i was wondering who that was. >> i'm showing poppy and don my pictures because it was a historic moment in the classic army/navy football rivalry not just because it was my first time going but for the first time in the 123 years that they have been playing each other they went into overtime. not just overtime, double overtime. >> ot. >> both sides -- it had been a pretty quiet game, back to back touchdowns. navy had a chance to win but

they fumbled just shy of the goal line if you see there. >> oh, no. >> it went nuts. army got the ball back, kicked a field goal for the victory. it was truly the game, the camaraderie is amazing, the best experience ever. >> can i bring the kids next year? >> your kids would love it. >> we're going. okay. see you tomorrow morning. "newsroom" is now. >> we're still on tv, by the way. good monday morning to you, i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm erica hill. it is crunch time on capitol hill with just five days left now to avoid a government shutdown cnn has learned lawmakers are inching closer to a deal on a year-long government spending bill, but with that friday deadline fast approaching congress may have to settle on -- stop if you have heard this one before -- perhaps a week-long stopgap measure to give more time for the talks. we will take a closer look at where the negotiations stand. >> i feel like we've talked

about this before. >> once or twice. >> an annual tradition in washington. new cnn reporting this morning, the newly appointed special counsel jack smith is according to cnn reporting moving full speed ahead, in charge of two criminal probes involving the former president donald trump, he's already making a series of high-profile moves. we have the details and what they mean. n 16 states. whiteouts and blizzard conditions expected out west, severe weather with high winds and tornadoes in the south as well. we will be live in the cnn weather center with the latest. will we get some snow? >> a lot of snow. first let's begin with that new cnn reporting. newly appointed special counsel jack smith moving fast on a pair of criminal probes around former president donald trump. >> cnn senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz. this was a big appointment here, there is now a special counsel, there was some talk about whether this would slow things down, you have a new boss in charge, but you're saying that's

not happening. >> yeah, there's speed here and also focus. as far as our understanding is we had a whole reporting team looking into how this special counsel's office was being set up in these first couple weeks he's been in charge. the one big take away we found is that there's a very large team of prosecutors working on this, already twice the size of the mueller investigation, 20 prosecutors that smith will step in and be the manager of working on january 6 alone, that's a lot of people taking this on. one of the things they've found that we found is that the prosecutors are asking witnesses at this time about was there a plan to steal the election? that seems really obvious, but what they're asking is about donald trump's knowledge, his belief of what would happen on january 6, his intent. that's the sort -- >> that's the point. we've talked frequently about how key intent is to any possible charges. >> totally. one of the things that's really fascinating that trump's team is not too worried. his allies are telling us that

with jack smith coming in as special counsel that doesn't necessarily mean that much, even if trump is out there saying witch-hunt, witch-hunt, witch-hunt, they are not concerned in the same way right now that they were with the mueller investigation, one of the quotes was the fact they found a guy who has been in europe for the past several years without his brain marinating in the soup of january 6 coverage, that's a good thing. they also think if there were to be a case brought against donald trump it would be very hard to prove in court. of course, there's still a risk involved with any investigation that's ongoing, but the entire landscape here is a bit different than the mueller investigation. >> we will see if trump's legal team is right on that program knost case. kaitlan, thanks so much. joining us to discuss renato mariotti. kate lynn laid out 20 prosecutors on january 6 alone. the speed and focus when it comes to this investigation for doj, does it seem that that is

more speed than you would have anticipated based on the last few months? >> you know, i have to say, i was pretty bullish on the appointment of a special counsel, i really did not agree with some of the predictions that that would slow things down, from my perspective this is different than the mueller investigation. remember, the mueller investigation was investigating events that had just happened. trump had just fired comey, special counsel was appointed regarding that and other matters, and, in fact, the special counsel the prior one robert mueller, he investigated things that happened during the course of his own investigation when trump was trying to fire him. that isn't the case here. what you have is jack smith coming in in an investigation that is already ongoing and in the mueller investigation he did -- he did take over one piece of an investigation that was ongoing, the manafort case,

that was a case that had already been investigated, already had a team in place, he indicted him within five months. i actually think the mar-a-lago piece will go the fastest, i would not be surprised if we saw an indictment in 2023. >> you heard katelyn relating the trump legal team's view, jack smith he has been over in europe, hasn't been germinating as they say in the coverage of the january 6 hearings and that gives them some sort of advantage here. i wonder if you believe that's right. >> well, i do think having somebody with fresh eyes might be helpful for january 6th. i think that that is a much harder case for the justice department to bring than mar-a-lago whereas i think the mar-a-lago documents case is very straightforward, but as a practical matter let's be real here, a special counsel leaving his job to take over here is not doing so in order to decline these cases. you know, frankly if he did not think that there was a serious chance of charging these cases i don't think he would have taken the job. so i think there's a bit of wish caster there. >> i imagine he will follow the

evidence rather than the coverage. thanks so much as always. >> thank you. now to capitol hill as lawmakers face a familiar deadline in washington, this one is five days, reach a deal by friday or risk a government shutdown. what do they have to do? they have to figure out how to fund the government. >> cnn congressional correspondent lauren fox joining us now. so the standoff this is just one of the first takes, it's something we have come to -- as jim pointed out earlier, i almost feel like this has become part of the holiday season that we get to this part where we talk about how do we make this happen. >> reporter: the most wonderful time of the year up here on capitol hill. yes, this is a must pass funding deadline, it's coming up on friday. lawmakers coming back to washington today and they all acknowledge the reality, they're going to need a little more time. they're going to have to pass a short-term spending bill in order to get them just a few more days to continue these negotiations over the weekend aides that i'm talking to say that they did make a little more progress, but the key sticking points still remain, and they

still have not agreed to how much money to spend next year. they are about $25 billion apart, that obviously is a significant amount of money, for the government that's a little bit less significant of an amount of money but they are still working through those differences. that leaves them really with two choices at the end of the day, once they get past friday they have about another week to negotiate if they pass that short-term spending bill, then they can either keep funding levels at what they were last year, that is less desirable from the white house because of inflation, because of other factors, they want more flexibility in terms of how they deal with spending next year. they're going to continue to try and pass an omnibus, that of course would set new funding levels for the next year, but there is a long, long way to go and the fact they still can't even agree on how much money to spend tells you that this is a difficult task ahead. jim and erica. >> certainly s lauren fox, we know you will keep us posted.

thank you. well, this morning 16 states are under winter weather alerts as a major storm system is moving across the country. >> the storm blanketed parts of northern california with heavy snow. soda springs, 60 inches of snow in 48 hours. 5 feet. the severe weather taking aim at the central u.s. as it makes its way across the country. >> that's about one erica hill, 5 feet plus maybe 7 inches of snow. >> i was 5'8", i shrunk a little bit. meteorologist chad myers in the cnn weather center. so i am kind of obsessed with the weather because it feels like this is the first big storm that we are seeing that is really encompassing the majority of the country. >> it is. absolutely, this is almost a repeat of what we had the same time last year that put california way up on the snow map and go, yay, here we go, we're really going to get snow and then january and february and march it didn't snow at all and all of a sudden we were back

horribly in the drought, but this was a major storm, 5 feet of snow, you melt that down that's 5 inches of water that's going to get into the ground, going to get into the streams and going to get into the reservoirs. but now we move this to the east, we move this into california, salt lake city and then farther off towards the east where it's warmer that's where the severe weather will be. this is really a spring-type storm happening as we go into winter. spring the cold air is here and the warm air wants to be here. winter, well, the warm air is here and the cold air wants to be -- it's the same fight, just a different fight. radar doesn't show is very well in the mountains there with snow, but these are the areas you were talking about and the area in red right here, blizzard warnings going to be put there. when you get winds at 30 to 45 miles per hour and very heavy snow, 2 feet of snow, but there will never be 2 feet anywhere, it will be scoured and then in the ditches or in the hedgerows. that's where the snow will start to really, really just drift up.

this is going to be difficult travel for i-80, i-76, 70, even up into colorado itself and into the front range. here is the storm system here, thunderstorms, could be tornadoes, too. here is the snow back out to the west, the front range really gets in it tomorrow. this is really going, the wind is just going to pick up, 40 to 50 miles per hour with heavy snow. that's what blizzard is going to come from. visibility less than a quarter mile at times. but then we're going to watch this area throughout the afternoon because that's where it's going to warm up, the sun is actually going to come out and severe thunderstorms will fire across parts of louisiana, mississippi, possibly all along the gulf coast, maybe as far east as panama city. this is a big storm. the rain is from georgia with the snow still all the way back expected over the next two days to nevada. that's how large this thing is. >> it is massive to see such a chunk of that map covered here. all right. chad, we will keep you busy this

week, my friend. >> you will. >> thank you. still to come here, health officials in major cities across the country revis i get their guidance on when you should mask up as they follow this spread of multiple respiratory illnesses. where you may want to think twice, maybe want to grab that mask before you head out the door. what the experts are saying next. plus the treasury secretary is forecasting lower inflation next year. will that dissuade federal reserve chair jerome powell from bumping up interest rates again this week or more likely trim down the size of that rate increase, we will have a look. a high speed splash down, now nasa prepares for the second phase of its mission to put people back on mars. how the landing, a successful one, boosted that quest. that's coming up. and the effects are being felt everywhere. that's w why at chevron, we're increasing productioion in the permian basin by 15%. and we're projected to reacach 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2025.

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trifecta of illnesses not just covid-19 but also rsv and the flu. they're affecting millions of americans currently putting a strain on hospitals across the country. and that has officials in los angeles, seattle, oregon, here in new york city all recommending, important to note, though, not mandating, but advising a return to mask wearing in certain situations. cnn's athena jones joining us now. here in new york health officials pretty clear to say this is an advisory it's not a mandate, but they also said doesn't matter your vaccination status. >> you still can get covid from examples from our own family and leaves even though you are vaccinated but being vaccinated is very protective. this is happening because of new york city health officials what they're calling this unusually high spikes of these three respiratory illnesses we've been talking about and because it's the holiday season so people will be gathering with friends and family and health officials want people to be as safe as probable. they're urging mask, limited

attendance at large indoor gathering, wear a mask in outdoor crowded areas and asking people to wear a mask and get a covid-19 test if you are going to be gathering. of course, precautions are especially important for people who are especially vulnerable, infants, immunocompromised, people over 65 and of course they say use a high-quality mask not just a kn -- use a kn95 or kf94 or n95 not just a simple cloth mask, wear an effective mask. this is something that we're seeing not just in new york, as you mentioned, those several other cities. los angeles, oregon is one of the places, this is a state where hospital beds are more than 85% full. this is an area where officials are recommending masking. los angeles county is also just recommending it and so is the seattle metro area, health officials there in three of that state's washington state's most populous counties are recommending masking. the thing is no one wants to go back to the battle days of covid

surges, but a lot of people do not feel like masking is for them and so i think a lot of officials, even anthony fauci, the president's top health owe visor, they don't want to force this on people. they don't think people will react well to mandates. >> but they will give you the information to hopefully make the best decision for you and your family. i have definitely seen an uptick tick in new york city of people wearing masks. >> especially in the subway. elizabeth cohen joins us now. elizabeth, the data is concerning, it's understandable because many hospitals are seeing a real uptick in admissions here, but i'm sure health officials know they have a challenge, right, given that some folks are going to hear these recommendations even though they're not mandates and say, hey, i'm over that. how do they balance that? how do health officials balance that? >> i think it's definitely a tough balancing act. we know people don't want to hear this, but i'm going to show you a graph and athena mentioned this, the incredibly high stress on hospitals. i thought this was -- i was

actually surprised, i had to look at it twice, but look at this graph, on the right-hand side that is hospital bed capacity. they are at over percent -- over 80% capacity. that's higher than any point during the pandemic. in other words, it's worse now than it was during the heat of the pandemic. that says a lot about how much s something about our hospitals, they are not what they used to be. they are so understaffed, they are having such trouble getting doctors and nurses, so many of them left during the pandemic that it's really hard to keep these places at full capacity. there are a couple of other images i want to show you, they're so important here. this map, this is a cdc map of where we're seeing high rates of flu and other respiratory diseases. if it's purple, if it's red, that is a high or a very high rate. you will see that almost the entire country is red or purple. that means almost the entire country is seeing very high rates of these respiratory illnesses. by the way, you don't need to be an epidemiologist to know that.

i know so many of my friends are so sick and family members are so sick. the last map speaks to the masking and i think kind of answers your question. the communities that are in red here, those counties, they are according to the cdc -- the cdc says we really want you to be wearing masks indoors. that's 14% of the u.s. population is supposed to be wearing masks indoors according to the cdc. we know that that is not the case. we know that -- all you have to do is walk around to know that most people are not adhering to that. so they're really going to have to think of some other measures that will work. certainly the first one is get yourself vaccinated. be up to date with your covid vaccines and get yourself vaccinated against flu. it is not too late. even if you don't want to wear a mask, do your part, get yourself vaccinated, think about all those doctors and nurses and other patients that you will be helping out. jim, poppy? >> elizabeth, appreciate it. thank you. air karks by the way, new

this morning -- >> that's all right. elizabeth and i go way back. she knows. >> new this morning the wnba all-star brittney griner made her return to the basketball court on sunday during a light workout in texas. just days after coming back to the u.s. after nearly ten months of imprisonment in a penal colony in russia and she didn't have a bad start. >> no, her first move a dunk. her agent says despite the workout griner is unsure whether she will play again for the wnba for the phoenix mercury. kylie atwood joining us from the state department with more. so she is still, kylie, at brook army medical center there in san antonio. do we have any more information on how she's doing in terms of her recovery and also on the administration's efforts when it comes to paul whelan? >> i think the best indication is the fact that she was able to dunk a basketball over the weekend, right? i mean, it demonstrates that she has energy, she is driven to get back to the basketball court. as you guys said, no news about if she will actually return to

playing basketball professionally, but we do know from all accounts everyone who has seen her says she's doing incredibly well. roger carsons who is the special envoy for hostage affairs here at the state department, he traveled with her back to the united states and when she got on the plane he described her as incredibly energetic. he said, hey, you can sit over there, take your time, and she immediately said, no, i've been talking to no one in russia, i want to talk to people. she introduced herself to everyone in the crew on that plane and he said that she spoke for about 12 of the 16 hours on the flight home. so she is still undergoing these medical checks, we don't have a definitive estimation as to how long that will check, but by all accounts she's doing incredibly well. the other thing we should note is that we are continuing to ask questions of the biden administration in terms of how they're going to get home paul whelan, that's that other american who is still wrongfully detained in russia, going on four years now, and we just heard from roger carsons this

morning on abc who said that the biden administration is meeting today. u.s. officials meeting today to discuss next steps in the strategy to bring home whelan. he also told our colleague dana bash over the weekend that there's always cards that the u.s. can put on the table. now, the question is what kind of cards will russia accept here to get paul whelan home because they weren't able to get him home as a part of this prisoner swap that brought home griner, but rest assured, he said to paul whelan who he spoke with on friday, that the u.s. government is really doing everything that they can and this is an ongoing productive effort for them. guys? >> it will be interesting to see how far russia tries to squeeze things this time. kylie atwood, thanks so much. still ahead, the treasury secretary predicts that 2023 will bring some relief on inflation. that's good news. you're hearing that from a lot of folks. however, that will not change the holiday shopping prices many americans are seeing right now.

>> we are moments away now from the opening bell on wall street. u.s. stock futures marginally higher than where they ended the week on friday, all three markets did lose ground on friday but investors focused on inflation as the november consumer price index comes our way, that is slated for tuesday. the federal reserve's two-day meeting begins that same day. chair jerome powell's announcement on another possible rate hike, that is expected wednesday. traders do anticipate, though, if it is an increase it will be a smaller move than in recent months.

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the treasury secretary janet yellen says she is doing everything possible to avert a recession and had some positive news for the new year. >> so i believe inflation will be lower. i am very hopeful that the labor market will remain quite healthy so that people can feel good about their finances and their personal economic situation.

>> cnn reporter matt egan is here with more. this is a pretty busy week, we were talk being how busy a week it is for you, we were talking about it in the break. we have all this data, key inflation data coming out tomorrow, wednesday we should hear about a rate hike, right, because the fed is meeting. we're all trying to piece this together in this sort of unprecedented moment for the u.s. economy. do we have a better sense this morning of what direction things are headed in? >> there is a lot of gloom and doom out there as we head into 2023, but i think the truth is there are some real bright spots out there. i mean, it's easy to forget but we are in the middle of this historic jobs boom, more than 4 million jobs created so far this year, that is more than twice the pre covid pace, actually more than any other year except for last year which was the all time record, the unemployment rate is just 3.7%, easy to forget but it was almost 15% in the spring of 20. not only the jobs market is strong, but some of the

negatives are getting better, right? inflation, we learned on friday that producer prices they went up at the slowest annual rate in 18 months. we do expect more cooling in tomorrow's consumer inflation report. also gas prices, right, they have plunged. the national average is down by 52 cents in just the last month. they're actually lower than they were a year ago which is pretty amaz amazing. then there is the federal reserve, they've been slamming the brakes on the economy almost all year, that is why people are worried about a recession because borrowing costs are going up so rapidly but the fed is expected to slow the pace of rate hikes, expected to deliver a 50 basis point increase on wednesday, that would be down from 75 basis points. i think the question is whether the fed can stop raising interest rates before it ends up slowing the economy into recession and we don't know that yet but that will be the story of 2023. >> that's what they're trying to figure out.

>> exactly. >> a crystal ball. >> but it won't be easy. >> matt, thank you. >> thanks. while inflation may be cooling as we do head into the new year, some higher prices out there we're learning have really started to impact consumers ahead of the holidays. >> cnn correspondent gabe cohen speaks with families who say this holiday season may look a little different. >> reporter: in hidesville, maryland, an hr professional is christmas shopping for her children on a stricter budget than ever before. >> it's a few items for the kids this year as opposed to getting them all of the things on their list. >> reporter: high inflation has made holiday budgeting a more complicated equation for middle class families. a november poll found 47% of americans have less savings than a year ago and 42% plan to spend less on gifts this season, only 8% plan to spend more. but up to now the national retail federation says overall holiday spending hasn't slowed. families are just making

sacrifices. jeanette, a school bus driver, is relying on coupons for the first time. >> probably now everybody will have the same quantity of gift they used to have. >> reporter: joe parker says he won't limit spending for his family, just for himself. >> they're good kids. they do what they're supposed to do so i'm supposed to fulfill my part. >> reporter: in a new poll 55% of americans say rising prices have caused financial hardship for their household. >> doesn't take much. >> reporter: lindsey cook is one of them, a teacher, her husband a school security officer. higher prices forced them to dip into savings the past few months. >> i'm living paycheck to paycheck so there is no sort of wiggle room and it's kind of scary. >> how has your holiday budget changed? >> how do you create a budget when you don't have any extra income. >> reporter: she decided to spend no more than $100 for each of her two children. >> i sense the stress in your voice. >> i don't want to disappoint my kids, i don't want them to be upset, so it's just kind of sad.

>> reporter: then there are parents like charissa warren, we met her in march when she could barely afford gas with surging fuel prices. >> if we were to fill our tanks we wouldn't have enough cash for the rest of the week. >> reporter: with gas prices down and a raise at work she felt more secure heading into the holidays. then came the news, like many americans, she's getting laid off from her job. >> what did that do to your budget? >> what budget? just kind of blew everything up. now it's like anything extra ask out of the question. >> reporter: she has purchased a few gifts for her 3-year-old and says that's the end of her holiday shopping and leyla seems just fine with that. >> you're still going to have a great christmas. >> right. yeah. at the end of the day as long as she's happy we're all happy, we won't have gifts under the tree this year, but she will and so that's all that really matters. >> reporter: gabe cohen, cnn. still to come here ukraine's defense minister tells cnn why a harsh winter in that country may actually be a good thing in

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punish the ukrainian people. zelle ski also tried to shore up more assistance as his country enters the cold winter months. will ripley is live in kyiv. i know you spoke with ukraine's defense machine minister about those attacks on infrastructure and also the next phase of the war. why does he say winter could be to ukrainian forces' advantage? >> reporter: yeah, it's really interesting because the united states as you know, jim, has been saying that they expect the fighting to slow down, but that's not the message we got from the defense minister oleksii reznikov who we spoke with the southern city of odesa which was just hit yet again over the weekend by these kamikaze drones that explode on impact. they're made in iran, russia has been firing them, they fired 15 of them, ukraine shot down 10 but five were able to hit the power grid in odesa which had just been repaired after the missile strikes last week on monday that left the city in the dark for three days.

this weekend more than 1.5 million people, almost the entire odesa region once again plunged into darkness on saturday by these drone attacks. so that was the irs thing that i asked the defense minister about, but i will say in terms of the winter months, the ground freezing over is actually advantageous he says for these counter offensives because they can roll heavy equipment much more easily. he expects to see the fighting actually increase in the coming weeks once the ground has frozen. but what about these attacks from the air? >> what's your best strategy to defend against these kamikaze drone attacks from russia? >> every day we're trying to find the best solutions, they are targeting our infrastructure, trying to ruin our energy supply, water supply, heat supply, systems, because they cannot have a success against armed forces of ukraine, they're trying to fight them with the civilian population.

that's why they're trying to stop the energy, water to the houses. especially during this wintertime. >> reporter: another interesting thing he mentioned, jim and erica, is that he is confident that u.s.-made patriot missile defense systems which are number one on their christmas weapons list, he does believe that they will be on the battlefield here in ukraine, but he said it's a very complex discussion, they are obviously expensive systems and it would, you know, also potentially analysts say implicate the united states in nato if they were to provide this kind of system in the eyes of the russians in escalating the conflict, but they say these systems are badly needed. they also asked for controversial cluster munition warheads made by the u.s., but there's no indication -- by the way, cnn first reported this last week, but no indication they are going to be getting those cluster warheads. >> will ripley, thank you. after more than three decades the libyan man accused of making the bomb that brought

down pan am flight 103 is in cuss custody and expected to make his court appearance in d.c. federal court later today. 34 years ago, december 21st, 1988, 270 people were killed when the 747 jet exploded over the small village of lockerbie scotland. it remains the deadliest terror strike in british history. >> sometimes justice takes time. nic robertson joins us from london. this is a long time coming, right, nearly four decades. what happens next as he heads to court there? >> reporter: he goes to court and what we've seen in the court documents he's accused of being the bomb maker, that he was working for libyan intelligence under the directions of the then dictator muammar gaddafi for about 40 years and he was the guy that took the bomb from libya to molta. this is supposition, this is what the fbi believe is correct and he said when he was being interviewed by a libyan law enforcement official back in

2012 when this is, to your point, jim, about how slow justice can be, to come about and bring those in front of a judge, he said that he was told to set the timer of that come bom to 11 hours meaning it would come down, would bring the plane down out of the skies over lockerbie, scotland. now, the sequence of events from giving that statement, the fbi didn't know about it until 2017 and it took them another three years before they could actually sit down with that libyan law enforcement officer, he said that he would come and give testimony in the united states in a trial if the libyan government said that he was okay to do that. here we are today, the suspect masud is now going to be appearing in court pretty soon and we will begin to hear the very beginning of those charges, details laid out against him. that he was involved centrally to kill 270 people. >> remarkable.

nic robertson, thanks so much for covering. well, this morning also overseas three people are dead at least 21 hospitalized after an attack on a hotel in kabul, afghanistan. >> the taliban spokesman says three suspected attackers are also dead. all of this happened this morning. kabul's police say security forces are on the scene working to clear the area. officials say all remaining hotel guests have been evacuated safely. some good news now, splash down success, how nasa will use critical data from the successful landing there in the water to move on to phase two in its artemis mission to send people back to the moon. help yos get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp and it only takes eight minutes to qualify. i went on their website, uploaded everythining, and d i was blown away by what they could do. getrefunds.com has helped businesses get over a billion dollars and we can help your business too. qualify your business for a big refund in eight minutes.

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working to clean what has become the largest on shore crude pipeline spill in nine years. part of the keystone pipeline near the state line of kansas and nebraska has leaked some 14,000 barrels of oil so far. and according to u.s. officials that is the largest breach of that pipeline ever recorded. >> there were some concerns about these in the battle over the approval. the line was shut down on wednesday night. officials unsure when it will be back in service. the operator canada based tc energy is now working with the epa on clean-up as well as the pipeline and hazardous material safety association and kansas officials trying to clean it all up. >> we'll keep an eye on that one. well right now the orion moon craft headed back to the kennedy space center after completing this major milestone in the mission to get astronauts back to the moon and ultimately

to mars. nasa sharing images of the orion on the way to san diego aboard the uss portland. >> memories of apollo. it looks like the capsule from the late 60s and 70s. it had a successful splash down there on sunday. data will be analyzed in preparation for phase two which is sending astronauts to orbit the moon. i want to bring in jonathan mcdowell for his expertise. he's an astrophysicist at the center for astro physics. i'm all about space and i love all of this and i love covering it. let's go as far as we can. this is a very expensive way to do it. using a lot of old technology to do so. but it is going to the moon. we've been there. 50 some odd years ago. is it all worth it as a stepping-stone on to mars as sts described in. >> i think it is important regain the ability to go back

and work on the moon. it is been 50 years since we did it last time, right. and the reason is that the moon is so close to earth that if something goes wrong there, you could get home quickly, right. and in just a few days. so with the technology that they're developing for the artemis program, that is designed to not just do these little vacations on the moon for a few days but to support the infrastructure to have a permanent presence in the vicinity of moon and to use the same technology to go further out to the asteroids, to masters, to wherever we want. it is a bit of a technology hodgepodge right now. we don't have the ability to land on the moon with the orion spacecraft. so, nasa is paying spacex to develop a lander version of the star ship to match with the orion. >> one of the things in the

terms of the technology getting a lot of attention is the skip entry technique. you could put that in layman's terms for us, what does that change in terms of the re-entry. why is it so important muching forward? >> well, if you're just coming back from the neighborhood, from the international space station, you're re-entering the atmosphere at a mere 17,000 miles an hour. but coming back from the moon, you're coming in at 24, 25,000 miles an hour. it is really sporty and so you want to make that entry as gentle as possible and the little skip, it flattens out and pops back up a little bit, just a few miles and then back down again. and that gives you a bunch of things. it gives you a gentler ride, fewer g forces on the astronauts. also by slightly changing the angle of that skip re-entry, you could move where you land by

hundreds of miles. and so, you don't have to have quite as much of the u.s. navy covering the pacific. you could target it more accurately and avoid the weather as they had to do on this mission that they were already plunging back to earth when they decided to shift the landing spot from off san diego to south of baja. >> i asked bill nelson this question last week about whether the success of this mission at all moves up the timeline, which has already been delayed a number of times for manned mission to orbit mars and to land on mars. do you see any possibility of that? >> i think that is still a long way away. i think the assembly of future artemis missions is still more likely to slip than to get sooner. artemis two which is just let's send a few people around the back of the moon and home is

officially still scheduled for may of '24 but most of us think it will be late that year if not the following year. so this, you know, they want to be really safe and make sure that they don't skip corners. but at the same time, the pace of this program is -- is not dizzying. >> they need the pace like we're seeing on that speed with reentry. jonathan mcdowell, thank you. still ahead here. a quote, successful meeting for the january 6 house committee as it weighs criminal referrals for former president trump and his allies but what committee member is now revealing. that is next. th red currants onp we wish you a happy holiday, only a at ihop. new gingersnap apple french toast, part of our new holiday menu. try all three flavors.

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this morning the