more money going to the arts and less to expensive toilets at the pentagon or, like, failed mars expeditions. have you-- did you have any idea what you were getting into? did you know that it was going to be a decade-long battle, or did you think you'd be in and out of this fairly quickly, take your $6,000 and go home? i really didn't have-- i knew that getting involved in a lawsuit against the federal government was going to be involved, but i had no idea that it was going to go on for as long, that it would also implicate other people-- for example, the places that would present me would get death threats and lose funding and people would lose their jobs-- and that it would go on for ten years. i didn't know what i was getting myself into. in the course of those ten years, in addition to having "a member of the n.e.a. four" attached to your name in every reference, you won a couple of important court battles and, in fact, did get your grant. was that part of a settlement? in 1993, the clinton administration did settle on the part of our lawsuit that was about our grants. they gave us our g

. >>> first pictures from mars, as rover curiosity begins its historic expedition on the red planet joinfor these stories and all the breaking news today at 4 and join us again in a moment for the 5 day [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and you'll never need a referral to see a specialist. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to g

. >>> curiosity about to set off on its first ground expedition of mars. >> is it your birthday? you share it with some celebrities. norman schwarzkopf is 78 today. she starred on several hit sitcoms. valley harper 73. 60 minutes journalist steve kroft is 67. >> she directed the play crowns actress regina taylor is 52. he's on modern family, ty better rel is 45 -- ty burrell is 45. if it's your birthday, happy birthday to you. >>> good morning. welcome back to nine fine now. -- to 9news now. howard is here. the forecast has changed while you were aware. been in the 80s. >> with the occasional afternoon thunderstorms. it's not going to change much the next few days but as we head to the weekend, we poke up to the lower 90s. we have to see where isaac winds up because that could bring us substantial rains. the track may be more on the east side of florida than the west side of florida. they'll get some rain in tampa. miami, the upper keys seem to be where isaac may be headed. let's talk about our weather with your day plan other this wednesday morning. again not too much change fro

is about to embark on its most ambitious and expensive expedition to mars.er is expected to land sunday night on the red planet. it will search for life and water during the two year, $2.5 billion mission. it looks pretty cure. here's a replica of cure i don't say city. it's one of only two museums in the country to host a full-scale model. it will be carried live on big screens across the country, including here at the exploritorium. if you are careious about cure i don't say city. we have links of the website and including viewing parties. just click on see it on tv. and a n.a.s.a. scientist who is part of the mars mission talks about what researchers hope to discover and the challenges they face ahead on abc7 at six. >> and goofing off when boss is on vacation could become a thing of the past. microsoft is building a mobile robot for bosses equipped with a camera so they can keep an eye on the employees while they are not in the office. boy, is this a bad idea. and it's also being equipped with a high definition screen so you can interact with your boss t

mars. you're looking at the first photos from the expedition. very cool. the rover's mission is to find out whether life has ever exited on the red planet and if it could sustain life in the future. scientists say it's the most important space mission in over a decade. >>> s.w.a.t. teams surrounding a building in california. two workers at a sporting goods store in sacramento were held captive for four hours by an armed suspect yesterday. police say the man tried to rob the store, but a manager was able to call 911. the suspect fired a gunshot into the air, but no one was reported injured luckily. he eventually surrendered to police. >>> at least 15 egyptian soldiers were killed and nine others wounded after masked attackers struck an army check point close to gaza in israel. it happened as the soldiers were breaking their ramadan fast last night. blaming terrorists with the jihad group for the violence. >>> late president harry truman's grandson will attend ceremonies commemorating the bombing of hiroshima today exactly 67 years after truman ordered the b

mars sproeb a good use of u.s. taxpayer money. we already know that nasa and other space programs have come under funding pressure. what about the expeditionmars. ross you mentioned you can following that recover on twitter too. >> yes, you can indeed. i just got to remember the -- >> we'll look it up. we'll get the. >> @marscuriosity. i'll confirm. still to come, it may no longer be a question of whether but how spain's finance minister says he'll not be asking for a bailout just yet but they seem to be quibbling about the price. we'll be live in madrid when we come back. tion is backed by an equally powerful and secure cloud. that cloud is in the network, so it can deliver all the power of the network itself. bringing people together to develop the best ideas -- and providing the apps and computing power to make new ideas real. it's the cloud from at&t. with new ways to work together, business works better. ♪ >>> welcome back to the program. these are your headlines. european stocks trading higher this morning on the back of strong u.s. jobs report. >> knight capital gets thrown a lifeline. they will get a capital injection but at a high

nasa is releasing more pictures, including the first color photo of the rover's curiosity expedition to mars. we want to hear what you think about this mission. it costs $2.5 billion. you think it is worth it? here are the numbers to call -- hear of a front-page pictures and the headline from "the washington post" of this morning. reporting from pasadena -- looking at a price tag, from cbs. a much-needed boost to nasa, which is debating whether it can afford another mars landing this decade. investing $2.5 billion, it is the priciest gamble yet. let's look at the nasa budget request for 2013. the toll will request is $17 billion and the price tag for the commercial crew and cargo program comes in around $830 million. lots of pictures, images, and stories in the news about this. a triumph for nasa and its engineers as the world watches. picture-perfect landing of a plutonium-powered role for -- rover. you can say nasa's staffers celebrating in "in the your times." and crowds stayed up in times square to watch. people could check it out and see. you can see the excitement of the folks watching

mars. they really were excited. >> look at this, they are hugging. >> crying. >> it was so perfect. you're looking at the very first images from the expeditionit is being called the most important space mission in more than a decade. the goal here to find out if there has ever been life on mars and if the planet could support life in the future. john saturdzarrella is in pasad california. nasa scientists were able to get the curiosity through the serve minutes of terror using an untested parachute to propel through mars' tough atmosphere. this is an usually difficult thing to do. it sounds simple but it's not at all. >> reporter: no, in fact not at all. the seven minutes of terror was aptly named because curiosity hit the martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles an hour, maneuvering itself through the atmosphere then the parachute deploys slowing curiosity to about 200 miles an hour. then after that, a series of pyrotechnic events to level up the curiosity lander with the surface of mars. the heat shield has to come off and back shell has to come off then it has to descend down to the surface on this sky crane apparatus. then the three tejers have

expedition of information gathering including evidence of life. >>> no one on earth will see the curiosity rover on his descent to mars thousands expected at nasa ames to get the first signals telling whether it survives or fail. among them chris mckay >>> all the watching the clock if this land successfully in a big sigh of relief, and then years of exploration on mars. >>> the new curiosity will have to survive heat and complications of being lowered from the ship. >>> there's a possibility will find a different kind of life than on earth a second genesis >>> the reliever will scoot but rock and soil and analyze and with a spectrometer chisholm when a march that water and had the habit that we should be on track to see what life is made of that is organics >>> he hopes to study and a life on mars will help us understand life on earth >>> if we can find that we can compare life forms >>> and see what earthlings and marcion's soda speak to similarly >>> we might learn more about life than we ever will then just getting on earth. >>> the two and a half billion dollar mission is risky >>> three years later we had footprints of neil armstrong on t

officials say a member of the expedition is now in "stable," condition the we have clearer pictures from the $2.5 billion trip to marsnasa. mars look as lot like the california desert. details ahead. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. trick estion. i love everything out this country! inuding prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're onof those people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day, block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zeroeartburn. >>shepard: a minute and 15 seconds to "

expedition. imagine that. >> wow. >> a $2.5 billion adventure that could help unlock secrets to the solar system and whether mars coulde. >> a rover like "curiosity" allows us to really, one, mankind, reach out and touch the surface of another planet. >> and scientists at nasa's jet propulsion lab as you can see were overjoyed at word of the landing. daring feat of declaration dubbed seven minutes of terror. now the nuclear-powered spacecraft, about the size of a small suv, will use cameras and an on-board lab to send that information back to earth. think those folks are happy at nasa this morning? >> oh, well done. over $2 billion? >> we didn't see it. that would not have been a good return on our investment had it not gone well. well-done, guys, enjoy the moment. >>> our other major story this morning, the deadly shooting at a sikh temple in wisconsin. sources tell nbc news the killings were the work of a skinhead or white supremacist. seven people including the gunman are dead. nbc's michelle guyardo reports from oak creek. >> reporter: it was certainly dad enough. by the time it was all done, seven were dead, thre

mars missions. they came in with the knowledge base. >> mark: this was considered the most challenging expedition ever in the history of robotic exploration justine: now the first american has been sent home for failing a drug test. he finished seventh and you know, he claims that he ate a pot laced brownies by mistake. the first american all it can to be sent home. >> mark: doubt if the people are attending a ceremony where a temple bell will be wrangler the hiroshima bomb struck on august 6th. u.s. harry truman approved this mission and his grandson is taking part in the ceremony an estimated 147,000 people were killed in this attack. >> mark: it has been nearly a year and a half since the earthquake and tsunami in japan rock the world earthquake. here is a movie deal to being released. -- here is video that is just being released. now this shows the hiroshima reactors no. 1 and no. 2. tepco hackett under investigation by the japanese government asked whether or not it could made these reactors safer. we will be right back as the kron4 morning news continues. we are watching your conditions around the bay area and one of creek there is

expedition. it has to wait a little bit longer to get this thing rolling. it's newest rover, curiosity it landed last week on the planet mars to make its first move. they are watching it kind of sit there. the team says they are itching to get the thing moving and find out what is going on mars. they have mapped out driving routes, they've consulted gps, the best way to get from here to there and how to stop at a hotel or gas station along the way i guess. it's going through checkups, the rover is. we are getting new photos courtesy of curiosity, like this one. first test drive over the next couple of days and begin the search for chemical building blocks of life. maybe martians might be a most interesting thing to discover. do you think they'll find any. gregg: i've got even so many emails, people say, come on there are no martians on mars. that's not the point, what they are looking for is was there at one point in time conditions conducive to organic live on mars, that's a fascinating question. martha: i completely agree. we'd like curiosity to go somewhere, it's not that curious, just hanging out. gregg: just taking a n