♪ ♪ we are coming on the air this hour on msnbc with confusion and frustration and anger at airports all across the country, with travelers, some of whom have long abandoned vacation plans just trying to get their stuff back. we're live as we're sorting through a sea of suitcases with what southwest is trying to do, and the new pressure growing now from the federal government to get its act together. it's not just at the airport where some folks are still feeling the effects of the winter storm. federal regulators are going the step in and investigate power outages, too, and failures in the national power grid. we'll have a report from buffalo where western new york is still trying to dig out and begin to recover. more confusion at the southern border after the supreme court left in place a controversial border policy for now. we'll get into what that means for the thousands of people who have gathered along the

u.s.-mexico border looking for asylum in the united states. breaking, the biden administration officially out with new rules for travelers from china. we're live at the white house with the details developing as we speak. i'm hallie jackson in washington. joining me now is msnbc correspondent shomari stone at bwi airport, mike memoli is with the president in saint kroi in the virgin islands. some people have canceled vacation plans altogether. what are the airlines saying. talk us through that piece of it. >> reporter: right now people are trying to get answers. they're understandably frustrated and they're waiting in line here -- this line has grown over the last hour and they're trying to get more answers right over there. people can rebook their flights if it was within 30 days of the original travel date. people can also go on the southwest website and try and

get a refund. i tell you, that's just not the problem with all the cancellations. look over here. look at all this luggage right here. some of this luggage is supposed to be in boston. you have seattle, atlanta, houston. it's here in baltimore. this is kelsey. let me get this right. you were flying from hawaii to las vegas to baltimore. your luggage is not here. where is it? >> las vegas. we have an air tag in it so we know where it isment we still have to fill out a claim and wait in line. >> what's going through your mind? this line doesn't look like it's moving. >> it's frustrating. we've been here about two hours now waiting to fill out this claim. we asked if we can do it online and we're told no. >> wow. well, i hope things work out for you. some passengers say this has ruined their christmas. they're concerned about new year's. you have folks who have their medicine in some of the luggage

there. they should have put it in the carry-on. it's in the luggage and can't get access. you see the folks by that door right over there? they are waiting to see if their luggage is here. it's sort of like finding a needle in a haystack. people have been here over the last four to five hours as they search for their luggage. the department of transportation is investigating southwest airlines trying to figure out what happened with the scheduling. the airline ceo apologized. ma'am, you said you've been waiting for how long? >> a long time. right now about two hours. >> with these young boys. >> i came from florida. our flights are canceled. now we just need to stand here to get our bags. >> i appreciate at least you're trying. guys, you're so well behaved, just chilling here with your mom. give her a lot of support. okay? >> okay. >> good job.

you have families here, kids. here's what's interesting. there was a grandmother and she had her grandchildren's christmas gifts in the luggage. she's now trying to find her bag as well. back to you. >> show marry at bwi airport, thank you very much. mem, let me go to you. the pressure is on from the federal government for southwest to basically get it together. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. this is, remind you, not the first time we've been talking this year about major airline headaches and the biden administration being called on to do more. we've had this unusual combination of travel levels returning to prepandemic levels. add to that staffing shortages at major airlines coming out of the pandemic and always an issue we see with bad weather. a number of issues around memorial day, improved around the fourth of july. we've seen secretary buttigieg

bringing airlines to the table to encourage them to do better and warning about the risk of potential federal government if they don't. what's different here, hallie, we're mainly talking about one specific airline. you can sense the frustration from secretary buttigieg as he talked with nbc news yesterday. take a listen. >> it's an unacceptable situation. southwest needs to step up and, again, take care of their passengers and their employees, many of whom are in the same boat across the country. they told me in their words they'll go above and beyond their written service customer service plan. i'm going to be holding them accountable for doing that. >> so what does that accountability mean? frankly, when the transportation department is talking about enforcement mechanisms, mainly they're talking about fines. often those are only in the low single digit millions of dollars. that's ultimately not a lot when you're talking about the bottom line of these airliners. the question is americans voting with their wallets. it will have a bigger effect

when you have a situation with one airline in particular, or will the administration try to come up with additional ways, calling for additional transparency, posting more information on their own websites to bring this outside pressure where they're lacking in their own enforcement abilities. let's get to more breaking news out of the white house. in the last couple minutes you have the administration putting in place new restrictions on travel from china. they're going to start requiring a negative covid test before you leave china for anybody flying from there to the u.s. starting january 5th. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent josh lederman and dr. vin gupta, a pulmonologist and global policy health expert. josh, this is driven by the spike in covid cases as china has relaxed covid restrictions, and by concerns of the emergence of a potential new variant here, right? >> reporter: that's right. one other thing, hallie.

u.s. skepticism about the data china is releasing to the rest of the world about its covid cases, and specifically a lack of genomic sequence data. they don't believe, u.s. federal aelt officials, they'll be able to have a good handle with the data they have now, with potential of new variants that could emerge from the surge of cases we're seeing in china. as a result, they don't know they'd be able to tell when there's a new variant and slow the spread. as a result federal health officials tell us that starting on january 5th at 12:01 a.m., they will begin requiring a negative covid test pre departure from anyone coming from china. if you're coming by plane from china to the united states, you're going to have to get a negative covid test up to two days before departure. it can be a pcr test. it can also, interestingly, be one of that antigen self tests if it's the kind you do

telehealth which means essentially somebody is on a webcam watching you take that covid test and you hold up the results so they can see it's a negative test. that way you can get a piece of paper that says, look, this person actually did have a negative covid result. the u.s. also says in response to these concerns in china, they're stepping up their tracking and surveillance of travelers who are coming into the country by adding two new airports in los angeles and seattle to that monitoring program as they try to get a handle on this. they acknowledge fully, u.s. health officials, that this is not going to prevent every single covid case from entering the country from china. they say it will go a long ways towards trying to slow the spread. they also reiterated that the u.s. continues to make offers to china to help it with its covid crisis, including often offer of vaccines. they say so far china has not been willing to take the u.s. up on that offer, although they say the offer still stands despite the new restrictions going into

place on january 5th, hallie. >> this does feels in many ways like what we saw in the early, early days of the pandemic, the imposition of travel restrictions. the onus is on airlines to get this stuff implemented. >> that's exactly right. the airlines are going to be the ones who are going to take a look at your negative covid test and decide whether or not it meets the criteria, whether or not to let you on the flight. that's the key reason that health officials are not putting this policy into place right now. you might say if we're concerned right now, shouldn't we do this immediately? might it be too late if we wait until january 5th. just like we saw when the u.s. imposed travel restrictions in the beginning of the pandemic, this creates chaos for airlines when there's plenty of chaos already in the airline industry. public health officials say they'll start this on january 5th so they can work with the airlines to help them understand what is going to be required and

help prepare them to be the ones who actually do that verification of these negative covid tests. >> josh lederman live on the white house north lawn, thank you for that reporting. dr. gupta, let me go to you here. is this the right call by the administration? >> absolutely. this is proactive. as josh has already said, this is meant to slow transmission, not eliminate it. we're dealing with variants here in the united states, xvp being the newest incarnation. this isn't about eliminating new variants of concern, but about having surveillance, about knowing what we're dealing with so we can potentially buy time to understand if a variant of concern is originating out of the chinese main land or hong kong, that we would be able to see whether or not that variant is susceptible to the vaccine treatments we have. this is about building in intelligence surveillance where it doesn't exist because the chinese are not sharing the genomic data to the global

database. as a result, we just don't know what we don't know. >> how long do you anticipate the restrictions may last? can we even say at this point, dr. gupta? >> i would say at least until cold and flu season or until the surge starts to level off. i think that's at least until february from a case standpoint. we know their hospitals are getting overwhelmed. i want to 'em if size here, this is not a travel ban, this is just an implementation of policies that i'm sure many of your viewers have had to incur when they've travel to other parts of the world. 48 hours before you test and get back in the united states, you have to show proof of a negative rapid antigen test we all have at home or a more specialized test, or a n.a.p. test for short. this is not new. it's proactive and it gives us some surveillance where we lack it right now. >> it is not knew because the concept has been around as long as the pandemic in this country.

the new piece of it is in many ways people in this country have largely moved on or tried to move on from the pandemic. we've heard the pandemic itself, covid, is largely over. so you've got to fit what we're seeing now into that broader context. >> that's right. there is so difference here. we're talking about a policy that we heard a lot about in the first 2 1/2 years of the pandemic, especially early on. now we've talking about different rlts here. let's be clear. we're seeing a new variant, out of new york specifically. spikes in the northeast. it's a very contagious version of this virus. if you're not vaccinated, especially medically higher risk in the last few months, you're at risk. we're seeing hospitalizations and deaths in new york where have variant is speaking up. we're not over this. i recognize that the country is,

we ekes expecting 6,000, 7,000 deaths week over week through january. it won't be as bad as 2020, 2021. >> before i let you go, where we are in the tripledemic. we know covid cases have leveled off, although hospitalizations and deaths are up. you have a particular concern about what january is going to look like for kids heading back to school with some of these issues. >> that's right. flu and rsv are leveling off, but at very high rates. covid the worst is yet to come. for all the parents out there, i'll leave the viewers with this, we know many parents opted not to get their kids vaccinated for the flu. not only does it protect against the flu, but there's coben fits in the sense that, if your kid is not battling flu, it's less likely to deal with a bacteria about strep. the new forms of more severe strep. you get the flu vaccine, their

immune system is better able to ward off things like strep. lotsof co-benefits. coming up this hour, news that may not make you happy if you're a driver. why prices could go back up to $4.00 as soon as the spring. right as we were coming on the air, a ringleader in the plot to kidnap michigan's governor getting a fairly big prison sentence. the new data showing a controversial border patrol is being used less and less at the southern border as the supreme court gets ready to decide its future. the latest after the break. (bridget vo) with thyroid eye disease... i hid from the camera. and i wanted to hide from the world. for years, i thought my t.e.d was beyond help... ...but then i asked my doctor about tepezza. (vo) tepezza is the only medicine that treats t.e.d. at the source not just the symptoms.

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at the southern border more and more uncertainty for migrants looking to come to the u.s. after the supreme court ruled that title 42, the controversial covid era border patrol should stay in place, at

least for now. the justices set to hear oral arguments in february. 19 republican-led states want to keep title 42 in place. the court is expected to make a decision by the end of june. until that decision comes down, you have people seeking asylum left in legal limbo. tell us about this uncertainty and how it's affecting folks that have gathered here at the border? >> this uncertainty has gone on for years at this point. you may remember president biden when he was a candidate, he said he wanted to restore access to asylum at the border and create a humane immigration system. we have not seen that. since april the cdc agreed that the public health measure should end. this has been tied up in the court since then. >> the use of title 42 at the

border is down to just 29% in november. explain why that is? how much is in control of the biden administration and what it might look like in the interim, remaining x number of months while the supreme court considers this decision here. >> the trump administration, as you recall, was much more likely to expel migrants. far fewer people were crossing during that first year of the pandemic when there was so much uncertainty, so much sickness and so much risk. the biden administration, of course, has seen significant increase, record numbers of apprehensions in the past couple years. part of that was the bubble created when fewer people were crossing. but now it's unclear how this could fluctuate from month to month. the biden administration has definitely made exceptions for unaccompanied minors, people traveling without their parents. they feel they should not be expelled. that's a safety issue. and they've also allowed people

in for humanitarian reasons. some things are out of the biden administration's control. other countries have to agree to take back their citizens. so right now the administration a tense relationship with venezuela and nicaragua and cannot expel or deport people to those countries, so they're letting them in. >> i had a conversation with the aclu who said we can talk about what needs to be revised but let's not misuse public health laws. it got us thinking, what are the chances of broad-based immigration reform getting through congress. the last time we saw something like that was decades ago. this is the constant white whale for people who talk about immigration reform. i'll put the question to you even though i think we kind of know the answer, maria, is there going to be something that is a game-changer in this next congress as relates to not border policy but something broader as relates to the asylum

system more deeply? >> it's an excellent question. if you look back in history, immigration reform is often discussed but rarely achieved. that has been brought about over and over again. hopes are raised, but the people who arrived after 1986 are looking at retirement now without any legal status, and that is a difficult position to be in. so there's lots of questions about what will be the tipping point. you've seen daca, for example, used as a political wedge. dreamers are considered people who arrived when they were children and are still not given a chance at citizenship are a very sympathetic group, but their numbers are also dropping. still very significant, more than half a million people. but what will happen to them? congress still hasn't acted. >> maria, thank you for being on

with us this afternoon. as tens of thousands of people across the country are still dealing with the fallout from a massive holiday storm including no power, regulators are launching an investigation to try to find out why. the federal energy regulatory commission says they're going to look into some of the rolling blackouts that affected millions of people during that christmas weekend storm. buffalo is one of the hardest hit spots. they're still in recovery mode. weather alerts have been lifted. now the concern is the winter warmup and potential for flooding. nbc's marissa para has more. >> reporter: at first glance when you look at what's around me, you might think i'm outside. there's snow several inches deep on the ground. it's not until you take a step back that you realize we are inside a parking garage. this is really just a great illustration of those intense lake-effect snow bands that moved in here, gusts upwards of 70 miles per hour blowing in the

really intense windchills that got to negative 20-degree temperatures in terms of what it felt like. seriously so intense that it blew in snow through the sides of the parking garage where we are. cleanup clearly under way. you can see a snowplow working on clearing the inside of this parking garage. this is happening everywhere across the city. route 33, they have snowdrifts upwards of 30 feet they're in the middle of trying to clear. abandoned cars they're trying to get off the road. even if you're in the middle of buffalo and you see roads that are looking clear, they said please don't drive unless you have to. the city is beginning, beginning to go back to where it was before. the airport officially opened as of this morning. we're also seeing the rail system, buses beginning to operate once again. but the death toll is beginning to climb. we know that's something they said has expected to get higher as they go into more homes, checking on the homes that lost power during this intense

blizzard. we know it was a very high number that continues to get lower in terms of homes without power. but with those temperatures, that is how we saw this get so deadly. even though the snow totals were less, it was so much colder. negative 20-degree windchills which meant a large number of people who were found dead were either outside or stuck inside a home that didn't have heat or stuck inside of their vehicles. that is something that is on the minds and weighing heavily on crews as they're working on the cleanup process here. they're looking ahead to the weekend. temperatures are beginning to warm up. we're expecting temps in the 40s and 50s. we're seeing snow melting as we approach temperatures in the high 30s. with the high temperatures they're expecting a very fast snowmelt and some rain this weekend. we know flooding is the next major concern. back to you. >> our thanks to marissa parra. concerns about the health of

former pope benedict after the vatican says he's not doing so well because of how old he is. new details in this afternoon about a january 6th defendant's hours' long standoff with the fbi. what the new court documents show that may shock you coming up. y shock you coming up

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we've got new details coming in late this afternoon about a january 6th defendant. new court documents showing basically a standoff, an armed standoff at his home. eric christy appeared armed with a hammer outside the capitol. the hours' long standoff in california last week show christy was ultimately taken into custody at his house after pointing a gun at his door and telling officers, i'm quoting here, they better come in here shooting. i'll bring in nbc news correspondent ryan reilly who is part of the team reporting on this. not just the idea that he pointed a gun at law enforcement and said come in shooting, but he purchased a gun after he was served with a grand jury subpoena of what went down on

january 6th. >> that all happened in march of 2020. it was disturbing to see a few days later after seeing this grand jury subpoena that he purchased the gun. the federal magistrate judge laid out this is an individual who had a history of not responding properly to the calls of law enforcement and the orders of law enforcement. so that's why essentially the fbi s.w.a.t. team showed up to execute this arrest. this was kind of on the lower scale this terms of january 6th cases even though he had the hammer, there's no evidence -- >> meaning as far as the initial offense, right? >> correct. this is someone who didn't go inside. but he did have that hammer. he upgraded his charges. there's a chance that, had he employed, i don't think he necessarily would be someone held pretrial. because of his actions that day, obviously that throws all that out the window. the judge said there weren't any

circumstances where you can send someone who pointed a gun at law enforcement during a 2.5 hour standoff home pretrial. now he's going to be spending that time until his trial behind bars. it comes in this really -- i think a really troubling world that we have here in terms of these on going threats against the fbi. just a few weeks ago we had a january 6th defendant actually charged separately for plotting to kill the fbi agent working on his case. this is really become this on going issue with january 6th defendants and a lot of anger aimed towards the federal bureau of investigation. >> pull more on that thread, ryan. i think you're right it's both troubling and important. eric christy apparently posted a notice to all public servants on his residence. he seemed, and i'm surprising from what we know from the court documents here, but it does seem like he was primed for some kind of a fight ultimately and that standoff happened. the documents show that for these two hours he claimed that

the fbi had no lawful authority and that the search warrant was not valid, even though apparently his attorney was saying at the time, no, this is valid, you should actually surrender here. it speaks to this idea of the undermining of federal law enforcement that has gone on from some of the far right, pushed by some on the far right? >> precisely. we saw the attack on the fbi after the search of mar-a-lago earlier this year where someone went to an fbi office and attacked it. this is something we see in january 6th cases a lot. you see a lot of sovereign citizens cases, people who don't recognize the authority of the federal government, and that's led some people to be held pretrial because they refuse to acknowledge the court's authority, refuse to comply with their pretrial conditions. so people who otherwise wouldn't be held pretrial, just based on their conduct, but have been held because they refuse to comply with the orders of the court and orders of law

enforcement. >> ryan reilly, thank you for that developing news and bringing it to us here on msnbc. as we talk about political violence, let's talk about what happened in michigan late today. one of the ring leaders of the plot to kidnap the governor there, gretchen whitmer, sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. prosecutors calling barry croft jr. thoroughly radicalized, he's just as dangerous as a foreign terrorist. >> hallie, it's pretty remarkable you have these two segments back-to-back. in hindsight, many see the kid nothing plot against whitmer as a foreshadowing of what we're talking about now, of january 6th, the undermining of law enforcement, the dangers and threats to those serving in public office. barry croft and co-defendant adam fox were convicted of

august of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and con spis seer to use a weapon of mass destruction. croft, the 47-year-old received the longest sentence yet in this plot of 19.5 years. the assistant attorney said croft needed to go away for an extended period of time. he compared him to the man who masterminded the 1993 world trade center bombing. although he got 19.5 years, the judge did not go so far as to give him a life sentence which is what prosecutors were asking for. he did agree with the government stance that croft fueled the plot with dangerous rhetoric. he said he egged on co-conspirators with wrong and twisted ideology saying he was the one who gave the others something to grab on to. hallie, this is so significant because it shows the seriousness

and the gravity for cases like this. the judge here trying to send a message that this will be dealt with in the most serious ways. we are living in a time, if we're holding public office or looking to run for office, you're no longer worried about angering people and losing votes. you're worried about angering people and potentially losing lives with what we saw january 6th and the recent attack on nancy pelosi's husband. these are serious issues and they're being dealt with seriously. that sends the message today. >> dasha burns, thank you very much. the health of former pope benedict getting worse today according to the vatican. in a statement pointing to the age of the 95-year-old pope emeritus saying he's being monitored constantly by doctors. i'll bring in nbc news raf sanchez and vatican analyst debra lubov.

>> this is significant. ha the vatican would say anything at all about the former pope's health is not a good sign. >> it's not. it's been about ten hours since the last official statement from the vatican. i guess you can argue in a situation like this no news is good news. the tone from the vatican is very solemn. the suggestion here is that we may be heading for the final days here of the life of pope emeritus, pope benedict xvi who is 95 years old. we first learned of the decline in his health from his successor pope francis who made an off-the-script comment at the vatican earlier today asking the public to pray for pope benedict. immediately after that audience, pope francis went to see benedict at the monastery where he's been living since he retired in 2013. the first pope, of course, in

600 years to resign from his position. we don't have details about the specifics of his condition. the vatican saying it is related to old age. they're saying he's being monitored around the clock by doctors. hallie, there's really no playbook for what comes next. we don't usually have a living sitting pope and a former pope. when a sitting pope dies, it triggers the 100-year-old rituals, the end in the conclave where the cardinals elect a new pope. we see the smoke. there's no playbook for what happens when pa former pope passes away. >> debra, let me go to you here. what would be a playbook in this instance? could we anticipate seeing people make pilgrimages to rome to pay respects to pope wen district in the coming days? >> yes, basically as raf said, this is a totally new situation, and this has been the very question that those following the vatican very closely day

today have been asking themselves ever since this situation with two living poeps, one no longer pope, but one acting pope living together in the vatican, what this could mean for the future. pope francis made it clear even in a recent interview he has no intention of creating norms relating to retired or former pops, so while in the vatican there would usually be a document that covers absolutely everything about the death of a pope, in this case we have nothing. we will be waiting for updates in this scenario from the press office. this morning was a surprise when pope francis said in the general audience to pray for pope benedict xvi. he has never spoken publicly in this way about his predecessor. to do so publicly was really a

huge surprise, and normally the press office does not comment much on benedict dc. shortly after, mateo bruni issued the statement about the worsens in those hours of benedict xvi's health, attributing it to old age and mentioning pope francis' visit. rather than noticing some of the false alarms that many have been speaking about in these years, this time feels a bit different. >> debra lieu above, thank you so much. i'm sure we'll be talking again in the days to come. appreciate your time this afternoon. still ahead, for drivers, there's good newsed and mixed news on the horizon. it could go back to $4.00 as soon as this spring according to experts. but probably not going to go as high as we've seen it this past year. we'll talk about that coming up.

a huge russian aerial attack in ukraine in a city that was freed by ukraines, with officials begging people to get out and get out now. we're live from kyiv after the break. eak. you've done the hard part. you quit smoking. now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. if you smoked, you may still be at risk, but early detection could save your life. talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan.org

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which is now more important than ever. only eggland's best. predictions that killing up your car will probably cost less next year, but prices could go back up to more than $4.00 a gallon as we start to get closer to the peak summer travel prices. brian chung, good news, not so good news. overall, better than what we saw the past 11 months. >> americans have seen prices coming down the last few weeks. i was on long island last week and i saw gas at $2.99. i almost teared up seeing that number. >> you did not. you shed a tear? >> it's been a while. we remember days when it was

$5.00. i will take what i can get. overall we've seen prices coming down. there are a number of reasons for that. the question is will prices go up next year. you imagine gas buddy saying we could see prices going up to $4.00 in the spring. people go out and do more road trips. there's a lot of geopolitical things to watch. in china where they're loosening up on the covid restrictions, the reopening of the world's second largest economy could bring a lot of demand which could take prices higher. in russia, the price cap agreed on by a number of g7 countries, russia threatening to not provide any supply at all. if they don't provide supply, maybe that brings prices higher. gasbuddy not predicting it up to the $5.00 that we saw earlier. >> how does inflation play into this? >> we have to remember what what

trucks fuel to take everything around the country. when it comes to things that come into the port of los angeles and around the country. if gas prices are declining, that means we should expect to see prices across the board that rely on those supply chains also fall. diesel prices have not seen the types of declines that we've seen in regular unleaded fuel. that's going to be an interesting thread to watch: overall, inflation has. we've gotten encouraging signs in the fact that numbers have come down over the past few months. we'll have to see if that trend continues. >> i would like evidence of real tears, just one dripping down. brian, thank you. appreciate it. to ukraine where fighting is ram pgs up. official begging people to get out after a wave of devastating strikes. today alone about 50 russian rockets fell around kherson which was just reclaimed by

ukrainian troops only last month. it comes as ukraine and russia both say they want to renew peace talks but they're really far apart on what that would practically look like. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley is joining us from kyiv. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: as you mentioned, the city of kherson under nearly constant bombardment. some 2 dozen projectiles by russia overnight. earlier in the week there were dozens. this is a city just liberated by the ukrainians only about six weeks ago. this was the only really major city, the only regional capital that russia was able to hold and occupy since the war began back in february. when they essentially walked out of it six weeks ago and surrendered it to the ukrainians who advanced on it and retook it, it was a major embarrassment for them because this was the only really major city they were

able to occupy. it's very significant. this is considered sort of the gateway to crimea. that's the island peninsula south of ukraine that vladimir putin illegally annexed back in 2014. the fact that the ukrainians were able to take it back meant that maybe they could in the coming weeks or months project their power into the crimea, which has always been seen as the crown jewel of vladimir putin's advances and adventures in ukraine. the heart of the fighting is still in the eastern part of the country. that's been a blistering fight where the battle lines have been stagnant for weeks. >> matt bratly live in kyiv, thank you, as always, for being here with us. it's been a big year for space. our tom costello has a look back at the year that was and the year that will be. what to expect in the month ahead right after the break. ght. , so you only pay for what you need.

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(bridget) now, i'm ready to be seen again. (vo) visit mytepezza.com to find a t.e.d. eye specialist and to see bridget's before and after photos. accomplishment for the exploration of space, a spacecraft deflecting asteroids, mega rockets and the deepest look into space that anybody has ever seen. our space and aviation

correspondent tom costello has documented every moment, we've asked him to share some of the highlights. watch. >> three, two, one, boosters and ignition, and liftoff of artemis i. >> reporter: in a year of triumphs for space explores, artemis i was the finale. the orion spaceship will one day carry astronauts to the moon. a flyover of the moon, an orbit deeper into space. >> orion is right "on the money." >> reporter: a spectacular re-entry with the heat shield hitting 5,000 degrees, that's half the temperature of the sun. >> and there it is. high over the pacific. >> reporter: before a gentle parachute drop into the pacific ocean. >> splash down. >> it is the beginning of the

new beginning and that is to explore the heavens. >> reporter: that new beginning will include astronauts on a similar test flight around the moon in 2024. then a lunar landing in 2025 or '26, with a crew that includes a woman and a person of color. the first return to the moon since those heady days of apollo. >> houston, the eagle has landed. >> reporter: but nasa is also leaning heavily on private companies. spacex now regularly launches both crew and cargo to the iss. this is the view of earth from the international space station and the simulator at nasa in houston. outside the cupola the blue richness of earth and the blackness, the deep blackness of space and right there the canada arm which has reached out to grab an incoming cargo vessel.

and spacex is now working overtime on its starship that will carry astronauts to the moon. then perhaps mars in the late 2030s. another huge success in 2022, nasa's dart mission. >> and we have impact. >> reporter: the spacecraft in time lapse traveling at 14,000 miles per hour, slamming into a small asteroid named dimorphos 7 million miles from earth and pushing it ever so slightly off its orbit. a critical success if nasa hopes to one day deflect an incoming planet-killing asteroid away from earth. >> now, this is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity. >> reporter: but the most visual space achievement in 2022 were those spectacular images from the deep space james web telescope using infrared cameras

we are now looking at light billions of years old. the creation of the universe, distant stars and galaxies, stunning neb ullahs begging the question are we alone? >> we could have an answer about whether or not there's life in the universe which would change everything, would change -- would change our entire understanding of what we were and who we are in the universe. >> reporter: it's big and beckoning to a new generation of explorers. tom costello, nbc news, houston. and with that we shall say good-bye after two pretty busy hours here on msnbc. have a wonderful rest of your holiday week. i will see you in the new year, but before that at 5:00 on our streaming channel "nbc news now" for tonight's show, tonight and every night. deadline: white house starts right after the break. deadline:s right after the break.

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gentleman. li there everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. you can actually feel it. the race is on hour by hour as the january 6th select committee hurdles towards its end. investigators have seemingly made it their mission to share with the american people as much as they possibly can. today that effort presents itself in the form of 18 brand-new transcripts, somehow still revealing highly important and previously unknown information. we will go through much of it together, but one fresh revelation in particular this afternoon is further coloring in just how frantically chaotic the

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