geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” splashdown -- nasa's orion spacecraft returns to earth, and we look at what's next for space exploration. then, after four sailors on the same base died by suicide within a month, a conversation about the mental health crisis within the military. kayla: hopelessness and exhaustion and the sense of purposelessness was just, you know, rampant throughout the sailors at that command. geoff: and, saving school picture day -- how a celebrity photographer found a new focus and new subjects at an elementary school. those stories and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend."

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broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like yo thank you. geoff: good evening. it's good to be with you. we begin tonight in the pacific ocean, where earlier today nasa's orion spacecraft splashed down just off the baja peninsula, a test mission which marks a significant step toward returning astronau to the moon. the agency says its 26 day mission, called artemus one, was a success. >> splashdown. from tranquility base to taurus-littrow to the tranquil waters of the cific, the latest chapter of nasa's journey to the moon comes to a close. orion back on earth. geoff: a team recovered this space capsule, which has no astronauts on board, as it returned to earth at 12:40 eastern time this afternoon after blasting off in mid-november using nasa's most powerful rocket ever.

orion spent a week in a sweeping lunar orbit, capturing stunning images of our celestial backyard. for more, science correspondent miles o'brien is with us. miles, thanks for joining us. so nasa, as i understand it, made some last minute adjustments for that splashdown. there were some questions as to whether the capsule's heat shield could withstand atmospheric reentry. all in all, how did everything go? miles: this looks like it is a very successful mission. engineers will be poring over all this data to see how well the orion capsule performed. the big question, the number one questi on their mind, is how well that heatshield performed. they came in faster than any craft had ever come in before

and they are testing out a heatshield that never flung with before. theo looking outward towards a future mission where they'd be coming back from mars even faster. so they're going to be checking that heat shield, making sure there was no damage to the spacecft and ultimately would keep astronauts safe and sound as they came back. so far, it looks good. geoff: there was a camera mounted on the spacecraft that sent back some pretty incredible pictures. talk us through a few of them. what is this image in particular? miles: well, as as ori was headed toward the moon, we got a real taste, kind of a throwback. on this day 50 years ago, geoff, you wouldn't remember, but i did, apollo 17, the last apollo mission landed on the moon. and we have, for the past 50 years, been looking at shuttle missions and the space station never going much more than 250 miles above the planet. and now we're back on a voyage of exploration. and i got to say, those images have been fun to look at, to say the least.

geoff: here is another image of the craters on the moon. miles: orion at times got very close to the surface of the moon, about 80 miles in altitude. and it has a camera on the spacecraft, which is designed as an optical navigational system to help it know where it is. but it also gave us some stunning looks at the moon like we haven't seen for 50 years. and it is a reminder that the moon is kind of a tough neighborhood. it will not be simple landing there. and all of those pockmarks, all those craters are also a reminder that we live in a tough neighborhood where we're constantly being bombarded by meteors. and we don't see that evidence so much here on earth because it gets covered up by tectonic activity and foliage and the oceans. but the moon is a reminder that we get bombarded and we cago there and learn a little bit more about what that means for the evolution of life here. geoff: well, speakg of rspective, here's another image of the moon.

and then just beyond the moon, there is mother earth. miles: yeah. now, this is an image we never got 50 years ago during apollo, because ion nt much farther, almost 270,000 miles away from us, a long elliptical orbit of the moon. and so we got a picture thanks to the camera being on the solar array wing. so we got the spacecraft, the moon, and the earth, and that's a shot that a pilot rated vehicle has never captured before. and again, it gives you a sense of scale. it's a reminder of how fragile our little home is in the great inky void, so to speak. and it also gives you a real flavor of the adventure of this journey. geoff: this last image is a close-up of the earth. look at that. miles: that was just before splashdown a little while ago today. and as it came in, the images were stunning.

and this scene is a reminder to me, we focus on these missions as moon missions, but i think in many ways they become earth missions because we spend so much time looking back at our little blue marble and it's such a beautiful place to live. i think you would agree, it's my favorite planet. but here they were coming in at 25,000 miles an hour. and this was, you know, really the nail biting time for the team in houston and elsewhere with this spacecraft. would the heat shield work, would those parachutes open up, would this novel reentry technique, the skipping technique that they did similar to skipping a stone, would that work? it seems like everything did. geoff: miles, as you mentioned, the historic apollo moon landing took place 50 years ago, almost to the day. dare i ask, why do we need to go back? miles: first of all, you know, the land mass of the moon is about the continent of africa. imagine if we landed at six places in africa and declared ourselves experts on africa. so there's obviously more to learn there. everything that nasa is doing right now is with an eye toward

having an encampment on the moon eventually and using that as a way of learning how to go even farther out. and the next step, logically, would be mars. but it's also kind of interesting to look back and take a moment to look at our planet in this way and appreciate the fragility of the place we live on. and maybe we could get along a little better when we look at the earth this way. a little more. geoff: maybe, maybe. miles o'brien, the best of the best. thanks so much. les: you're welcome, geoff. geoff: in today's other headlines, a libyan man who is suspected of building the bomb that blew up pan am flight 103 over lockerbie, scotland in 1988 is in u.s. custody. the details of the arrest and extradition are unclear, but the justice department says the alleged bomber will face federal charges in washington, d.c. at a later date. the bombing remains one of the deadliest international terror attacks in history. 270 pele from 21 different countries were killed. 190 of the victims were american.

american forces early this morning killed two islamic state officials who had been operating in syria, according to u.s. central command. no civilians were reported killed in the overnight helicopter raid. and, the strike comes after the u.s. military confirmed the death of islamic state's leader late last month. meantime, college football has crowned its top player. sophomore quarterback caleb williams of the univsity of southern california won the heisman trophy last nigh giving usc a record eight heisman wins. just last year, williams was a freshman backup for the oklahoma sooners, before he transferred. the 20-year-old d.c. native is set to return to usc nex season. and, a passing of note. dorothy pitman hughes, the community activist and feminist icon, has died. hues was known for her lifelong activism and for her work with gloria steinem the two cofounded ms. magazine and appeared together in one of the most famous photos from the women's movement in the 1970's.

hughes organized the first shelter for battered women in new york city, and she founded a community center that cared fo countless families on manhattan's west side. her daughter says she died of old age. dorothy pitman hughes was 84 years old. still to come on "pbs news weekend," a look at a new exhibition that explores the work of enigmatic musician, lou reed. and, how a celebrity photographer stepped-in to save a school picture day. >> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. geoff: four navy sailors appeared to have died by suicide over the course of less than a month in the same navy command in norfolk, virginia. this is the second time in a year that the navy has bee confronted with a rash of suicide deaths.

it launched an investigation this past spring after three sailors on the crew of the uss washington died within one week of each other. kayla artivo joins us now. she co-founded the nonprofit trails of purpose, which provides free mental health treatment to service members. and kayla, you were among those brought into that naval command in norfolk to help the sailors there. what were you hearing from service members? kayla: we were brought in as an external resource to the navy and the abundant amount of hopelessness that was exhibited at that command and just in the ways that i was able to speak with the sailors directly, you knows very apparent to myself and my clinical team, that hopelessness and exhaustion and the sense of purposelessness was just, you know, rampant throughout the sailors at that command. geoff: is the navy's leadership, is the leadership at that command station -- are they -- how are they responding to this?

kayla: i'm an external resource, but as of now from the inside, sailors that i've spoken with, they have brought in chaplains and they have brought in professional mental health counselors to be osite there, i believe, five days a week now. and while they are making strides to do that and i commend that effort, so much of the hopelessness has been breeding within that work environment for such a long time. and so, you know, a couple of weeks of mental health professionals being on site or having chaplains there may not fix the issue all that quickly. and so we still need to be on alert of what can we do that is going to be a long-term solution. how can we change this that's going to make sure that we don't have another rash of suicides. geoff: to your point about the sense of hopelessness, looking at the data, the number of sailors who deserted the navy more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, while desertions in other military branches dropped or stayed flat. and there are advocates who say

that the navy's nearly unbreakable contracts, which can require up to six years of active duty, that that leaves some sailors feeling trapped. did yopick that up in any of your conversations? kayla: i would say yeah. the feeling of being trapped or stuck is absolutely there within the navy. when i speak to sailors, and for example, i spoke with them maybe just about an hour ago today, i spoke with one who was leaving the military on tuesday. and, you know, when i said oh, good for you, and i was like, well, i'm sorry, i take that back. maybe it's not good for you. maybe you don't want to be leaving the navy because sometimes people are typically asked to leave the navy if they're younger, because they have medical concerns or performance concerns or they've gotten into some type of trouble that requires them to be leaving the military. however, the overwhelming response that i'm finding from sailors inhe navy that are leaving the navy earlier than they expected, they're like, no,

it's a good thing. i want to get out of the navy. i want to get the heck out of there. and so that's a surprising thing to hear when people have -- maybe those sailors sign up four years ago to serve their country and they were passionate about it and they wanted that purpose. and then to hear maybe on the flip side, how quickly their minds were changed. now, i can't speak to the reason for that for every sailor. but i think that that's absolutely something that we need to be focusing on. we need to ask our policymakers what's going on. let's dig in here. let's figure out what the retention rates are, why they're taking such a plummet within the united states navy. geoff: it's interesting, you know, in speaking with pentagon officials in advance of speaking with you, the thing i heard was that, you know, the military has changed many of its policies in recent years to encourage better mental health, or certainly greater awareness, but from where you sit, what barriers remain? kayla: yeah, absolutely. and i would say as a nation, we're doing better at

recognizing mental health care, and the navy also is doing so. and so here's the thing. the navy is there to do the defense of the united states of america. it is not to be a mental health care facility. and so they're putting into place these resources which are available. additionally, i would say that the staffing is way below what it needs to be. and so while we have these resources, there are wait times for three to six months. and in that time what's going to happen to somebody who needed mental health care immediately. so the staffing, the stigmas, the fear of retaliation. these are just a few of probably the dozens that we could identify as barriers to meal health care within the military. geoff: kayla arestivo is co-founder of the nonprofit trails of purpose, which provides mental health resoues to service members. kayla, thanks for your time. kayla: thank you.

geoff: this year wou have been lou reed's 80th birthday. as co-founder of the velvet underground, the influential 1960's art rock band, he helped change the direction omusic. as a solo artist, he never stopped experimenting. and as special correspondent christopher booker reports, even after lou reed's death in 2013, the enigmatic musician's work continues to challenge perceptions. christopher: the retelling of lou reed's creative life, currently on display at the new york public library, is a tale told with an eclectic mix of objects. there are yearbook photos and posters for old gigs and a box of his childhood collection of 45's. there are guitars, tai chi swords, and petty cash receipts, including this slip for a leather studded collar. the same collar reed can be seen wearing on the cover for his 1974 album, rock and roll animal. and while the collection offers

a portrait of the work of the famed frontman of the velvet underground and celebrated solo artist, those who knew and loved reed best say there's still a lomore to learn. laurie: what i love about this exhibition and what sets it apart from other things, really is its scholarship. christopher: musician and arti laurie anderson spent over 20 years by reed's side. the couple met in the early 1990's and married in 2008. it was anderson who chose the new york public library as the home of reed's archive. were there discussions with lou before he passed about what he wanted to happen with his work? laurie: no, i had to make that up. it was heavy. it was also a big privilege, you know, that he trusted me to do that. in the whole show, i see parts of lou, but not the real lou. there's no way you can really do a show about a person. we're reay complicated. christopher: and reed was a complicated artist. the exhibit offers a tour through his work, but the presentation hides the multiyear task of sifting and sorting through all of his materials and creating a clear narrative, the work that fell to archivists don flemming and jason stern.

jason: i remember moving the boxes from the storage unit into the office and that was like, i can't remember. it was something like three, maybe four fully packed van rides back and forth. christopher: the process started over seven years ago. fleming and stern, serving as detectives and conservationists, gathering stacks of unpublished writings, poetry, and recorded materials. don: and an important thing was we wanted to determine how much original audio we had, and that was the exciting part because from the beginning we saw that there was a lot. christopher: nearly 700 hours' worth. but it was what they found in a box in reid's office near the end of the process that would offer an entirely unexpected and relatively unknown link in the creative life of lou reed. don: i just thought, this one's weird. what is this? christopher: it was a box that had been mailed from lou reed to lou reed on may 11, 1965.

don: we thought it was a tape we already had. we knew that lou had gone into the studio that night at pickwick, where he was working at the time as a songwriter and recorded several songs, that same exact date that was stamped on the tape. christopher: at the time, reed was working as a songwriter for the queens-based pickwick studios, writing little commercial jingles and recording quick, cheap knockoff versions of popular songs, like this 1964 track. ♪ but this box did not contain another jingle. jason: we all had goosebumps sitting there at the studio listening to it come on. i mean, i distinctly remember just like, chills, goosebumps, like the whole thing. christopher: did you have knowledge of this tape? laurie: i'd seen it on the shelf for years in the studio. and i just, you know, like, you see things that just don't register. he didn't keep it in a vault or anything like that. it wasust something on the shelf. christopher: this tape, which sat sealed for over 50 years, contains the earliest known

recordings of lou reed and his velvet underground bandmate john cale playing demo versions of some of their most famous songs. jason: it was like opening up a time capsule and hearing probably the first recording of these hugely important songs. waiting for the man. heroin. don: pale blue eyes jason: pale blue eyes. yeah. lou: i'm waiting for the man, words and music, lou reed. jason: this is really like the prologue to the 50-year body o work that shows you how you get from lou, the pickwick studio of songwriter guy, to the guy who's in the velvet underground. christopher: but the first song on the tape is a song no one had ever heard before called man of good fortune. have we heard this before? i don't recognize this. don: this is like the missing link. this is like a thing that really shows like, how he developed into what he became.

and i think mainly as, really a poet who became a musician, a writer first. lou: ♪ i was 18. mother, she died. ♪ ♪ laurie: they're songs about empathy, and this is an incredible thing. they're not about, hey, hey, look at me, or what i need is, or i want to hold your hand, you know. they were like, i'm going to be yofor a second and see things through your eyes. ♪ christopher: for "pbs news weekend," i'm christopher booker. geoff: and you can see the lou reed -- caught bween the twisted stars exhibit at the new york public library through march 4, 2023.

for many students, picture day is a rite of passage. for parents, it's a way to hold on to memories of their children through the years. but for one new york city school, the day almost didn't happen until one photographer stepped in. correspondent ali rogin has the story. ali: for raven, photographing the world's biggest artist is just another day at the office. >> a lot of times celebrities, that is their job. they know what they are setting themselves up for. they know their best angles. ali: a recent assignment with a much younger cohort took her out of her comfort zone. public school 25 in brooklyn, new york was about to cancel picture day. >> we did not have the money in the pta coffers to fund that. ali: it is a title i school, meeting 40% of families qualify as low income. carly's daughter went to ps25 for kindergarten. >> coders are keepsakes.

-- photos are keepsakes. these are moments you get to crystallize in time. it happens very fast, kids grow up, things happen, people change. ali: she saw an opportunity when she post a tweet saying she still takes small jobs. >> it just clicked. it was le a god wink or something. to think that that might be a year where the kids would not have photos, it did not sit righwith me and my daughter's father. so we got it done. >> i grew up in the bronx my whole life, went to a title i school from k-8. i have certain years of picre day where i don't have a photo because we could not afford it, even though my mom made sure to try to get it every year. we forget as adults that when we are kids, these moments are so monumental for the day. ali: how did you go about empowering them to really express themselves when they got in front of your lens?

>> i believe this to be true for everybody, especially any of my subjects, that youhould have your own agency to express who you are. so the first thing we did was that we had monitors all around the portrait set ups, so the kids could actually see themselves as they were taking pictures. we encouraged all the kids to be like, what are you feeling? obviously we tell them to smile at first, because parents want to see a happy kid. but there were kids who are like, i don't want to smile. one kid was like, can i hold my stuffed animal? sure. or, can i give a thumbs up? whatever poses they wanted to do that felt represented them. >> each child got to be celebrated in their own way rough having their image captured. i think it is affirming and good for their self-esteem. ali: each student was able to take their photo home, with prints donated by cannon. >> it made me really emotional. reminded how creativity of

photography is a privilege. the idea of photo day and this memory for these kids being a privilege so many cannot afford or they cannot look back on and 10 years, to see themselves in school, was really disheartening for me. ali: she is inviting other title i public schools in new york to apply for their own picture day. >> instead of doing one school i can do 10 schools, and i can get all my photographer friends to do them and then we can do 100 schools. maybe in five years we can cover the all country. ali: giving families and kids happiness, one click at a time. for "pbs news weekend," i'm ali rogin. geoff: and that's our program for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your sunday with us. have a great week. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by.

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

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