good to be with you. two big stories at the white house today. president biden just hosted justice steven briar who made his retirement from the supreme court official. briar giving a not so subtle warning that our democracy started out and still is a big experiment and that it is up to us to ensure its success. while the president reiterated his intention to choose a successor with extraordinary

qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that that person will be a black woman. we are reporting on who the likely front runners are. but right now, though, under an hour after that major event, the president is on a major call, speaking with the president of ukraine as the russian collar around ukraine tightens, vladimir putin's army conducted combat drills earlier today, live fire exercises with troops and tanks along the eastern border of ukraine. if the u.s. and nato were looking for signs of deescalation, this was not it. those drills happening just 24 hours after the u.s. hand delivered a letter to moscow yesterday addressing putin's demands. we don't know the contents of that letter, but russian morn minister sergey lavrov told reporters it failed to address nato expansion. the kremlin now warning that when it comes to diplomacy there

is, quote, not much cause for optimism. putin himself has been largely silent on the matter, but he was seen in public today for the first time since december. state television aired footage from his visit to a cemetery in st. petersburg as part of a world war ii remembrance. we will see what american diplomats and military leaders have to say in response to those comments from russia. we are expecting briefings from both the state department and the pentagon in the next few minutes. joining me now is richard engel from eastern ukraine and kelly o'connell. kelly, first to you, this phone call is happening right now. has the white house given us any idea on what it plans or what the president plans to talk about? >> well, the white house has just told us really moments before we came out here that it is about to happen shortly. they had not previously confirmed that the original confirmations were coming from the ukraine side.

so jen psaki has said to us just moments ago that the president is about to have this phone call. so we will get a read-out from the u.s. side when it is over. clearly this is critically important. the u.s. has said there would be no negotiations and diplomacy without ukraine involved, so this kind of direct leader to leader conversation is pivotal. we have been waiting for a decision or an announcement of a decision from the president on any next steps. we know he has already accepted the recommendation of his secretary of defense to put 8,500 troops on a heightened alert. the pentagon has told us that additional troops beyond that number could also be ultimately involved if u.s. partners in eastern europe feel they need additional unilateral support from the united states. we have seen the president talking about military aid directly going to ukraine. we have had video confirmation of some of that being shipped

and received in ukraine. so part of the big now is because the u.s. has also claimed that because the u.s. is not in nato, there is no a sacred obligation of having to come to the defense of ukraine, although the president says the u.s. has a great concern about the outcome for ukraine, what would happen next? so the president said no intention of sending ground troops or u.s. personnel inside ukraine beyond the trainers and military support that already exists there. which is small in number. but not the kind of forces we're talking about in europe. so this is an important conversation about where things stand as the u.s. continues to see signs only of additional buildup from russia, not of any deescalation. katy? >> and what the white house is willing to do and the president finds himself in. richard, you are in eastern ukraine. we got that message from sergey

lavrov today saying, quote, there is not much cause for optimism. how is that playing out there? >> well, i think it's fair to say that ukrainians are starting to get nervous. they're not openly showing it. schools haven't been canceled. people aren't going into the bunkers. but they're starting to talk about it more openly. the government here is still largely silent, but when you watch -- when you listen to the radio, when you watch private television stations, they're starting to have a bigger conversation about what could happen. now, maybe it is a little too little too late, but they are starting to get worried. the ukrainian troops, we were just on the front line, things are quiet. things are -- they're not preparing actively for any kind of imminent invasion. the soldiers seemed calm. they don't seem to be getting the kind of -- i don't want to say panic, but they don't seem

to be getting any extraordinary orders from their command other than to stay at their post and do their jobs. though, the government's official line is stay calm, and it will continue to pursue diplomacy. but it seems to be starting to leak out into the public in a very subtle way that something might be wrong here. that's the way it looks from the center of the storm. when you go just a little bit outside, you see that the storm is quite intense with about 120,000 russian troops on three sides of the ukrainian border. more troops on their way and this rhetoric coming from russia that the diplomatic initiatives so far have been unsatisfactory, that there is no reason for optimism. and then when you listen to russian state media, and i think it is really important because they signal a lot of their feelings or how they're trying to signal the messaging to -- or how they're trying to message

the people. they talk about how ukraine is about to launch an invasion, how nato is building up forces, how every day nato is sending more and more weapons, the united states is sending more and more weapons into ukraine, preparing for potential imminent attack on russia or at least on the pro-russian community in this country. there was one report in russian media that said that the ukrainian military is planning a massive onslaught on the prorussian community here, including with chemical weapons and that russia needs to defend, get ready to defend this community and perhaps -- and perhaps send in troops in order to defend them. so here in the center of the storm there is a kind of a calm, but around the edges it does seem to be getting more intense. >> yeah. certainly a messages war when we have been talking to matt bradley in kyiv, he says that people are pretty calm out there.

they don't see this as happening imminently. and some have said this is the west trying to incite things. the west is inflating the tensions. richard, i want to ask you something i hear a lot in conversations about, what putin and russia and their end game here. how imminent do people feel a potential invasion could be? because there is talk about the olympics, which are coming up, and this idea that china is russia's ally and that vladimir putin wouldn't want to step on beijing's moment. >> well, then we're starting to enter into the territory of putin's calculations and how people here feel about that is relevant to a degree. people here, i'll agree with matt, do not think that an invasion is necessarily likely, let alone imminent. maybe they're in suspended disbelief because they don't want to think about it.

so on the people's minds, it's will this happen or won't this happen or is this just more of the same because this country has been in a low-level conflict with russia because of pro-russian separatists for the last eight years. so there is a tendency. maybe it is a false tendency, to think that what we're seeing now is another blip in that eight-year conflict, as opposed to a potentially much more consequential moment. in terms of the olympics, i have spoken to intelligence officials. i have spoken to former military officials, and they do believe that the olympics are a factor because of putin's past behavior, because of russia's past behavior, because of putin's interest in the olympics. but they're not sure if he would want to try and get something done before the olympics. would he potentially wait for -- until after the olympics so that he wouldn't take attention away and potentially embarrass the

chinese president? but the overall consensus was that if putin were going to act, the olympics would be a lessor factor and that the more significant factor would be the military advantage when he had the right troops in place, the weather and the potential response that he thinks he would have to receive so that the olympics would be more of a psychological factor, but it wouldn't be the overriding. >> certainly jarring to think about an event of athletic feats when we're talking about the potential for an invasion. richard engel, thank you so much from eastern ukraine. and kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you as well. joining me now ben rhodes. ben, you have been inside the white house in situations like this where there is a tense -- when we are in a tense moment with russia. as you are seeing things right now, when it comes to our diplomacy, we hand delivered a

letter. sergey lavrov said there is not much cause for optimism. if you are looking at it from the white house right now, do you agree with that statement? >> katy, look, i don't think the administration expected their responses to russia's demands to yield to deescalation because russia's demands went far beyond ukraine to include things like the united states and nato essentially pulling back, pulling troops out of eastern europe. and, so, i think the administration wanted to be seen going the extra mile. you always want to test whether or not one diplomatic communication could lead to something that produces a deescalation. but the reality is everything from the russian side thus far has not appeared particularly serious about finding deescalation because at the same time these talks are going on, you have those 120,000 troops amassing around the border. underneath, you also have russia deploying things that would be necessary in an invasion, the kind of logistical capabilities,

the medical capabilities that would support troops going into ukraine. so everything russia has done is suggested that they're not interested in a diplomatic track. what they're really doing is preparing for a military operation. the question is what is the scale of that operation? >> the president is about to get on the phone with president zelensky of ukraine. how do you expect that call to go? >> well, i think that president zelensky will be seeking very particular types of u.s. support. he will want to receive as much military assistance as possible. things like anti-tank weapons. we have already been supplying that. in recent days the united states and other nato partners. but ukraine will want more and more of that type of defensive equipment to fend off any russian invasion as well as they will need basic things like medical supplies, the capacity to deal with potentially large numbers of casualties. so i'm sure that president

zelensky has a list of things he would like in terms of support from the united states. i also think president zelensky will want to know specifically what is the state of the sanctions the united states is preparing together with european allies. that's our best deterrent against a russian invasion. that's our most forceful response against a russian invasion since we will not be directly involved in the conflict. there have been reports of differences between the united states and certain european countries about how far to go with those sanctions. do i think he will be seeking reassurance there will be a strong multilateral response from the united states and our allies. but at the end of the day here, president biden's position here is to try to reassure president zelensky we will do everything we can. but we know what we cannot do is determine exactly what and when vladimir putin is going to act. we can just be as ready as we can to support ukraine when they have to deal with that. >> i wonder what happens to president zelensky if russia does invade or does try to set

up a puppet government. will he be talking about any potential contingencies for himself? >> well, this gets tat question of what is the scale of what russia is going to do. richard is in eastern ukraine. there has been low-grade conflict with russian-backed separatists in the region of eastern ukraine. you also have crimea annexed. there is a scenario in which putin, having built up this massive military force, has a more limited invasion. this was the limited incursion that president biden referenced in his press conference in which he doesn't try to overrun the entire country. he sees his further territory to connect the regions of eastern ukraine that russia controls. the areas to the east and crimea. and in that case, i think president zelensky wants reassurance that there will still be sanctions. there will still be a response. that's why the ukraiians were concerned because he thought

that would foreshadow there would not be a robust response in the event another piece of his country was essentially taken over. but if there is a much larger region, thousands, if not tens of thousands of casualties and a russian occupation of a significant part of ukrainian territory, i think what russia will try to do is use that to topple the ukrainian government, to undermine, embarrass the ukrainian government and, yes, to try to install through their connections a different president. and i do think that there have to be contingency discussions going on between the united states and europe and the ukraine government about what you would do in that scenario because obviously we are not going to accept a government that is not democratically legitimate. so i'm sure it is not the scenario he will want to discuss on the phone with president biden, as richard indicated. part of the reason the ukrainians have been calm about this is they don't want to suggest panic in the face of what russia is doing.

i think those contingency plans, those discussions might have to take place at some point at a lower level. >> i know we have been having this discussion every day on ukraine, but i have questions on the broader goal of vladimir putin. but i'm going to have to leave this conversation here for now. ben rhodes, thank you so much for joining us and lending your expertise as somebody who has been in the white house during discussions kind of like this over russia. appreciate your time, sir. up next, justice steven briar makes his retirement from the supreme court official. more on the political opportunity that vacancy creates for the president. and we will go to capitol hill. senate democrats are already eyeing a speedy confirmation pointing to amy coney barrett as an example. examplersonal recor, limu! only pay for what you need.

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this afternoon at the white

house, justice steven briar announced his retirement from the supreme court. he appeared alongside the president to confirm his departure after 27 years plans to leave when his successor is confirmed. today biden reiterated his campaign promise will be met to appoint the first black woman justice. >> i will select a nominee worthy of justice breyer's legacy. while i have been studying candidates' backgrounds and writes, i have made no decision but one. the person i nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the united states supreme court. >> for his part with the cameras rolling, breyer made a point to remind all of us not to take democracy for granted. >> it's an experiment that's still going on. and i'll tell you something.

you know who will see whether that experiment works? it's you, my friend. it's you, mr. high school student. it's you, mr. college student. it's you, mr. law school students. it's us, but it's you. it's that next generation and the one after that. my grandchildren and their children. they will determine whether the experiment still works and of course i am an optimist, and i'm pretty sure it will. >> it is a timely reminder. joining me now is ken dell lain yan from the supreme court, ally visit tally and chief washington correspondent and msnbc political contributor jeff bennett. everybody, welcome. ken, justice breyer said he is going to step down as soon as a successor is named. what can you tell us about the shoes that joe biden is trying

to fill with his next appointment? >> size 15 jumbo intellectual shoes, katy. what a civics lesson we got. i saw a poll today that only a fifth of americans were aware about justice breyer enough to have a tribute to him. at the same time, referencing civil war from the gettysburg address, a little bit of a warning. and so, look, he's a force, right? i mean 27 years on the bench. more than 40 as a jurist. was a centrist pragmatist. it is exciing what comes next. the american public will get the chance to see -- to look at the records of and examine the personalities of some very interesting people. one of the people mentioned who

is a d.c. appeals court judge right now, a former public defender. i don't think that's ever happened before on the supreme court. jerry michelle childs in south carolina went to the university of south carolina law school, not an ivy league pedigree. big shoes to fill, but exciting. >> size 15 intellectual shoes, that was pretty funny. when president biden is trying to fill those size 15 intellectual shoes, who is he going to -- he said he is going to confer with senators using the advice and consent clause, emphasizing advice. who is going to be willing to talk to him about this? >> yeah. that's a good question. i expect that he will probably reach out to those self-professed moderate republicans to include folds like lisa murkowski and mitt romney. i think it was important you heard from president biden. he made the point this will be a

rigorous and deliberate process. and there is every reason to think, at least where i sit right now, that this process will go smoothly. here's why. the white house, one of its strengths in the past year has been getting biden nominees confirmed. he has appointed more than any other president in the same period since jfk and nearly all of those people have been confirmed without controversy. i would mention of those 42, and i went back and looked at my notes in preparing to speak with you. 78% of those people have been women. 57% have been people of color. ron klain who right now is joe biden's chief of staff, he spent the last three decades really focussed solely on this issue of advising the administration, obama administration on picking supreme court nominees and then helping shepherd those nominees through the confirmation process. so if you look at the past year and certainly the last three, four months of this biden

office, they have been buffeted by so many issues outside of the president's control but that he's nonetheless responsible for. when it comes to a supreme court confirmation process, nearly the entire process is really within the purview of this white house and senate democrat. this is something they feel good about it. it gives them something to rally around. you won't see a lot of squabbling internally around democrats as you have seen policy issues over the past few months. >> we did hear from mitch mcconnell today. he said a lot of stuff, but the last part of his statement said the president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left. written text of our laws and our constitution. >> and, look, we have already heard nancy pelosi prebutting those statements saying any kind of republican who is coming out and talking about a nominee could be is extreme is already giving themselves no legitimacy in this process because we don't

know who that nominee will be yet. i think the stakes jeff laid out here on capitol hill are all correct. the other thing that's important to remember here is that of those 42 justices they have been able to confirm here through the senate, no democrat has voted against any of those judicial nominees. all it takes is 50. the magic number often times in this caucus and they don't usually hit it, especially on building rights and build back better. look at joe manchin, kyrsten sinema and others and there is a great likelihood they get behind this nominee. it has to start by actually having a name of a person that the biden administration wants to put forward into this role. and then we're going to see a hot of the hallmarks we tend to see around supreme court nominations, someone ushering that person around the hill, having them meet lawmakers, talk to lawmakers. maybe it happens virtually. but then it goes to the senate judiciary committee where

eventually that nominee is voted out of committee. if for some reason that ends in a tie, that means a procedural motion and that will gum up the process a bit. that would be a minor speed bump here. once it gets out of committee, it goes to the floor. and, again, all it takes is 50. even if it is only just democrats, kamala harris would come in, break that tie and then you would have that supreme court nominee, katy. >> when you are looking at brown jackson potentially as one of the leading names that was out there, she was confirmed to replace merrick garland on the d.c. court of appeals by more than a 50 majority. she had murkowski, collins and senator lindsey graham voting to confirm her. will they vote for her again if she is the nominee. >> you're exactly right. in some of these cases senators have voted on these nominations within the just last year or so we we know how they voted

before. you look at specifically murkowski and collins, and those are some of the names we hear of republicans who could buck their own party or come together with democrats to vote on these kinds of supreme court nominees. certainly those are the names we're looking at. as far as graham goes, we know he's viewed very closely to president trump. he said elections have consequences and underscored again all you need are all 50 democrats to go along with that. sure, that could mean that system republicans go along as well. but look at the ways other past justices have been confirmed. i have been looking pack. chief justice roberts, other justice. you see roberts 78 people voting to confirm. sotomayor, kagan, more than 60. again, 50 is the magic number. 51 when you include kamala harris. >> thank you so much.

i love your jokes today, my friend. it's very rare you get all of us to laugh at the same time. but it was good. thank you so much for joining us today. >> you bet. and still ahead, a closer look at the leading candidates to replace breyer on the bench. and later the u.k. lifts its covid restrictions, all of them as its prime minister faces accusations that he failed to adhere to them in the first place. adhere to them in the first adhere to them in the first place. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. trelegy for copd.

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i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant." it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. the short list of nominees to the supreme court was not created overnight. the biden transition team was thinking of potential supreme court nominees even before the inauguration. so who exactly is on the list. the white house has not said yet, but if the tea leaves are any indication, u.s. circuit judge ketanji brown-jackson, leondra kruger and j. michelle childs are all under consideration. but it is not just judges. prominent civil rights lawyer is reportedly being considered as well. with me now is senior editor and

legal correspondent, also someone who knows everything supreme court. so dahlia -- don't make that face. you do. i know you. >> i'm just going to cop to that right now. >> very funny comment from ken. i like that. all right. let's talk about these -- who is on the short list. yet we talked about ketanji brown-jackson. who else is on the list? >> i think she stays at the top for a lot of people because it is an easy lift because, as you just heard, three republicans voted under a year ago to confirm her. and so it's tough to make the case that she wouldn't get bipartisan support. and i think right under her are california supreme court justice leondra kruger who is a strong

candidate. and district judge j. michelle childs who has a relationship in some sense to this only because representative james clybourn from south carolina who really pressed biden during the campaign to say i will nominate an african american woman is a big, big booster of judge childs. and so i think that those are probably the three. and as you said, there is a whole bunch of other names in the mix, including eiffel. she is about to turn 60 and in the world we live in now where we like to confirm 17-year-olds is just seen as too old. >> we invited her to the show. it is always an indicator you don't want to go on television and shoot yourself in the foot if you are in consideration. so the ideological balance is the court is not going to change

with this nomination. it will still remain a conservative majority. but placing a black woman on the court, how is that going to -- how is that going to change opinions as they -- as they come down? is it going to make any difference? >> it won't make a difference insofar as you're quite right, a 6-3 super majority. it's a 6-3 super majority. i think any of the names we have been bending around are probably to the left of justice breyer who was really seen as moderate center. but none of the names we raised today are bomb throwers. they are not the equivalent of a clarence thomas. so you will not see the left wing of the court move very far to the left. i think there are two things that do matter. one is that we absolutely know every single study shows that diversity is important. it changes everything.

you could have asked justice scalia, justice kennedy, justice o'connor all said the way they thought about the law fundamentally changed when they heard thurgood marshall describing his life in the jim crow south. so to have someone at the conference table to say wait, wait, wait. this is my experience as a black woman, that is a non-trivial influencing factor. ii think in terms of the country itself, there is every single reason to believe that the legitimacy of the court really does rise and fall in having a court that isn't comprised only of white men. so i think in those ways this sounds symbolic. it is not just symbolic. it does matter. >> that is a really good point. representation matters. and this would be, if it -- if the black woman that joe biden picks gets confirmed and every indication that she will, it would mean that there are four women on the -- is it four?

four women on the court. the most women ever on the supreme court. thanks so much. i don't know about you guys, but i watched that video of the supreme court where they're taking their video. i still wonder what the photographer said to make them all laugh so hard. i don't know about you, but i am curious. maybe one day we'll find out. i will say good-bye and thank you. we are also going to move on to a sad story here out of new york. hundreds of new yorkers are paying their respects at officer jason rivera's wake. it is being held in the heart of this city at st. patrick's cathedral. rivera was one of two nypd officers shot last week in harlem while responding to a domestic incident. the 22-year-old officer was new to the department. he said he got into policing to bridge the gap between the nypd and the community. rivera's partner, officer mora succumbed to his injuries on

tuesday. he will also be remembered at st. patrick's next week. in a tweet the police commissioner called mora a hero three times over for choosing a life of service, for sacrificing his life to protect others and for giving life even in death through organ donation. we have since learned that five people have been saved with mora's organs. and up next, no more covid passes and no more masks. what was left of the u.k.'s covid restrictions have now been lifted. and later one state's solution to the teacher shortages caused by omicron. they're calling in the national guard. e calling in the national e calling in the national guard.table. hey, cologuard! hi, i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. early stages. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk.

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the public may be putting restrictions behind them, but prime minister boris johnson cannot do the same. parties he threw while the rest of the country was in lockdown could be released any day. joining us is raf sanchez. so these parties happened. what does it mean for the prime minister today? anything change from yesterday? >> katy, we are still waiting for this report by the civil servant investigator sue gray. we thought it might come yesterday. it didn't. we thought it might come today. we didn't get it. people are talking about deja vu. it is possible it could come out tomorrow, friday, but a little bit like d.c., lawmakers here in london tend to leave down on thursday afternoon, head back to their districts. boris johnson has promised he

will go up in front of harlem and answer questions about this report once it's published. so to bring it out tomorrow when most lawmakers are out of town is only likely to antagonize the people that boris johnson will be depending on for his survival once this comes out. a lot of members of his conservative party are saying they're still making up their minds about whether to keep him as their leader and they will do that once they see that report. once sue gray finishes the report, she will give it to downing street, and they will decide the timing of the release. now, there is a certain irony there. she's investigating the activities of the prime minister and his staff, but it is going to be the prime minister and his staff who decide when this report comes out. there are some question marks about whether or not this report will be released in full. boris johnson is under a lot of pressure to release every part

of this report. we don't know if he's going to do that or release some kind of summary version. now, as you said, covid restrictions are being lifted here in england today. that is a little bit of good news for the prime minister in what has been a very difficult week. masks are no longer a legal requirement anywhere in the u.k. if you go to a concert or a nightclub, you no longer have to show that covid pass to get into the venue. but boris johnson still has this sort of damocles, this sue gray report hanging over him. he will be facing very tough questions when it comes out. >> i'm sure we will be checking in with you tomorrow. thank you. as omicron continues to cause school staffing shortages across this country. new mexico has called on the national guard for support. those guard members are being put to work as substitute

teachers. gatti schwartz traveled to new mexico. >> reporter: in classrooms across new mexico, the national guard taking up teaching posts during an education emergency. service members in both uniform and civilian clothing substitute teaching during an unprecedented shortage of educators. >> i rose my hand right away and said it is absolutely necessary and i would love to help. >> reporter: is she a good substitute? yeah? stepping up personal. seven years ago she was a student in the very math class she's now overseeing. >> i was excited. i said i want to volunteer for that and help out because i'm from this area and i know even when i was school there was short staffing. >> reporter: the superintendent says almost every day is a scramble to get classrooms covered. >> we have had 25% of our teaching staff out on a day. >> reporter: 15% national guard members received certifications to substitute.

more than a thousand unfilled positions. that means 20,000 students without permanent teachers in their classrooms. the need for subs is one part of a growing problem. new mexico ranks last in education. >> this has been the toughest year because we're dealing with the traumas our students dealt with last year. we're having to reteach them how to study. we're having to reteach how to have them interact with individuals. >> reporter: as omicron takes more teachers out of the classroom, reenforcements are arriving while the state does all it can to keep schools open. when it comes to long-term solutions, the governor is talking about a 7% increase in salaries for teachers which would bring them up to around the national average but it still has to get through the state legislature. back to you. >> it means they're making basically the same for

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a blizzard this weekend. there's still a lot of uncertainty about the storm's track, but it looks very likely that some of the northeast could see up to a foot of snow in the next 48 hours. the storm is expected to hit late tomorrow and bring with it hurricane-strength winds. 35 million people will be on alert as storm watches go into effect from virginia beach through new england beginning this afternoon. and now to a wild story happening in outer space. a rocket on a collision course with the moon. you heard me right. here's nbc's kerry sanders. >> this planetarium view of the moon at the cox science center shows us what we've all seen in pictures and that is, of course, the craters on the moon. but soon there is going to be a new crater. it's going to be man made by our space junk. these stunning first images in 1965 of the moon's surface

showed us its majestic terrain cratered from centuries of impacts. but this morning a giant new collision is just weeks away. >> and liftoff. >> reporter: a piece of this spacex rocket launched in 2015 is now on a crash course with the moon. four tons of metal traveling at 5,000 miles per hour. the moon's gravitational pull sucking it in, impact calculated for march 4th. amateur bill gray first discovered its crash course. the first accidental crash ever of a manmade object. >> this is the first time that something has unintentionally hit the moon. >> reporter: the unexpected crash will make a new crater but won't damage the moon. ostromners says it is part of a growing manmade problem of space junk. images show pieces of junk in the tens of thousands orbiting the earth. >> you think space is infinite and then we have all this

garbage. >> same mistake we made with the ocean, right? it's huge. we can toss in as much as we like in there and it won't be an issue. well, yes and no. >> reporter: last year the international space station was put in harm's way after russia blew up one of its satellites. hundreds of thousands of shrapnel like bullets that could potentially pierce the iss. >> it was dangerous, it was reckless and irresponsible. >> reporter: as for the moon don't expect to see it from earth. the impact predicted to strike on the dark side of the moon. so while we won't be able to witness it with a telescope or binoculars there are images from satellites that are looking at that portion of the moon where this strike will take place and it really points out a problem that there may be too much space

junk up there and nobody really regulating it. >> i'm going to go listen to the dark side of the moon, pink floyd, in honor of this. that will do it for me. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. picks up our picks up our coverage next. with every detail in sharp focus. that's seeing no limits. varilux lenses by essilor. trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. ♪...and i'm feelin' good. ♪ no once-daily copd medicine... has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler

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get ready for a february of firsts. president biden reiterating his promise today to nominate the first black woman to the supreme