on our broadcast tonight, could it be the final frontier for the space program? tonight, a space hero breaks his silence to plead with the president to keep launching astronauts into space. a surprise visit to haiti by chelle obama. a first hand and hands-on tour of the devastation and the enduring spirit there. new trouble for toyota. one group is warning consumers they should to the buy a certain vehicle. and lost and found. a positive outcome tonight in the kind of story that all too often doesn't end this well. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. he is a genuine american hero. neil armstrong is the first man on the moon. since those years he receded into a quiet life in america. there is no neil armstrong action figure, no chain of restaurants, and while he's walked on the moon, he's never been tempted to dance with the stars. our veteran space correspondent jay barbree exclusively obtained a letter written by neil armstrong and several other icons of the space program. it directly challenges president obama's reported plans to idle the u.s.-manned space program. astronauts armstrong, jim lovell write, "without the skill and experience actual spacecraft operation provides, the usa is far too likely to be on a long

downhill slide to mediocrity. and on this anniversary of the space disaster, it is the choice a president and nation must face. that's where we begin with tom costello at the kennedy space center in florida. tom, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the shuttle program is retiring this year. another program, constellation was supposed to replace the program. that program was literally running behind schedule and had been underfunded. so the president's plan kills constellation, at least in the short term, wnd a it potentially a lot of jobs. so nasa can focus on going to mars. from the mercury missions to gemini, apollo and the space shuttle, nasa has been launching astronauts into space for nearly 50 years.

leaving a legacy beyond moon and space walks, huge advancements in computer technology, communications, and medicine. now, some of nasa's icons are blasting president obama's plans to abandon the next generation constellation rocket program in which nasa already invested $10 billion, and hand over mad missions to the space station to private companies. in an unprecedented statement to nbc news, commanders neil armstrong, james lovell and gene cernan write, "it destines our nation to become a separate or thard-rate stature." carpenter, haise and cranz write, "we are very concerned about america creeding its leadership to other nations." the new chief is veteran restaurant charld boldin. he ran into trouble recently when he told congress, it

doesn't matter if china lands on the moon before the u.s. returns. >> it will sound trivial, but i don't think it matters. >> it does to me. i think it matters, with all respect to a lot of americans. >> with the shuttle retiring this year, nasa will pay russia to take astronauts to the orbiting space station for years to come, losing both the shuttle and constellation programs means losing jobs. depending on who you ask, anywhere from 5,000 to 9,000 jobs here in florida are on the line. potentially tens of thousands of jobs nationwide. many of them speciality jobs, like aerospace technician patty sunderland. >> i'm sad. i'm angry on days. >> florida senator bill nelson, a democrat and former astronaut says president obama will pay a big political price in florida if thousands of space jobs are lost. was this a failure to communicate or was it a failure of policy and vision? >> it was a combination. it is my hope that the president

understands that the only person that can really lead the nation's human space program is the president. >> reporter: the white house told us late today it will announce new details this week when the president is here on thursday. that very well may change the minds of some of these astronauts. it also reminds us that former astronaut apollo 11 astronaut buzz aldrin is on board. the president may get a chilly reception here in florida. for people here, this is all about jobs. >> tom costello in florida, thanks. this letter has been provided to nbc news exclusively. we have posted it on our website tonight. that's nightly.msnbc.com. just when it looked like toyota was steering out of its skid, today more trouble arrived. consumer reports put out a rare safety warning about one of its vehicles, and the company has responded late today by actually suspended sales of a popular

suv. cnbc's phil lebeau with us tonight from orange county, california, with this story. phil, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is the suv lexus will stop selling temporaryly. it is the gx-460. the suspension of sales comes after consumer reports issued a warning to drivers this vehicle could tip over if drivers have to make a sharp turn or swerve unexpectedly at certain speeds. in fact, consumer reports went so far as to warn people not to buy this suv because they believe it is a safety risk. "consumer reports" says its test of the lexus gs-460 show a potentially dangerous problem in the suv. when test drivers oversteered the suv, they say the require end slid further than the electronic stability control kicked in to stop the slide, a situation consumer reports says could lead to rollover accidents. >> we think in this i did and

age no vehicle should do that. it's got electronic stability control. that should cut in way earlier than it does. >> reporter: toyota is reviewing the consumer reports results and points out gx-460 meets all federal safety standards. the company adds, we are concerned with the results of the con sirm reports testing on the lexus gx-460. our engineers conduct similar tests and we feel these procedures provide a good indication how our vehicles will perform in the real world. the gx-460 is a new luxury suv. roughly 5,000 sold since it went on sale late last year. pushed by ads touting its handling. electronic stability control, mandatory in all vehicles by 2012, is credited with helping thousands of drivers keep their cars from tipping over when they swerve. this warning about the system in the lexus gx-460 adds new

concerns about reliability at toyota, which has already recalled over 8 million vehicles suspected of unintentionally accelerating. >> to have a label of "don't buy" put on your vehicle is extremely serious at any time, but this time in particular is really terrible for the brand. >> reporter: late today, toyota's lexus division has decided that it will temporarily suspend sales of the gx-460 while it analyzes the data from consumer reports and looks into this issue involving electronic stability control. >> phil lebeau, thanks, as always. in washington, the president took the stage, wrapped up a two-day conference on nuclear security. our chief white house correspondent chuck todd was the at the president's late afternoon news conference and is with us tonight. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the president and white house declared this summit on nuclear

security a success before it began because it managed to persuade 47 world leaders to simply attend. the real goal was to start a conversation on the threat of nuclear terrorism, and by that standard, the white house declared that a success. formally, the president secured a pledge from all the countries in attendance to secure all loose nuclear material within four years, and of course, that's going to take a long time to verify. simmering below the surface both days was the question of iran's nuclear ambition and whether china, which has an portrayed relationship with iran, would agree to serious sanctions. it's something the president addressed at his closing president conference earlier today. >> some times i hear the argument sanctions aren't going to necessarily work. sanctions aren't a magic wand. what sanctions do accomplish is hopefully to change the calculus of a country like iran so they see there are more costs and fewer benefits to pursuing a

nuclear weapons practice >> reporter: now, during the 30-minute presser, the president skirted two questions about whether israel and pakistan are play buying the same or by a sieve get of rules on nukes. he ducked the israel question completely. on pakistan he simply said he believed his presence at the summit was progress and he believes the country's arsenal are secure whether frists within its borders. >> chuck todd, thanks. the white house announced today the president will travel to poland this weekend to attend the state funeral of that nation's president and first lady. they were among the 96 people killed in that plane crash saturday in russia. the body of first lady maria kaczynski was brought home today. thousands of poles stood in line

to file past. michelle owe bam's first solo trip overseas as first lady, joining her in her travels, the vice president's wife jill biden. their visit comes 13 weeks to the day after haiti's devastating earthquake. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is in port-au-prince. nancy, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. michelle obama is making the world's children a top priority, and today she came to haiti to offer support to some of the children who need it the most. they came for a firsthand look and their helicopter tour tookish mellow bahama and dr. jill biden over cities reeling from january's earthquake. after touching down in port-au-prince to meet president renee preval and his wife elizabeth, the next stop was a visit to a special arts program.

haiti's first lady set it up to help children cope in the aftermath of the quake. greeted by children singing welcome, mrs. obama joined right in. dancing and trying her hand at painting. mrs. obama and dr. biden's visit was unannounced and security very tight. at a news conference, mrs. obama said, although the road ahead would not be easy, haiti has the u.s.'s support. >> after so much loss, how on earth can you still have hope? well, we have hope because we've been inspired. inspired by the resilience and the faith of the haitian people. people who have lost everything. >> reporter: it was also a new beginning for the students at the brazil school. this is the first day back at school for these girls. school isn't going to be in the damaged building behind me. instead, the learning and the real sense of community is

taking place in the tent classrooms. teacher edward eugene welcomed his class back, but told his students some of their classmates would never be coming back. at this one school alone, 150 students are still missing. a grim reminder haiti will never be the same again, but nonetheless, signs of life exist. seventh grader darlene says, "life goes on. we have to get back to school." this evening, mrs. obama is en route to mexico city where she will continue her trip alone as first lady. her focus continues to be on the world's children. brian. >> dr. nancy snyderman in haiti for us, thanks. in this country there was an emotional funeral procession today in los angeles for an lapd swat team officer killed last month in afghanistan while on marine corps reserve duty. officer robert coddle's casket

was carried by horse lak to the cathedral of our lady of the angels. he earlier served two tours of duty in iraq. he was scheduled to return home just this summer to his wife and baby daughter. when our broadcast continues here, testimony about the massive and rampant fraud in the mortgage business, which in this case led to the biggest bank failure ever. will everyone with constipation please report to gate 17?

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bending and in some cases breaking the rules. our report from nbc's kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: disbelief and even disgust here. >> these are really unbelievable numbers. fraud at that level. >> reporter: seven investigators detailed massive deception within the high-risk, subprime mortgage business that triggered the biggest bank failure in u.s. history. >> clapgs of this institution is a very big deal. >> reporter: federal regulators shut washington mutual down in 2008. former ceo kerry killinger. >> i'm deepy sorry for what happened. >> reporter: they admitted they routinely falsified financial documents to qualify borrowers quickly. >> sales associates would take asset statements from other files and cut and paste the current borrower's name and

address. >> reporter: a 2005 e-mail from the bank's own review stated there is an extremely high incidence of fraud. at two offices, 58% fraud lend lent and 83% fraudulent. several bank officials admitted they knew. >> was senior management, upper level management aware of these problems, in your opinion? >> yes, i would say senior management was aware. >> reporter: washington mutual offered incentives like trips to hawaii for those who sold riskier, more profitable loans. an e-mail encouraged employees to reach the president's club. >> any time there is fraud we took it very seriously. >> no. what you did is reward the folks that are being investigated with trips. that's the action. >> reporter: a former risk manager at washington mutual testified he warned executives that the housing bubble would lead to massive defaults. >> did you ever step in and try to get people to take a more conservative approach at wamu?

>> constantly. >> were you listened to? >> very seldom. >> reporter: senators say as early as next week, they'll decide if they'll turn other their findings for possible criminal prosecution. kelly o'donnell, nbc news, the capitol. when we come back, a whole lot of shaking going on in one part of this country. you know, when i grow up, i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i'm going to work with kids. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i want to fall in love again. [ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so i can join the fun at my family barbeque.

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in portland, oregon, today a jury found the boy scouts of america negligent in the sexual abuse of a former scout by an assistant scout master in the early '80s. the jury awarded the man $1.4 million with additional punitive damages still to be determined. boy scouts say they will appeal. we learned of astonishing numbers today from the earthquake experts at cal tech. they've been measuring the number of strong quakes, that means quakes that register at least 4.0. in southern california this year they are seeing a huge uptick. 70 already and it's only april, compared with 30 in all of last year. while they don't know why, they

do know a rumor has gone viral on twitter saying these quakes are a precursor to the big one, which they say is not true because there is still no reliable way to predict earthquakes. as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast marks a big anniversary for america in space. it was 40 years ago tonight a, a little after 10:00 eastern time, apollo 13 had what its low-key crew famously called a problem. a disastrous explosion in the command module on its way to the moon. chet huntly reported this way following night on this broadcast. this is 40 years ago. >> apollo 13, its power sources badly damaged, its mission to the moon ended, its astronauts under a strain more severe than any others have yet endured. >> nasa did not let the rest of us in on how serious it was, how close the apollo 13 crew came to

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way too often we hear about tragic endings to story of missing children. in central florida tonight, a different outcome for an 11-year-old girl who disappeared last friday near a dense and dangerous swamp filled with alligators, we were told. the outcome from nbc's mark potter. >> reporter: on a day when searchers had come to fear 11-year-old nadia bloom might never be rescued, word flashed she had just been found alive. nadia who suffered from a mild form of autism disappeared last friday, her bicycle found near a dense wooded area close to her home. the girl had wandered off near alligator-infested swamps. police searched day and night on foot, with dogs, underwater and in the air, but found nothing. but then at 8:30 this morning,

police got a cell phone call from deep inside a wooded area they had not yet searched. a man named james king, a member of a church affiliated search team said he'd gone in alone at dawn and found her. police then joined him and confirmed that nadia was bare foot, dehydrated, bitter by mosquitos head to toe, but alive. >> she did make two comments to the officers when they got there "glad you guys found me. can't believe you rescued me." >> reporter: her emotional father hugged james king. >> things don't always turn out this way. we are so blessed. >> reporter: to the police and rescue workers, it was a huge relief. >> if i never believed in miracles, i do now. >> reporter: a sentiment shared by an entire community whiched had been praying, searching and holding its breath for a little girl lost. mark potter, nbc news, winter springs, florida. and a final note, i misspoke about the problem on apollo 13.

i said command module. of course, it was service module where the explosion took place. former space geeks even forget their facts. that's our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. hope to see you back here tomorrow. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com