the offer of vaccines. another important part of the study, kim, will be the effects and risks of the vaccines for

the unborn. what level of immunization will the children of pregnant womenr. when you look at the flu vaccine, we know there is some immunity handed down. will that be the case for covid-19? that is another important part of the study and. they're looking at whether pregnant women can get themselves vaccinated. for the time being the evidence and the studies haven't really different any true indication of whether or not they can go ahead and do it safely. of course, it's essentially being left up to them for the time being whether or not they believe they should. important findings that will become all the more important over the coming months as these women of child bearing age consider whether or not to take these vaccines. >> so much at stake there. thanks so much for that. cnn's melissa bell in paris. still to come, the craze that put wall street in a spin

has reached the halls of congress and lawmakers want the answers. the details of what was said at yesterday's gamestop hearing. the u.s. unemployment hearings are high. why president biden is calling it a crisis. stay with us. ! 3 made-for-you formulas with 2% pha exfoliate and condition for soft, balanced skin. find the one. neutrogena® you know, malcolm, audible's got more than audiobooks. of course, podcasts. originals. bestsellers. future bestsellers. sleep stories. xy! audible originals. all in one place.

u.s. lawmakers are looking for answers in the stock trading debacle centered around gamestop and the online trading app robinhood. you heard from ceos, reddit user named roaring kitty. what did they find out? cnn's emerging markets editor john deftarios is live this hour in abu dhabi with answers. it's a fascinating story with interesting characters. with so much else going on, people might have missed some of the developments. i'm glad you're here to bring us up to speed. >> i like the way you put that,

kim. a lot of moving parts. as you suggested, what a cast of characters here. robinhood, reddit, the roaring kitty. could be a screenplay, if you will, but at the crux of it all the characters were not known until early 2021. it's having a mob picking a star and having it run it up, is it all square or manipulation? after the hearing it's on robinhood because they didn't halt trading for a matter of hours but it carried on for days limiting that trade. they did so because they had to raise funds for the reserve requirements, right? now they are suggesting we could have done a lot better. he basically tried to wipe the slate clean. let's take a listen. >> i'm sorry for what happened. i apologize and i'm not going to

say that robinhood did everything perfect and that we haven't made mistakes in the past, but what i commit to is making sure that we grow from this, we learn from it and we don't make the same mistakes in the future. >> tenev has had a lot of public attention and scrutiny. there was a post by one of the day traders, we've now come to the mainstream and we're on the world map. that's also going to invite a lot more scrutiny as well. we learned robinhood could legally sell the data to the day trades. feed them to the day trades and they can decide to short it out and the ceo of citadel to tell us we drive on the right side of the road or the left or if you're going to change the rules

going forward. as maxine waters said, at the end of the day it always seems wall street wins. gamestop has gone from a gain of 1700%, kim, at the start of the year to a reasonable 100%. a lot of day traders lost a lot of money along the way. >> i'll see if anything concrete comes out of this. thank you for that. john did heftarios in abu dhabi >> any americans may not relate to wall street intrigues. mothers, for instance, may be among them. they're losing their jobs in droves due to the double whammy of covid and the depressed economy. president biden calls it an emergency and a crisis. vanessa jurkavich has their story. >> reporter: it was supposed to be one of the happiest times of her life. >> favorite game? >> but when brook asaway was

five months pregnant, she was laid off from her job. >> it was a lot of anxiety. i didn't know what to do. >> now that her son is six months old, she's looking for work again. the economy is still down 10 million jobs since the pandemic began. 5.3 million held by women. >> at this moment i am scared to say i'm a mom when i'm applying. there's something about telling an employer that i'm going to be one of those people that's going to have to balance those things. >> reporter: 2.5 million women have left the work force all together, many who are mothers. >> it is on so many fronts been such a challenging year for women. we've suffered more layoffs than men and we've seen our already fragile child care and education infrastructure unravel. >> reporter: that may have cost nicole connor her job.

her 7-year-old atticus is at home remote learning. she's surviving on food stamp and student loans. >> i'm lucky my bills are paid but it's sad i have to consider myself to be lucky to go into debt. >> mother of four michelle mitch chem is looking for new work after she was laid off in july for a career in sales. she applied for jobs she never considered before. >> i've been applying for any type of jobs. it doesn't matter if it's entry level, internships, if it's janitorial, if it's anything, i've been applying. >> president joe biden has been applying to give $15 billion in grants to pay for child care. >> parents, particularly women back to work. >> some companies like spotify,

google, facebook are offering perks like additional family paid leave or work from anywhere. >> accensure is committing to hire 150 million jobs. >> reporter: how are you feeling about your future? >> i want to be something that makes my son proud and i think he would want me to continue pushing and continuing to try to help other people and just be back in the work force. >> vanessa jurkavich, brooklyn, new york. nasa's sophisticated new rover has made a dramatic new landing on mars. we'll tell you about the historic moment. stay with us. it's time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but, can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable.

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percy. that's the nickname nasa scientists have given perseverance. the rover that just wowed the world with its nail biting arrival on mars. percy is bristling with instruments other rovers never had as it tries to tell us whether life existed on our closest planetary neighbor.

our michael holmes has more. >> touchdown confirmed. safely on the surface of mars. >> she is from nasa's control room as the u.s. space agency lands its most daring mission yet on the red planet. >> what an amazing day. what an amazing team to work through all of the adversity that goes and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on mars plus the challenges of covid and just an amazing accomplishment. >> reporter: moments after touch down the perseverance rover transmits the first images. a crater once a martian lake. now it has a mission with a packed agenda for the next few years. it will be searching for signs of ancient life on mars while also preparing for human life to one day arrive. it will also collect rock sam

thams hopefully return to earth for the first time. this is truly a mission unlike any other made possible by discoveries from nasa's four other rovers on mars. >> our journey has been following the water to seeing whether this planet was habitable to finding complex chemicals and now we're at the advent of an entirely new phase, returning samples. an aspirational goal that has been with the science community for decades. >> reporter: perseverance promises new perspectives on the red planet. the rover ace microphones can share the first recordings of sound on mars and its 23 cameras offer better views before. also along for the ride, a drone sized helicopter named ingenuity will be the first to attempt flight on another planet.

the new technology may help direct the perseverance rover a probes. as nasa's latest mission explores new frontiers on mars and as the quest begins. michael holmes, cnn. i watched that live with myung son. i think he was a little disappointed that nobody got out of that rover but still, it was super cool. that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." "early start" is up next. >> touchdown confirmed. perseverance safely on the surface of mars ready to begin seeking the stands of past life. >> yes! >> they have flown away a safe distance. perseverance is continuing to transmit direct through orbiters to earth.

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm christine romans. friday, february 19th. it is exactly 5 a.m. in new york. first it was unemployment lines, then food lines, then vaccine lines. now it is waterlines in america, the largest economy on earth. americans resorting to desperate measures just to survive after a brutal freeze leaves texas crippled. about 13.5 million residents now have to boil their water.