neil. degrasse tyson. a learned man, a man of the universe. the last time he was on the program, perhaps the time before that, he said during the normal open to the show that the graphics globe was spinning the wrong way. [laughter] well, it took time and a great deal of ingenuity but we've fixed our problem. we have a brand new open and it only cost us $1 million. [ laughter ] i hope he preshz how hard. if he thinks we're going to go back to the other open tomorrow, yes! [laughter] real quick off the top, today john brennan was supposed to have his nomination to run the c.i.a. on firmed in the senate. sort of a nonevent after the recent confirp -- confirmation drama -- what the who? it was a nonevent until the -- >> i rise today to filibuster the nomination to the c.i.a. >> jon: looks like we got us a good old fashion talkie filibuster, the kind our grandparents tried to tell us about but never got to because we were too busy playing jacks and tiddly winks with our friends waiting for our chance to freeba

neil degrasse tyson, the director of the hayden planetarium.space chronicles facing the ultimate frontier. >> paper back. >> paper back edition. >> what i was struck by. >> now that meteors are hitting, don't stay struck, what you were surprised by. >> what i was struck or surprised by was that we all know that china is making a push and even india but canada is the new space nation. what's this about? >> consider, first that canada played a major role in the space shuttle program. they are the arm that lives inside the payload bay of the space shuttle called the canada arm. the flag is proudly displayed. so can can canada has fought long and hard. and had many astronauts go up and we shouldn't be surprised they want to take the next steps on their own and other nations of the world saw what level of pride and the way in which it pumped vision statements of what a tomorrow would be for their country. they saw what effect it had on and now previously third world countries and other developing countries are -- they want to participate in thcapaci

listen tomorrow night neil degrass tyson son the program. when he was here he told us the imloab in our open was spinning the wrong way. we didn't fix it. i have until tomorrow for the earth to somehow reverse its spin. here it is your moment of zen. >> not everything is awful captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org captioning sponsored by comedy central [eagle caw] tonight, president obama says aloha to israel. and my guest james franco is the star of the new movie "oz, the great and powerful." i'll nail him, and his little dog, too. [laughter] queen elizabeth has been released from the hospital for what they say is a stomach bug. either that, or there's another royal baby on the way! this is "the colbert report." [cheers and applause] ["the colbert report" theme music playing] [cheers and applause] right here. right there. good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the report. thank you for joining us. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting, "stephen!"] [cheers and applause] thank y

listen tomorrow night neil degrass tyson son the program. when he was here he told us the imloab in our open was spinning the wrong way. we didn't fix it. i have until tomorrow for the earth to somehow reverse its spin. here it is your moment of zen. >> not everything is awful captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org . ["the colbert report" theme music playing] [eagle caw] [cheers and applause] >> stephen: thank you, ladies and gentlemen. [cheers and applause] welcome to the report. [crowd chanting "stephen!"] [cheers and applause] thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the report. thank you for joining us. ladies and gentlemen, i think that this world would be a much better place if i could take that kind of energy, put it in a paper bag and huff it. [ laughter ] [cheers and applause] hope you had a good presidents' day weekend. i took an all-expense paid trip to crap-my-pants-istan because last friday this happened. >> a ten ton meteor racing at 33,000 miles per hour throug

neil degrasse tyson the astrophysicist and director of the hayden planetarium.facing the ultimate frontier." >> thanks for having me. >> what i was struck by is let alone china -- >> not that the meteors are hitting, don't say struck. surprised by -- >> what i was struck by, what i was surprised by is that we all know china is making a big push and even india, but canada is the new space nation. what's this about? >> well, consider, first, canada played a major role in the space shuttle program. the arm that lives inside the payload bay of the space shuttle is called the canada arm. the flag is proudly displayed. every time this arm comes out to deploy a satellite, to retrieve a satellite, to assemble parts of the space station. so, canada has thought long and hard about space and they had many astronauts as part of this program to go up. so, we shouldn't be surprised that they wanted to sort of take the next step on their own and other nations of the world, they saw what level of pride and the way in which it pumped vision statements of what a tomorrow would be

neil degrasse tyson is an astrophysicist and director of new york's hayden planetarium. for having me back. >> thank you. what does this mean, private enterprise for the future of nasa on the one hand and space exploration on the other? >> that's an excellent question. first, this should have been happening decades ago. let me naught on the table. -- put that on the table. nasa doesn't need to use its own resources to get to low earth orbit. it had been going there since 1962. if we think of nasa as a space agency that is leading a frontier that's where you discover what patents necessary to do what's never been done before. and once that has happened, you cede that to private enterprise which in every case in past has done it measure efficiently. -- more efficiently. and doneentrepreneur dennis tito has announced he wants to send a married couple to mars by 2018. what do you think the chances of that are? >> personally i think they're low. the takeaway sheer that if nobody else is doing it he's going to want to do it. so it's a -- it's telling how deep the sentiment is