what's your reaction to this news that the lander has made contact?well, it's pretty remarkable. you know, in the history of us sending stuff out into the solar system we have found it's incredibly difficult to land things on other bodies. just looking at the history of mars, the way we landed on mars, we've done it successfully most of the time and i think to date still no other country has been able to do it. you look at what the soviets and later the russians have tried to do with mars, they have found it difficult to successfully land something. so it's a big deal for everybody, especially for the european space agency. >> mark, you've had the honor of being in space but you have also been in mission control, no doubt, as part of so many missions. what's it like to be there when something like this happens? what's it like to sit in that room, in some cases wait for confirmation of something that happens six, seven, eight, nine minutes ago but you're waiting for the signal. >> talk about waiting. they've been waiting for ten years. this spacecraft

, and it looks like the lander is stable on the surface. but we have been hearing more details about a spectacularly hairy landing. it basically touched down, they didn't anchor it to the surface of the koemt, so it bounced back up again into space, so we think it traveled about a kilometer up over the process, over the time period of two hours, came down again, luckily, touched down, bounced again, went up, came down again for a third time. so we're getting a signal from its third position. what we're trying to establish now is whether the lander is on its slide or whether it's on a slope. you can find out more about what's been happening from this report by andy moore. >> reporter: the first close-up view of a comet from a spacecraft sitting on its surface. you can see one of the legs of the lander, apparently resting on rocky, broken terrain. the probe eventually touched down, not quite as in this animation, but with a slow motion bounce. the ice crews at the end of the legs may have deployed, but the harpoons designed to secure it to th

there is very little gravity to keep the lander down. image of a hostile landscape, the tiny machine is down there working, but isn't safe. even so, just getting there is one of the greatest achievements in space. >> david shukman there. for more up-to-date's accomplishments, i spoke with dense and abel, the chair of the physical sciences at the american museum of natural history in new york. this is quite extraordinary and doesn't get old how -- old hearing how extraordinary it is. regardless of the status of the lander, it is a success. it's maybe not 100%, but 50%, i will take it. >> you can only imagine just how gripping this was for the people there. the emotion, 10 years in the waiting. >> i can hear it, and i know some of these people. they are ecstatic and i know how ecstatic they are because i have seen them happy before, but not this happy ever. it is great for science and great for humanity. >> what will it actually tell us? >> there are so many instruments on the land and on the spacecraft. the spacecraft has been doing scien

the lander was going to stick on to the comet.r than the harpoons and the screw-down feet and all that stuff which maybe hasn't worked because the surface was too soft. the plan was that this little lander was supposed to have a thruster built into its roof. genius idea. the thruster on the roof was designed to shoot big strong thrusts of cold nitrogen gas straight up, thus pushing the craft down into the comet's surface. essentially thanks to the recoil from those thrusts. but the thruster didn't work. the brilliant web comic xkcd did a live seers of comets today which updated every few minutes. it was so good. we' linked it today at maddow blog. it's so good it will make you cry. but this is xkcz about two hours into the seven-hour process. the rosetta spacecraft from which the little lander had been dropped. you see the comment below in all its mystery what's there. then you see the lander itself, philae floating down towards the comet surface. it says hey, are you in touch with earth? the spacecraft responds yes, yes, i'm in t

the problem is the lander's position on the comet. it basically ended up in heavily shadowed terrain and runs on solar panels and it may not be getting enough sunlight to recharge its batteries for an extended operation. but here's the good news. for now, the lander is communicating with its parent spacecraft. it's even tweeting these photos. one is captioned the view is absolutely breathtaking. unlike anything i have ever seen. "now that i'm safely on the ground, here's what my new home looks like." and we are learning what happened in the landing. the anchors that needed to hold the lander failed to fire and it ended up a half mile away from the original spot. >> it bounced. now we are on the surface. >> that surface appears to be a jagged cliff where the lander is stilted to its side on a pile of dusty rocks. the hope was it could use its drill to dig samples from the comet's surface but the lander is only getting an hour and a half of sunlight each day and needs six or seven hours to recharge those batteries. if scientists can't m

we had a system on the lander that was meant to shoot harpoons in to the comet. they did not deploy. do they know why and could they refire those harpoons? >> they are not sure why it didn't happen, john. you were saying they were on a high after landing on the comet. they certainly were but scientists were keen to get back to the control room and find out what may have been the glitch, as you said during that landing. there were two systems that apparently didn't work on the landing. what is supposed to happen and we are going back to our models. what happens is the lander was coming down very slowly towards the comet. it moves slowly. that's one of the reasons why they wanted the harpoons to deploy. essentially there is so little gravity on this comet that the lander has to attach itself to the surface. that in itself is difficult enough. they don't know what the surface is like. is it dusty, icy, any matter there that these harpoons could attach themselves to? apparently the harpoons didn't deploy immediately and the other thing this lander has, it has a boost

the lander has a little retractable arm. it's one of the experiments onboard the lander. so there is a suggestion that perhaps they could try a really risky maneuver, which would be to operate the army and get it to sort of push itself off the surface again, so it would go in freefall, back up into space, and then see if it comes down in a better place again. and i think the issue is, you know, if it's not going to get enough light, well they might as well try something rather than risk the batteries running out. but there's still lots of science coming in. so even if they just get 64 hours worth of data, that is a heck of a lot of data. so all will not be lost. >> even as we speak, it's doing some work. it's doing science, as they say. >> reporter: yes. i mean, the scientists here are speaking to one of the researchers who's got an instrument onboard the lander earlier on and she's absolutely thrilled that they've got data streaming back in. because as soon as the lander set down properly and was stabilized, it's programmed so it's one of the science experiments. the one

a lander.ou can see the foot there and something that nature built 4.6 billion years ago, which is a comet essentially preserved as it was at that time. >> after the lander separated from the rosetta spacecraft wednesday, scientists say touchdown was much rougher than first thought. >> we probably landed twice it's already been announced. we landed three times. there was an inflation of landings. >> harpoon anchors meant to secure the probe to the comet surface apparently failed. the lander bounced at least twice, traveling about a kilometer before coming to a stop. >> this is the landing site and we sit hit it quite accurately the really predicted point. this is known. and then we did this huge jump, something like that. we are somewhere here in the rim of this crater. >> being in the shadow of that rater or cliff could become a problem for the lander, which depends on solar panels for power. scientists also say one of the lander's three feet may not be secured to the comet. but with scientifi

this is a replica of the philae lander. it's about here on this comet. i also have a guest with me right now. he's a flight dynamics engineer for the european space agency. first of all, i have to ask you, how excited are you? >> i'm excited, elated. i'm happy. literally had tears in my eyes. i'm overwhelmed. >> reporter: tell me about the status of the lander right now, because it was supposed to fire off harpoons to pull itself onto the comet. those didn't fire. what's the status now? >> we know that the lander is safely on the surface, three legs report contact to the surface. which is what you could only hope for. the harpoons were measured to prevent the lander from ricocheting back into space after landing because the gravity is so small at the surface of the comet. obviously the harpoons didn't fire but they weren't needed. so it doesn't really matter at this moment in time. >> reporter: what do we know about the surface that it's standing on? is it soft, is it hard, is it dusty? >> from the reports of the lander engineers, i hear the shock attenw

it may be sweet dreams for the lander now.ut there's a chance it can wake up and resume contact with the rosetta mission. for that to happen, has to have enough sunlight on the solar panels. officials say by rotating that lander, they boosted the chances of that happening. but stay tuned to see what happens next. quite a cliffhanger in the skies there. paula. >> yes, philae seeking the sun like most of us this cold morning. thank you. >>> a daughter is on a mission this morning, taking on kmart over their decision to kick off the shopping season on thanksgiving day. thanksgiving thursday has become an increasingly popular warmup for black friday. what about the workers at these stores? when do they get to celebrate thanksgiving with their families? the daughter of one kmart employee is now kicking up a fuss. let's get to abc's gloria riviera. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. a fuss is right. donna fischer doesn't want to cause trouble, but she's proud of her daughter who's over watching her mom walk out the door every

we'll just have to see when the lander touches down. flex ukraine's defense minister says kiev is preparing for combat in the face of a reported increased activity by russia and pro-moscow rebels in the east. it comes as they have seen columns of russian military equivalent can including tanks artillery, and combat troops entering ukraine in the past two days. it's the latest in a string of recent sightings of unmarked trucks and weapons heading toward the area controlled by the rebels. and in the west bank, a fire broke out at a local village mosque, destroying the ground floor. the attack has been blamed on jewish settlers. violence has been rapidly rising in recent days, leaving many analysts to wonder if a third intifada could be on the way. collect heightened tension -- >> heightened tensions, a series of attacks have raised fears of widespread fighting or intifada or uprising. security forces are losing control and the element's in place for a third intifada. the country's defense minister says that is not the case. yes, there is

when the lander gets close to the comet, it boosts thrusters and keeps the comet -- keeps lander from bouncing off the comet. i have an astronomer. you have a model, it's 6 7-p. >> 67-p. >> reporter: would it ideally use thrusters to stay on the comet? >> the idea, as it comes down and lands on the comet, as soon as it makes contact, the structure would fire and force it down. now without that thruster, there's a greater chance it might bounce and potentially tip over. but they have other systems on there, harpoons and augers on the end. >> reporter: ice screws. >> right. >> reporter: the trick they don't want to land on a bowler or steep slope. >> right. >> reporter: because they could lose the lander. >> they could tip over the lander which would be a problem. >> reporter: insight? you think the harpoon will work? >> i do. i think it's going to work out well. they've picked out a landing site that is boulder-free. it might bounce a bit but the harpoons and augers will do the job. >> reporter: thank you. other astronomers, scientists, 100 people coming here at the top of the oakland

is there any activity on the comet that could damage the lander?> the probe is in meeting a lot of gases -- is e-mailing a lot of gases, various kinds of gases. the closer it gets to the sun, the more gases it emits. these gases and whatever it takes with them are the biggest dangers for the lander itself. however, in the first days it will not be a problem. >> thanks so much for joining us. x in other news, the un security council has announced it will meet later to discuss the crisis in ukraine. this comes as ukrainian forces prepare for a possible new offensive by separatist rebels. >> at a meeting of the ukrainian cabinet in kiev, the defense minister said rebels were amassing their forces. major troop movement have also -- has also been observed by cooperation in the country from europe. moscow denies the claims. our correspondent joins us from kiev. yuri, what is happening on the ground right now? >> it is difficult to say exactly what is happening on the ground. we have these kinds of reports, three days of reports from the organization for

back into space because the harpoon system which was supposed to cling this lander to the surface ofecause the comet is only 2.5 miles wide so gravitational pull is quite weak. it needed to cling itself to the surface. clinging did not happen. it bounced back into space for two hours and then it landed again. bounced back again, a second time, and that bounce only took seven minutes and then it landed. it's now on the surface of the comet. >> so not anchored. not clinging. the experimenting happened -- this is in the making. it's the kind of thing where they are hurry, hurry, in terms of getting experiments done because at a point the battery juice runs out. >> the primary battery onboard is only intended to power the lander for 2 1/2 days. there's ten different instruments onboard. many experiments they are running in those first 2 1/2 days but the location of this lander where it is now is actually going to impact the life span of the lander because it's only going to receive about 1.5 hours of sunlight a day now. >> there are solar panels on top of it now. >> where it intended to

but again, the lander is still working. it still has power. it's going to have power for at least another 1 1/2 days. and until then, they believe that the comet is going to be so close to the sun that there's going to be sun raies coming on to the solar panels of the lander that will then re-energize the batteries onboard. nato says russian soldiers and hardware are crossing the border into ukraine. the defense minister says that means his country should prepare for combat. despite a cease-fire, fighting has increased recently we report on new indications of an alarming escalation. >> we've seen columns of russian equipment, primarily russian tanks, russian artillery, russian air defense system, and russian combat troop enter into ukraine. >> and nato says they've observed something even more alarming. russian war planes capable of carrying nuclear weapons deployed to crimea. annexed by russia illegally earlier this year. if confirmed, the step could violate multiple international treaties. >> we see forces that are capable of being nuclear,

the philae lander has been sending spectacular images back to earth but has gone dark.the battery has died after landing in a shadowy area of the comet. the big question now, can it be saved? joining us now to talk more about historic mission, division director dr. jim green. always a treat to have you in the house. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. >> we love having you explain for the audience just was happening at this moment as these amazing discovery take place in space, like last time talking about the mars curiosity and rover. now we're talking about this comet that just blows your mind when you consider what actually happened this week. >> so 20 years ago this idea of a comet lander and orbiter was conceived by the european space agency. they developed the space craft called rosetta and it has a small lander, they named it philae, then when the rosetta was 20 miles from the comet, it actually released the lander and then put it down on the head of the comet. here's what we call a shape model. this is what it looks like. it's very odd. two major lobes, we d

hey, jonathan. >> the lander is now sleeping. the big question, will it ever wake up? the key to that is recharging philae's batteries via solar panels. it touched down in the shadow of a cliff face and that prevented it seeing the sun and therefore charging the batteries. scientists at the european space agency did manage to lift and rotate the lander by about 35 degrees before it shut down. they hope that may be enough to get those solar panels into sun light. but right now, they simply don't know the precise location of philae. >> we have no news providing contact so the location of the lander on the ground. as much as we would have wished so we are still awaiting the images from the science sequence coming down. >> scientists say the lander has already performed some 56 hours of experiments and data collection. and returned that data to the efa. officials say it has been a quote exciting and successful week. now the material beneath the surface of the comet is around 4.5 billion years old and scientists hope if the lander can get samples it might give them insight

the lander failed to fire its two harpoons designed to firmly anchor the spacecraft to the comet. but the problems didn't seem to cloud a day of triumph in space. because of those problems with the harpoons, scientists still don't know if the lander is going to be able to remain on that comet for an entire year, as it hurtles toward the sun. mary ann favro, nbc bay area news. >> what an amazing story this is. we could talk about it for hours. our coverage of this epic touchdown continues in just about 15 minutes with brian williams on "nightly news." he'll take a look at the big mystery the mission could help solve. >>> let's get a check of the forecast now. we're finally getting some rain. here's jeff ranieri. >> couldn't be more excited in the weather department. our approaching storm system continues to get closer, as we mentioned earlier. it's finally starting to get its act together. over the past two hours we've seen cloud cover increase off the bay. any rain returns, even on a wide scan, are way off to the north and well offshore. eventually, the pattern is going to be chan

while the power may have gone out, the come met lander is providing scientists with new insights. ♪ >r top story, president obama and other ligeaders of th world's 20 largest economies gather ner australia. day 1 began with the promise to provide help to struggling structures throughout the world. it turned to ukraine. putin was lambasted by members of the european union. climate change made headlines but president obama urging leaders to commit to fighting global warning. more on the first day of the g20 summit. >> reporter: the focus of the speech was expected to be the united states's pivot toward asia with a nod to the g20 economic talks to come, but unexpectedly, one of barack obama's main themes was the environment. >> as we focus on our economy, we cannot forget the need to lead on the global fight against climate change [applause.] >>> more than six minutes of the president's speech was devoted to climate change in what likes a die correct rebuke to australia's prime minister who made it clear he did not want clooim change discussed at the g20. if tony abbott was stunned vladi

scientists at the european space agency did manage to lift and rotate the lander by about 35 degrees before it shut down, and they hope that may be enough to get those solar panels into sunlight. but right now they simply don't know the precise location. >> we have no news providing context so the location of the lander on ground, so as much as we would have wished. sew we're still awaiting the images from the science sequence coming down. >> but the scientists say the lander has performed some 56 hours of experiments and data collection and returned that data to the esa. so officials say it has been a quote exciting and successful week. the material beneath the surface of the comet is around 4.5 billion years old. scientists hope if the lander can get samples, it may give insight into whether comets brought the basic building blocks of life to earth they deployed a drill to drill a hole into the comet. they know it began that task, but they do not know at this point where it completed it or whether the drill touched the ground. as the batteries ran low, it tweeted, i'm feeling a bit

now in a first, the rosetta mission will attempt to put a lander on the comet's surface.t will be a nail-biting seven-hour operation. the robotic probe about the size of a washing machine will separate from the main spacecraft and descend toward the comet. scientists are aiming to land on the head of the odd duck-shaped comet, hoping to touch down on a smooth spot and not rocky crated terrain. if the program is successful, it will start gathering data about the composition of the comet which could shed new light on our solar system, our planet, and even the origins of life. >> has water on life come from comets? has life on earth come from comets? we hope to give answers to these questions. we hope to find new questions to answer. >> after a decade-long wait, scientists believe rosetta is ready with landing set for wednesday. isha sesay, cnn, atlanta. >> and for the latest on rosetta's incredible mission, log on to cnn.com there is a detailed timeline of the landing and some remarkable animation of the spacecraft. john? >>> all right. rising palestinian tensions have led

should have fired and anchored the lander to the surface.dn't work and the lander bounced not once but twice and balanced on two of three legs heavily shaded from the sun. >> we are in the shadow of a cliff. that's as you will understand part of the problem. >> the lander was designed to get six or seven hours of sunlight but it was getting less than that. 80 minutes at most on just one of the three solar panels. in addition controllers proceeded with the plan activating a drill to cut into the comet's surface. they were able to man oofr the lander into a new position that hope will receive more light and perhaps even restore power. morgan radford, al jazeera. earlier, i spoke to geoff faust, an analyst and editor of the "space review" and asked him what makes it a unique achievement? >> this is the first time we have landed on a comet. we have thrown projectiles at comets in the past. this is the first time we have attempted a soft landing on a comet to better understand the truck tour. >> despite the fact there seems to be a bit of a set b

so, miles, what is it that the lander that this rosetta lander is supposed to be doing while it's on the comet? >> well, philae is actually loaded with science, 10 experiments in all, and it can do a chunk of the experiments. those that work is already under way. as a matter of fact, one of the items on it is to determine the magnetic field of the comet, and that device, that scientific instrument, was able to determine that as it was in the midst of its bouncing-- once, twice, and finally landing-- it did a pirouette at one point. that's kind of interesting right on its own right. it's able to send radio waves through the comet which would be received on the other side by the orbiting rosetta and be able to detect some key features of the surfar, the constituency and makeup of the surface of the comet. the big one, though, the drill, that's an open question right now, because they don't-- they assume, i should say, that when you drill in to the surface without being anchored, there could be trouble. >> woodruff: remind us, miles, why they want to get inside this comet. what is it ab

the philae lander entering into a hibernation period but not before sending back a treasure troef of information for scientists. what could the mission ultimately mean for space exploration. who better than buzz al dren than to weigh in. we'll talk to him. will that be all, sir? thank you. ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. i order b14. i get b14. no surprises. buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster white knuckle thrill ride. you're promised one speed. but do you consistently get it? you do with comcast business. and often even more. it's reliable. just like kung pao fish. thank you, ping. reliably fast internet starts at $89.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. >>> the comet landed sending back its last successful transmission. last night, the probe landed on the comet on wednesday, but it's now fallen into a cold and potentially permanent sleep after its batteries ran out of power. joining us now is legendary astronaut buzz aldren, the second person to step on the moon. hi, colonel, how are you? >> thank you, doing ver

. >> the lander is in place. there were several hiccups this morning. most significant involving the harpoon system. the comet is 2.5 miles wide. the force of gravity is weak. in order to keep this lander on the surface of the comet, it needs to latch on and the harpoon system which was supposed to facilitate that did not deploy properly. there were screws in the bottom of the leg of the lander and that's what we believe is actually holding the lander in place right now. >> meaning that the screws were able to -- >> drill through the surface of the comet and keep the lander in place so it didn't bounce back into space. >> is that a redundant system? >> there was another system in place on the lander which also did not work properly this morning. a thruster on top of the lander was supposed to help push back so it didn't bounce back into space. that didn't work properly this morning. it was all dependent on these skr screws in the bottom of the leg. >> mark, you looked at that and you know so well the difficulties when it comes to space travel and really

or the lander attach to the comet.thing like that, it might actually fall off the comet. there is one problem that they have with the mission right now. that is the place where they're at right now close to that cliff seems to be pretty far away from any sort of sunlight. they're getting a lot less sunlight than they actually thought. right now it's running on battery power. it will need power on the solar panels. it's going to neat lied rays if it wants to recharge those batteries and continue to scientific experiment for a long time to come. that's something they're working on. they say it could impact the mission. at this point in time, people in this town in germany absolutely jubilant at what they've achieved. and that is to catch a comet in the middle of space. >> more like catch a ride with a comet. >> with a spacecraft that traveled 300 million miles and can bounce. >> and is now hanging on the edge. >> hang in there, pal. hang in there. >> we'll be watching. >>> ahead at this hour, talk about a nightmare, a ni

. >>> by the way it took a lot of geometry to get that lander where it is because part of the mission was not powered. first though, weather. >> educated guessing. like we do. live doppler hd shows the east bay hills it is cloudy but calm. no fog to contend with. right now no rain. it will tonight through tomorrow. i will have that will set coming up in the seven-day forecast. >> we have a big rig overturned in san ramon. but the bay bridge toll plaza shows it is packed like sardines and over to the san mateo bridge that drive is loading up but it is moving along. >> holiday is over. >>> it is. and abc7 news reporter amy hollyfield has been talking to fire crews and has an update on the clean up. >>> it is slow. they have to manually carry off 45,000 pounds of turkeys. you can see the upright tractor trailer where necessity will but the turkeys. that is good. each person has to grab a turkey and throw it on other truck. that will take a while. necessity will lose all the food and turkeys, happening when the driver took the exit too fast and flipped. this is the off-ramp southbound 680

i have my model here of the surface and lander.y say what happened is yesterday, it touched down very slowly. as you said, the harpoon system that is supposed to attach did not deploy. it bounced off the comet and this bounce, because there is almost no gravity here, john, took about two hours. it was in the air off the comet surface. they are not sure how far it bounced or where it might have gone. they believe it is close to the original landing site. it bounced and landed for two hours and bounced again and landed for six minutes and is now standing on the comet surface. i spoke to the rosetta commander. he says at this point in time, they have contact with the lander. it is sending back data to the earth. they received several images at mission control. they hope to give us those within the next couple of hours. they say it seems to be standing on the ground on the comet. at this time, the mood is very good at the european space agency. >> standing on the comet, fred. the question is will it stay on the comet. are they concerne

you'll go back to the scientists and figure out what we're seeing in the images from the lander. thanks so much, miles o'brien, rachel, for offering your insights. stick around. there's a lot more to come on the story. >>> still to come, right here in "newsroom" tear gas, rocks and rubber bullets, looks like something out of a war zone but this is the grim reality in mexico as outrage intensifies over the disappearance of 43 college students. cnn's rosa flores has more. >> reporter: pamela, good morning. the parents of these missing students have vowed to get more and more radical as they demand answers. what they're doing now, next. ♪ [ male announcer ] you wouldn't ignore signs of damage in your home. are you sure you're not ignoring them in your body? even if you're treating your crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. and if you ignore the signs, the more debilitating your symptoms could become. learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms with the expert advice tool at crohnsandcoli

esa released a virtual treat by rosetta after the philae lander detached. rosetta commented that its back feels chill yafr philae left. and philae replied that it fields like it's floating. the team has confirmed that the harpoons used to anchor the lander to the comet's surface are not working properly. they say the landing site is different from their original plan. and they say they're concerned that the solar batteries may not have received enough sunlight. the comet is believed to to contain substances dating back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. scientists hope that samples could provide clues to the origin of comets, our solar system, and earth. >>> joining me in the studio is ai uchida from the business desk. tokyo stock prices have been rising this week. could you give us an update on that? >> absolutely. we have definitely seen a rally on the nikkei actually touching a seven-year close highs for three straight sessions through thursday. stocks today, though, are lower this morning on some profit taking after those gains.

now the european space agency says it lost contact with the lander. it successfully landed earlier this week and then sent spectacular images back to earth. now it has gone into sleep mode because they say it relies on solar power and the battery, well, it died after it touched down. jonathan hunt in the news room with the latest on the philae. >> as the batteries ran low, it tweeted apparently, i'm feel ago bit tired, i might take a nap. the concern for scientists now is whether it will ever wake up from that nap. the key to that is recharging the batteries via solar panels. but the lappedder touched down in the shadow of a cliff space on the comet and that prevented it from seeing the sun and therefore charging those batteries. scientists at the european space agency did manage to rotate the lander by 35 degrees before it shut down and they hope that may be enough to get the solar panels into sunlight. even if they don't, scientists say the lander has already performed some 56 hours of experiments and data collection. >> that was all very successful

this time yesterday we were awaiting anxiously as the lander separated.t made its final approach in spite of problems with its thrusters, but the lander made it successfully to the comet's surface. there was celebrations, particularly in germany when the mission was controlled. some even cried they were so happy. others paid tribute in their own more permanent ways. but the it's still to wonder, this image. france's president watching in 3-d. the lander is now traveling 40,000 miles per hour through space between mars and jupiter more than 300 million miles away. there are some concerns at this hour and it's not clear whether harpoons have properly anchored the lander to the surface. such a cool story to follow. we'll bring you updates on this for all of you science fans. >>> new yorkers, they truly held their breath on wednesday after two window washers found themselves trapped and dangling. the two were reportedly on their way up to the top of the new world trade center building just before 1:00 p.m. when something wept wrong with the cable pulling up t

. >> one of the feet of the lander, very close to what looks like a cliff. this dark rain is 300 million miles away. the landing itself will not be as easy. jump.did a huge >> it came down in an awkward angle at a tricky spot. >> we appeared to be in a shattered region. a land that is vertically oriented. obviouslyd settled because signals sent back to earth confirmed that. harpoons meant to hold the space craft down did not fire. it drifted up and away from its original landing zone to terrain that seems to be far more risky. >> they face an awkward choice. it, oruld risk damaging just flinging it off into deep space. >> instruments could send the lander flying off the surface. most of the others are successfully gathering data. they are learning a lot already. >> how are you now? >> i am still jubilant. it is not quite where we thought it would be. we are still getting extremely good data. >> it is now in a darker corner without much sunlight to charge its batteries. there is still a chance to find out. bbc news and mission control in germany. >> there are

precision was everything for the smaller lander you see here.error of one inch could have thrown the lander more than 850 feet off course. tom clarke of independent television news has a report on the day's events. >> some of these scientists waited 20 years for this moment. then they had to wait some more. traveling at the speed of light, a message from the philae lander took nearly half an hour to cover the 300 million miles from the comet to earth. (applause) but come it did. and with it, space history. >> the first thing he told us it has been found, and the landing gear has been moved in time so we are sitting on the surface. >> putting the lander's mother ship rosetta into orbit around a core met was audacious enough. 67p as the comet-- comet is known is tumblinging end over end at 40,000 miles an hour. but to land a 100 kilogram spacecraft on its forbidding surface, a near few had dared to dream of. >> science fiction has become science fact today. or a better way maybe is hollywood is good, but rosetta is better. >> how audacious. how ex

do it next time because the harpoons could trigger so much inertia that we may even push away the lander: there's another concern. the philae relies on the solar panel to recharge its batteries to manage its instruments. but because it's settled in a shadow of a cliff, it's unlikely to do that, and it's unclear how long it can survive. charlie d'agata, cbs news, darmstadt, germany. >>> well, coming up after your local news on "cbs this morning," more on the latest message from the leader of isis. we'll hear from former cia deputy director mike morell. >>> we'll also sit down with former navy s.e.a.l. robert o'neill who claims he fired the bullet that killed osama bin laden. >>> and we'll have a preview of the hollywood film awards airing tonight on cbs. >>> that is the "cbs morning news" for this friday. i'm anne-marie green. thanks for watching. have a great day. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. >>> good morning, it's friday, november 14. i'm juliette goodrich in for michelle griego. >> hi, everyone. i'm frank mallicoat. i think

the philae lander dropped from rosetta, which has been in orbit for several months. it was a risky seven-hour journey with the lander hitting at about two miles an hour. as of this afternoon, there are indications that the philae lander failed to anchor itself and may have bounced, essentially landing twice. the good news, it's already sent back data so the european space agency remains hopeful. now we need to wait a few more hours until rosetta emerges from behind the comet and communicates with earth again. in san francisco, wayne freedman, abc 7 news. >> awe-inspiring. >>> now to problems here on earth. another bay area doctor will head to west africa to fight ebola. uc san francisco doctor sharam will go to liberia in mid-december. there is no one with ebola in the u.s. right now, while worldwide the death toll passed 5,000. the doctor will train health workers in remote villages. >> if you have a high quality and high level of care, people will start to seek care. so if you have good ebola treatment units that people are starting to see, if i show up and get car

sun height and without sunlight, scientists are unable to recharge the lander's batteries.ny of that make sense for you? hopefully jonathan hunt will explain what i just said. >> well, what they are doing right now is waiting and hoping essentially with philae shot down, there's not a lot else that the scientists can do. before the batteries ran out, they were able to lift and rotate the lander back by 35 degrees and they just have to hope simply that it's enough to get the solar panel out of the sunlight. he's really excited about the experiments and data collection carried out by philae. listen here. >> that was all very successful. so they have already received an enormous amount of data that was planned to be taken by the lander. so it's a tremendous success already. >> so a success already but you just know, julie, all those n d nerdy scientists hope that philae will wake up at some point. >> does it have an alarm clock? what do scientists hope to main learn from this mission? >> about the possible origins of life on earth. scientists believe comets may have played a r

this will be the first time a lander has landed on a comet.t in itself is pretty intense and difficult to do. the com melt itself only has the diameter of approximately four kilometers, so doesn't have much gravity and the lander's going to shoot a harpoon into it to pull itself down and use the. >>s on the legs to screw itself on to the surface. the chemicals that form the building blocks of life, could they have come from comets? nationals of this kind will help shed light on questions. if it looks like the building blocks of life and water come from comets, it's possible that it could happen other places in the universe and other planets as well. design activities believe they will unlock the secrets to the solar system, rose set at a stone. >> it will contribute to the knowledge of how science and life might have formed and how things fit together here in the cosmos. it's not going to answer everything, but it's one step at a time and this is a pretty big step. even technically landing on a comet is a pretty neat thing. >> leroy, will it j

. >>> a potential problem for the comet lander. why scientists think there could be an issue with a solar panel. >>> and what is al roker still doing? there he is. he is having a marathon. we'll tell you all about his idea of breaking the longest weather cast in the world. with donuts! coming up. of shaving stuff. and thankfully, being able to find backups. >>> and welcome back to you. checking the markets this morning, they are pretty much dead even. good news on first time jobless claims, lowest in 14 years, but some concern about, yes, a government shutdown, has the dow a bit tepid this morning. >>> scientific research says iphones lead to broken bones indirectly. a new paper from yale says, in effect, your small child's playing on the playground, climbs to the top of the play structure, and what are you doing? updating your facebook, yes, you are. instead of saying, hey, billy, get down from there. so a researcher at yale compiled the data from the national electronic injury surveillance system and found there are significantly

the philae lander as they call is so difficult.ooks like a rock here but it really isn't like a rock. a comet is ice and metal dust like when it snows. and the road crews come around and they salt and put pebbles on the street if you take a that and make a big snowball, that's what a comet is made of. the surface is very difficult to land. if they plan to land on this comet, they should get some amazing scientific data, including some that might lead to clues to how first life came on earth. because there are people who believe comets landed on earth. that's how we got water and that's how we got the first molecules, in conjunction with the sun became the first life on earth. hopefully, we'll find more from this mission, john. >> undeniable cool. we should get pictures, photographs back of the mission during the course of the day. >> fred, thanks so much. >> pictures you hope it lands and upright and little feet landed properly. >>> surprising job advice from billionaire michael bloomberg. you'll never guess what he tells high scho

the lander was supposed to land and in fact did first hit the comet right on the top. then it bounced about a kilometer up in the air and came to rest we think somewhere over here. sort of near the wall of this depression that you might be able to see there in the head of this rubber duck comet. and because of that, it's sitting in shadow, which means that they're not able to use the solar panels to charge up the extra batteries, so we're running on the original battery charge, which was about 60 hours. that's going to run out sometime tomorrow, we think. and so we're now in this stage where we've done all the science that's not risky in terms of perhaps dislodging this lander and putting it in an even worse position. and now we're going to try i think later today drilling into the comet, to sort of measure what the comet itself is made of. but that drilling process might actually tilt the lander. might put it in a better position. so that would be fingers crossed for that, but that's what's going to happen later today. >> professor tim o'brien. we wish them luck. we'r

. >> reporter: after a 10 year, 6.5 million kilometer journey across the solar system the lander letsetta mothership starting its freefall towards comet 67 p. a wait as the descent took seven hours. the lander about the size of a washing machine snapping pictures as it moved closer to the speeding comet. finally, the confirmation scientists had waited a decade to hear. >> we can confirm the lander is on the is urs face. >> reporter: the tweet from the lander, touch down, my new address, 67 p. >> this is a big step for human civilization. >> reporter: soon after mission scientists detected a possible problem. anchors that hold the probe to the surface failed and they say it appears the lander may have briefly lifted off again, possibly to adjust its position on the comet. it's unclear if any damage was done. >> maybe today we didn't just land once, we even landed twice. despite the potential setback scientists say the lander will now start gathering information about the composition of the comet which they hope will shed new light on our solar system, our planet and even the origins o