We begin with the breaking news on this Friday night. Boeing's troubled starliner capsule is about to enter the final moments of its high stakes journey back to Earth. NASA just gave it the final go ahead. So if all goes well, we'll see it land back on solid ground in New Mexico within the very hour. You're piloted for live coverage here on CNN as it all happens before us. And I remember the capsule is coming back empty, uncrewed in NASA speak. And yes, you're going to bring it correctly. This is the same capsule that wasn't supposed to be uncrewed. It was supposed to have two astronauts coming back home in it, Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore. And they are staying put on the International Space Station. As you know, in fact, they'll be there until February. NASA made the decision to keep them there for their safety after lingering issues popped up with the capsule. NASA simply couldn't risk a disaster. Remember the astronauts got to space on starliner back in June. It was supposed to be quick eight days or so. But now it's going to be more like eight months in space. The return, though, is still a high pressure moment for both NASA and Boeing with frankly billions of dollars on the line. It's great to see an end space and defense correspondent, Kristen Fisher, who's at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Kristen, good evening. Take us what we're going to see as the starliner returns to Earth tonight. Laura, this is really the moment of truth for Boeing starliner. We're now just about 17 minutes away from the moment that NASA was so worried about, from the moment that really was at the center of NASA's reason to keep Bush and Sonny on the space station and not send them home on starliner. And the moment that I'm talking about is the deorbit burn and reentering the Earth's atmosphere. The deorbit burn is going to happen at 11/17 Eastern time. Essentially, this is a breaking maneuver. You're going to have four big rocket engines fire slowing the spacecraft down from orbital velocity at about 17,000 miles per hour. It's going to slow it down by about 300 miles per hour. And then what you're going to see, once it slows down enough to drop out of orbit, essentially, you're going to see the crew module and the service module separate two separate things. The service module is where all the problems have been with starliner. That's where the faulty thrusters are. That's where the helium leaks have been. It's going to fall away, burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. And that leaves the crew module, which is where Bush and Sonny would have been had NASA allowed them to come back on starliner. And so then at 11.45 p.m., you'll see reentry of the crew module. This is when the heat shield is really going to be tested. As this spacecraft endures temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, we may also get a communication blackout with starliner as the plasma builds up around the heat shield. That could last for about four minutes. Then at 11.56 p.m., we should see the parachutes deploy and slowly bring starliner back down to Earth. If all goes according to plan, it should touch down in White Sands, New Mexico, just a few moments after midnight, going from what had been 17,000 miles per hour, Laura, to just four miles per hour. And that is really going to be the big test, that moment. If starliner survives this really critical period, then Boeing can kind of look at NASA and say, "See, we told you so," because Boeing has believed that this spacecraft was safe enough for Bush and Sonny. But if by some chance heaven forbid something does go wrong here, then NASA of course will know that it did make the right decision. But even then, Laura, I should just caution by saying, you know, NASA says without a doubt, there is more risk here than they would like, more uncertainty surrounding this spacecraft. And so when you're dealing with NASA astronauts, NASA just says, "Hey, there was uncertainty, there was risk. Why risk it?" When we have another spacecraft, SpaceX's Crew Dragon that's tried and true, very tested at this point, and we could put Bush and Sonny on, even if it's, you know, many, many months away, Laura. And a poster child for airing on the side of caution to see what works. The precision of all of this, as you describe it, is so fast and we're going to watch and see what happens here. Kristen Fisher, stand by for us. We're going to check back in with you in a few minutes when they get ready to start moving towards that reentry phase that you just described. Well, in political news tonight, New York judge Juan Rochon postponing Donald Trump's sentencing for his Hashemani criminal conviction. Mind you, it's been rescheduled not once, but twice. In fact, this time, Trump and Frankly the rest of us are going to have to wait until after the November election to know what that sentence may be. Judge Rochon seemed eager to avoid any partisan backlash in the final stretch of this unprecedented presidential campaign, and stressing in his decision saying, quote, "The public's confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the way of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion." Want to bring in former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman and former Miami-Dade County court judge Jeff Swartz. So glad to have both of you on tonight. Look, Judge, I'll begin with you. Judges normally can turn with what they call hints of impropriety, right? A conflict of interest. They might know somebody, a litigator, otherwise. Now it seems that you got to worry about perceptions of political bias. Should they be thinking about this? Do you agree with his decision to factor that in? I don't agree with the decision to be very honest with you. A judge only has one constituency, and that's the law. It does not represent people. It doesn't have a part. They don't have parties. They're there to enforce the law and the rules against everybody the same. And my feeling is that his position should have been the delays in this sentencing, the delays in this case are by you, sir. They haven't been by the government. They haven't been by the state. You put yourself in this position, and now you're going to have to listen to the sentence. And if there are consequences, there are consequences that you created. I've been in that position before, where I had to make a decision against, in this particular case, a very powerful insurance company. You didn't like what I was doing, but I followed the law. In the end, it cost me my seat on the bench. But I left the bench with my head held high, and I didn't really care that much because I was that proud of what I had done. And I got treated by my colleagues completely differently than I really anticipated I would be in a good way. Wow. I can now have no sympathy for him. And I think that he should have called Trump out, not because he's Trump, but because he can't let anybody tell him how to run his courtroom because there's politics involved. That's my feeling. I mean, Harry, just thinking about what the judge has described in the analogy that he brought up. I mean, look at this split screen. You got Judge Shuttkin in the January 6 case saying to the court, I think it was just yesterday that the court, quote, "is not concerned with the electoral schedule," unquote. Can you reconcile why -- and these are obviously different judges, different jurisdictions, different cases, all that is quite apparent. Can you reconcile the way of thinking for Mershan versus, say, Chuttkin here? Well, look, Chuttkin, as she's done the entire time, said, no, I'm not thinking about the election. Mershan had the same stance through the trial. I and the judge actually sat close to one another during it. And this came as something of a surprise. And you could almost feel Mershan's kind of loneliness and going back and forth. One thing that he pointed out, and that really hit home to me and maybe to you, Laura, as a former prosecutor, is that the DA did not make any recommendation almost in a winking way, said, yes, go ahead and postpone it. It was a lonely decision on his part, of course, as the judge says. These things can be lonely, but it obviously got to him. And in a sense, it was both the safe route, but to my mind also, a little bit surprising. I thought the North Star that he has set his sights by throughout the trial as the same with Judge Chuttkin is just, you know, just do it normally as you would, friend and defendant, let the chips fall where they may ignore the election. What do you mean, in a kind of a winking way, obviously, the idea of a prosecutor not opposing a delay, you know, at any time the prosecution and the defense are on the same page about a scheduling issue, it does make it harder for a judge to go rogan away from that Judge Swartz. But I do wonder about that impact that Harry is speaking about, had the prosecution been pushing for an immediate sentencing and not suggesting that a delay may be appropriate for whatever reason, do you think that that may enforce the hand of Judge, of Judge, excuse him, or Sean? It should have actually worked in the opposite. I think the fact that the prosecution stayed out of it, did not, they did not want to be accused of creating a political issue for Judge, Michelle, have to deal with or be accused of using politics in this particular case. They left it up to him, they gave him the, they gave him faith. They believed in him and everything he had said during the course of the trial and basically said, we trust you with this decision. And I think to a certain extent, Judge, Michelle, and let them down, he has to be above the politics. That's the way I look at it. I was just going to say, excuse me, Your Honor, the idea that oftentimes in trial and Harry, of course, you can read this, the trial and the case belongs to the prosecution until there is a conviction, then it's in the hands of the jury, and then sentencing, the case belongs to the judge at that point, right, to decide all these factors. And so the waning influence as that goes down, but let me just put up on the screen for you guys. I think that the actual timeline of this case is particularly fascinating and where we are because it was moved not just once, but now twice when you've got in there, of course, the Supreme Court immunity ruling being a part of this as well, and just look at the original date, would have been July 11th. If you look at July 13th, that was the day of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump followed by the RNC that following Monday, just looking about this calendar all the way to November, I think gives some really interesting context for the people of the United States to see how this has been conducted so far, but we're still waiting on the big answer, Harry, right? Do you think that there is a chance for a sentence that would include jail and how would it be carried out, especially given the complications of a secret to protection and, of course, an election at the looming in November? Right. And as to that, let's just start with, if Trump is elected, even though he's, he can't pardon himself, I think the courts, the Supreme Court, if no other court would find a principle, you cannot put the sitting president in the United States in the pokey. They can't meet with Putin there, et cetera. But if he's not, I do think he's in hot water. It does, in some ways, release this burden that was obviously heavy on Mayor Chun's shoulders. And this is the kind of, it's a judgment call. Many of these convictions don't result in jail time, but Trump's conduct, remember he violated the gag order there over 10 times. He was a generally obstreperist defendant. My best guess, it's, you know, it's up to Mayor Chun. My best guess is he will see a short incursatory sentence for a couple months anyway. And then parole, you know, this as well as I asked as the judge, that's not, that's no picnic either to be under the jurisdiction of the court for a period of years. Judge Blake, would we have a very limited touch? If I could jump in. Yeah. What do you think the sentence would be? If I could jump in on one thing and it very simply is this, is that if he were to be sentenced, he's not going to jail right away. The sentence would be over by the time his appeal was over. So he's going to get a super serious bond. He's not going into jail right away. The difference is that the public would see the system working. They would see that he is a convicted felon. They would see that he is sentenced, not because it hurts him, but because the public has to know that the system is going to work against everyone if that's what they deserve. And in this particular case, Judge Mershan had those options available to him. Donald Trump is not going to go to jail the first day. That is not going to happen. Okay. So I don't think that's a concern for us right now. If he was sentenced right now, he'd be out campaigning the next day would not make a difference. Harry, Judge, thank you both so much. Really fascinating conversation. The politics of this is also very fascinating to talk about that soon, but just ahead, we are minutes away from the moment of truth for Boeing's Starliner as it appears to fire the thrusters for de-orbit. We'll go back to Johnson Space Center and see if Houston has a problem. Plus former VP Dick Cheney was a long time punching bag for Democrats. Well now he says that he's voting for a Democrat, her name, Kamala Harris. And tonight she is responding. They say opposites attract. That's why the sleep number smart bed is the best bed for couples. You can each choose what's right for you whenever you like. You like a bed that feels firm, but they want soft. Sleep number does that. You want to sleep cooler while they like to feel warm. Sleep number does that too. You have to feel it to believe it. Find the bed that's for both of you, only at a sleep number store. 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Now if the uncrewed Boeing Starliner is going to make it back to Earth safely, right now is critical. Starliner is connecting a maneuver called a D orbit burn, which slows the craft down. CNN's Kristen Fisher is back and she is at Johnson Space Center in Houston. This is very exciting to think about this happening. How is it going now, Kristen? So far so good, Laura, the D orbit burn has started and all the thrusters are firing as of now. And so when you think about the D orbit burn, think of it as a breaking maneuver. The spacecraft pumping on its brakes by firing four big thrusters called omax, the orbital maneuvering and attitude control rockets. Now this is critical because it needs to slow the spacecraft down. It's been traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. They've got to slow it down enough so that it can drop out of the orbit and descend into the Earth's atmosphere. We do know that there has been a slight issue from the time Starliner undocked until now. The thrusters that we're talking about for the D orbit burn are on the service module, Laura. That's a separate part from the crew module of Starliner, which is where Butch and Sunny would have been. And they were testing the thrusters on the crew module, which are needed after the service module and the crew module separate, which should happen in just about one minute if all goes according to plan. The thrusters, one of the thrusters on the crew module did not fire when they were testing it a little while ago. So something to watch for, NASA says that there's enough redundancy, there's enough backup thrusters that it should be okay, but still to have one of the thrusters not firing during that test after other thrusters were having so many issues on the service module as it was approaching the space station back in June. That's part of the reason why NASA said there's just too much uncertainty, there's just too much risk. We don't want to risk putting Butch and Sunny on Starliner. So really, as I've said before, Laura, this is the moment of truth for Starliner as it prepares to hit these really high temperatures on reentry. It really is. I can imagine what's happening in their version of a control room as we're trying to figure out. I think we're learning just now that NASA saying that that was a successful deorbiting, but that this is, as you mentioned, a concern thinking about the testing given that this would have been occupied by two astronauts as well. We'll be back, Kristen Fisher, in just a few moments as we get ready to see Starliner begin their official reentry as well. Now, back on Earth, the former president accepted the endorsement of the fraternal order of police today in the battleground state of North Carolina and also seized on the sentencing delay. Big news today is that the Manhattan D.A. witch hunt against me has been postponed because everyone realizes that there was no case because they did nothing wrong. It's a witch hunt. It's not what the judge said. And to be clear, Trump was found guilty of crimes by a unanimous jury of his peers, 34 counts of falsifying business records. Joining me now, former National Republicans and tutorial committee aide, Liam Donovan, senior flickler correspondent for Puck, Tara Palmeri, and Democratic strategist Amisha Cross. Good to see you all here, as we are also on the watch for Starliner to return. But here on Earth, we've got our own set of things that are quite foreign to most judicial systems. Politically, Liam, politically speaking, had the sentencing taken place before election day? I wonder, would it have helped Trump? You know, the salience would have been higher. I think a lot of this is kind of baked in. It is faded in terms of the consciousness of what people are thinking about voter wise. But I think you're right. It would have been some rocket fuel raising money as it did back when the first charges were prosecuted. So I think that sort of attention is something that would have shaken up the race in a way that would have been a distraction and I think shaken up the news cycle in a way that would have been unfavorable for Harris. It sounds backwards to say that sentencing would help him, but casting himself as a victim I think would be a change in the news cycle in a way that would be disruptive at a time when Trump needs to disrupt the news cycle. And of course, now it's still, I mean, he can talk about it, will not be in the rear view mirror by the election. But again, to remember, if the American public, this is not a part of the Department of Justice, that is part of obviously federal government, it's Judge Mershon in the state court proceeding. But, you know, Amisha, I want to go to you because in the surprise twist, former Vice President Dick Cheney is revealing that he is voting for Kamala Harris and he issued a statement saying that Trump, quote, "can never be trusted with power again." Now, Cheney, he was once reviled by Democrats for his part in the Iraq War, a CIA interrogation program among other policies as well. Is there a risk in embracing his endorsement for Democrats? >> I don't think so because his endorsement is not one that's going to, it's not going to be one to determine what Democrats actually do on election day. What his endorsement could do is showcase for Republicans who are Republican stalwarts. They are the Reagan Republicans. They are the Bush Republicans. They are the non-Maga Republicans that they too can join into the fold that doesn't change their conservatism. They can remain conservative and still want to protect our democracy and lead it to function. Unlike what we saw from Donald Trump, who if Project 2025 is to be believed and his work to undo the last election, just because he lost, I think that there is a lot at stake. What we see here is that Dick Cheney was willing to put aside his conservatism to say that, hey, there has to be a path forward. That path forward is not going to lie in Donald Trump. I think that that's more of a call out to Republicans to stand on that side than it is anything for Democrats. And as we saw at the DNC of all the Republicans who spoke, they are trying to help to build out that big tent for this election cycle. They're not saying that everybody who's joining who may be a conservative is all of a sudden going to change their stripe. What they are saying is that what is at stake is our democracy. And if you care about that, if you are a true patriot, then you are going to support the Harris Wall's ticket. There is that permission structure that's been developing. You're right, at least since the DNC. I wonder how the voters will take that. And Tara, former congresswoman, congresswoman Liz Cheney, she had a pretty scathing assessment of Trump and Senator JD Vance today, perhaps no surprise her opinion of at least the former. Take a listen. This is my diplomatic way of saying it. They're misogynistic pigs. I do think people really need to sit down and think through what would it mean to put this depraved human being in the most powerful office in the world and why that's a risk we can't take. Tell us how you really feel about it. I mean, she plans Tara to campaign against Trump in key battleground states. But I wonder, what do you think her influence would be among voters today? I think it helps if you're trying to win over those Nikki Haley voters. This election will likely come down to suburban men, actually men with college educated degree, latte dads, anti-dobs voters who often have daughters, men that may have voted for Trump in 2016, and then voted for Biden in 2020. And these are the men that Donald Trump is, in fact, trying to target through Gropods, through his messaging. But that, Tom O'Hara's also needs to win over. And so I think this idea that voting for Trump is a vote against women, which is essentially what Liz Cheney is arguing, it might have some appeal to these men who maybe are on the offensive selection, who will be the determiners of who win. So I think it helps with the Nikki Haley voters, it gives permission. And I think as many Republicans as Kamala Harris can win over, the better for her, right? I mean, she's an unknown figure right now. People are still trying to figure out who she is. So she gets some credentials, it makes her seem more moderate and maybe balances some of the comments she made in 2019 when she was against fracking for Medicare for all and decriminalization of border crossings. It makes her appear more moderate in the swing states that she needs to win. >> Familyam, do you see a world where Vice President Cheney's president, George W. Bush, whatever come forward? >> I'd be surprised. I mean, this is personal for the Cheney family. I think the former vice president's backing up his daughter. She's obviously very passionate about this. I'd be surprised if the former president actually got himself involved. But I think, terrible at an important point, which is it's not enough to be anti-Trump. If you think about the voters that decided the last two elections, it was the people that sat out and washed their hands of the choice in 2016, voted for Biden in 2020. And Harris's fundamental choice, she needs to reassemble that Biden coalition. A lot of those people had buyer's remorse after they pulled that Democratic lever. These were the double haters. I think they have another fresh look at Harris. And having that permission structure that you mentioned, Laura, is important. And these are people that are familiar with Bush or with Vice President Cheney. They're not necessarily considering themselves Republicans now. And over Liz Cheney lost a Republican primary by 40 points just two years ago. But this is important to those, let's call them Romney voters, Bush Cheney voters. And they're going to be important at the margin in key states. >> You're nodding along on that point, Tara, you agree? >> Yeah, I absolutely agree. I mean, these are the voters that are up for grabs right now. And Kamala Harris needs to be talking to them if she wants to win this election, particularly in Pennsylvania. It's a kind of winner takes all state, 19 electoral college votes. And that's a state that the Trump team is very bullish on. And they believe they can win over these men who are on the fence right now. They believe they can win over those men who voted for Biden who may be Republicans. And let's not forget that in 2020 Trump won lost, sorry, 10% of men in Georgia. They're those Romney Republicans. They're those Brian Kemp Republicans, doesn't help Trump that he attacks. Brian Kemp, the very popular governor of Georgia. But those are the men who are up for grabs right now. And those are the men they're targeting. And so Kamala can in any way have a way to speak to them. And through the Chinese or through any other Republican figures who are willing to come out like Adam Kinzinger, I think that's a huge boon for her. >> I mean, she should lean into it. >> Really quick, I know we have very limited time, Amisha. But do you see this as in any way problematic for some of the more liberal or progressive Democrats to have these sort of strange bedfellows? Or will it only be added up to the campaign? >> I think we're definitely going to hear from them. There is no, they have been very vocal over the years about the the Cheney legacy, about the Bush legacy. And I think that coming out of that, you're definitely going to hear from them. But I don't think that it is going to be as forceful just because there is a recognition that everything is at stake this election cycle. And that when you expand the tent, we know that that also means that there are going to be some people that you may not agree with everything on. That's part of what this campaign has done. The Harris Walls campaign is expanding that tent. They are representative of all of America. Donald Trump's is not. And I think that with that being said, there has to be an understanding that there are going to be some people there that are considered strange bedfellows. But we're all coming together to ensure that our democracy stands. >> Really interesting to see how this is going to go down. Thank you so much, everyone. Well, we're about 15 minutes or so away from seeing Boeing's Starliner capsule start its reentry. We'll go as planned. Former astronauts are going to join our coverage for the big moment. But first, the suspect in the Georgia high school shooting along with his own father are in the court today for the first time. Ahead, the mother of a Parkland victim is here to respond and explain how the silent alert system that was used in Georgia can help save lives all across this nation. The families are victims in the Georgia high school shooting looking on as the 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, appeared in court for the very first time. His father, Colin Gray, showing up in the same courtroom less than an hour later. Now, he is facing up to 180 years in prison. The charges against him include four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each person, his son killed. Faculty are saying those numbers, they could have been a lot higher if not for the silent panic button system, the one that alerted police to the horror happening inside the school. You know, it was implemented just one week before the shooting. And it's got many people asking, why isn't this same technology everywhere? Well, it turns out there is an effort to get it into public schools all across this country. You know, several states have now passed legislation that is known as Alyssa's Law. It's named after Alyssa Ahadeff. She was just 14 when she was killed in the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Her mother, Lori, has been pushing to get the law passed nationwide. Lori joins me now. Lori, thank you so much for being here with us and for the advocacy that you have been involved in. Thank you. On behalf of mothers, parents, students, humans everywhere, I want to ask you about the charges against the father in Georgia. It's just the second time that a parent has been charged in connection to a mass shooting by a minor. Do you think we are seeing a shift in America where parents are being held responsible as well? I do think we are seeing that shift. I do think absolutely parents need to be held responsible. If their child gets a gun and goes in and goes in to shoot up a school, parents need to be accountable for their child and their actions and their behavior. I mean, police in Georgia are praising the silent alarm to submit. They say that that saved so many lives. It's not law there in Georgia yet, but you've been pushing for this kind of technology to be implemented all across the nation. Could you explain how these alarms actually work? Sure. So if there was a panic button like this used, so in a medical emergency, the button is pushed three times. In an active shooter situation, it's pushed eight times or more. And so this was the panic button the teachers were wearing around their neck that was used at Appalachian High School and honestly, definitely saved lives. And we passed the list as law now in seven states and our goal is to pass the list as law nationwide as a standard level of school safety protection in every school across this country. I mean, we're seeing, as you mentioned, seven states, we're looking at a map right now as you and I are conversing right now. And again, it's named after your beloved daughter. And it is big concern in several others. Do you think what happened in Georgia, frankly, is further support that it should be adopted everywhere? And is there a hurdle as to why it's not? So we need to have mass notification in these life threatening emergency situations. Time equals life and we need to get help on the scene as quickly as possible. So once that panic button is pushed, law enforcement can pull up the cameras, get eyes on the scene. It's a geo-fenced area. So the school resource officer can go and take down the threat and save lives. And so the thing that it has to go through the legislative process and also there needs to be funding allocated for it. But I believe truly that we can definitely fund this and pass this in every state. Just like we do in our banks, we have panic buttons. Our schools need to have panic buttons too and have that layer of safety protection. I mean, just thinking about the lives it's saved in this instance alone, there was a spokesperson for the company that Appalachia High School used, says that it costs $8,000 per school per year. Now that would be roughly around $18 million a year to cover all Georgia public schools. What do you say to people who may have concerns about the cost involved? So there's other ways to roll out a panic button. It could be an app-based panic button, which is about $2,000 per school per year. But you know, it depends on the school district and it depends on, you know, what best meets the needs of that school district. So it might be the app, it might be a wearable, or it might be both. And so we just want to have that layered approach to help protect our schools. And if a school shooting happens, we can get help there as quickly as possible. I mean, just thinking about trying to put a price on the life of the loved ones, it's for so many people, they're grappling with this issue of what funding is used and the fact that there has to be something like this in schools. And just the human toll that it's taking, emotionally as a nation and beyond. Laurie Ahadif, thank you so much, and thank you for sharing Alyssa with the world. I appreciate it. Laurie Ahadif. Thank you. Laurie Ahadif. Well, we are moments away now from Boeing's Starliner re-entering Earth's atmosphere. We'll go back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston next. On set with from HGTV and Max takes you behind the scenes of the most iconic on-screen worlds with the people who made them real. On the production design. Director of photography. Custom design. Director. Find out how these spaces that live rent-free in our minds came to be, and provide the perfect backdrop for our favorite TV shows like Friends, True Detective, and more. Listen to On Set With on Max or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, this is it. We're going full Starliner from here on out. The unmanned Boeing spacecraft is set to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere just moments from right now. We have an all-star team to help walk us through all of it. CNN's Kristen Fisher is back with us. She's at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. We're joined by two former NASA astronauts, Garrett Reisman and Katie Coleman. And Eric Berger is also here. He is the senior space editor at Ars Technica. I'm so glad you're all here at this moment. Kristen, this is another big moment in the re-entry. What are we looking for now? So right now, the Starliner capsule is re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and hitting the highest temperatures that it is going to experience on re-entry, temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In a few minutes, we're going to see a communications blackout between the ground and Starliner for about 4 minutes due to all the plasma, the really hot plasma that builds up due to friction from the Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. So this is, without a doubt, a very critical moment for Starliner. It's the moment that the capsule's heat shield is finally put to the test. But, you know, Laura, the other really big test that NASA in particular was so concerned about, Starliner has already passed the flying colors and that was the de-orbit burn. You know, NASA was really worried that some of those, all those issues with the thrusters and the helium leaks might cause some problems with Starliner during the de-orbit burn, which is essentially when those thrusters have to fire to perform a braking maneuver and slow the spacecraft down so that it can drop out of orbit and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. And so since Starliner had issues with thrusters and helium leaks, they were worried at that moment that it may cause problems during the de-orbit burn. Now, everything performed really, really well during the de-orbit burn and now we're entering into that other critical moment. So we should be entering that comms blackout pretty soon and then, Laura, if all goes according to plan, we'll see the drogue parachutes deploy, then the big main parachutes deploy and hopefully a very smooth landing just after midnight Eastern time in White Sands, New Mexico. If all goes according to plan, Laura, it should, I mean, very gently touch down at a breezy four miles per hour thanks to those parachutes and thanks to some airbags that are underneath or will be underneath Starliner to really make sure it has a nice landing. So, so far, Boeing has to be very happy by what they're seeing right now, Laura. I mean, Katie, what are you looking for knowing that this de-orbit burn has been successful as Krista has laid out for us what to expect? What will you be looking for during this reentry into Earth's atmosphere? Well, I'm just hoping that and watching all of the different ways to slow the spacecraft down because you have to eat, there's no crew inside, but this is the dress rehearsal for when there is crew inside. So just thinking about temperatures, what will the temperature be inside and what are the, what's the reaction of the spacecraft when those parachutes come out. And I remember in the Soyuz, it was, it was a pretty big opening shock like within the capsule was spinning and so looking at the stability of the capsule, things like that. So what could go wrong in terms of the parachuting or the slowing down process without that crew inside if there is like an override system that a crew could actually use that obviously an unmanned space craft could not? So one thing I know about is that when they do land, the crew could actually, and actually does manually release the parachute and that will be done by the ground in this case. But on the way down, those things are pretty set. Garrett, we bring you in here. Do you think that NASA made the right call leaving Butch and Sunny, I mean on the International Space Station and bringing the Starliner back without them in it? Laurie, yes I do, I think they did make the right call in this circumstance. I think all those NASA engineers that made the call, if you ask them to wager on what would happen right now, they would have bet that we would have what we're seeing here, which is a fairly successful entry so far. They just weren't ready to bet somebody's life on it because of the uncertainty, the fact that they didn't know exactly what was wrong with it. And so I think given that, they made the right call and so far so good, but it's not been perfect. We've had another thruster failure. This one is one of the 12 thrusters on a descent module. They have 11 more, they have redundancy, it'll be okay if no more fail. But if Butch and Sunny were sitting in there right now, I would have a pretty high pucker factor to be honest with you. Well, talk about those thrusters though, because so what role are they playing specifically and is there a critical number that would have to fail for the redundancy to no longer matter? So, I could tell you that what the thrusters do is they point the spacecraft, which is really important. So it's like you're steering wheel on your car and if that doesn't work and you can't control where the car is pointing, bad things happen, right? So there were 28 thrusters on the service module and that's been the focus of really all the scrutiny over the past couple months. And of those 28, five of them failed. One of them failed so bad that they didn't try to even bring it back and they're coming home with 27, but they actually performed very well all the way through the D-orbit burn and that was really the focus of the scrutiny. But however, once you throw those away, which they did right after the D-orbit burn, then you're dependent on the remaining 12 thrusters, 12 different thrusters that are on the capsule itself and one of those has failed and I don't know, they have two systems of six. So presumably if they have more fail on the same unit, they can swap to the backup. But I don't know exactly how many they can stand to lose. >> Wow, just thinking about the mechanics is really, really fascinating to think about Eric, can we bring you in? A lot of the talks surrounding this particular mission in part about the two astronauts were no longer on it, but it's also been about the relationship between Boeing and NASA. Things have gotten a little tense between the two in a kind of space race. Can you tell me a little bit about why? >> Yeah, I mean, Boeing has been very confident in the safety of its spacecraft. And they view them as the owner of the vehicle and NASA is the customer, and so they feel like in this space they just need to follow their lead when their engineers say that this spacecraft is safe. And the reality is Boeing feels like they provided all of the data to NASA that they needed. But at the end of the day, NASA is the customer, they're essentially the regulator and their engineers looked at it and said, no, we don't feel comfortable putting our people at us. That's a pretty stinging review, I think, to following and really some of the attention involved there. >> And we're looking right now at a live shot while you and I are speaking. This is a live image right now and feed of Boeing Starliner entering the Earth's atmosphere as you are seeing it being identified. Really interesting to look at what's going on there as we are watching this and wondering whether all that we have described, whether the parachutes eventually, the ability to steer with the different thrusters and beyond to land safely as expected, what will happen now and it's becoming bigger as it's coming clear interview and obviously closer and closer as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. Kristen, can you describe a little bit about what you're seeing right now for us? What are you looking at with your mind? >> So what you're seeing right now is Starliner right after it started re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, we're coming out of this blackout period where Starliner just encountered some of the hottest temperatures that it's going to experience on re-entry and you're seeing it kind of streak across the sky and that's a view that was taken from a NASA aircraft. It's going to be coming up the South Pacific Ocean then crossing over the northern port point of Baja, Mexico, before crossing into a very remote stretch of New Mexico before landing in White Sands, New Mexico just after midnight and some of the other shots we've been looking at in case you've been wondering, all those shots of helicopters and trucks in the desert, that's a staging area for the recovery crews that have to rush out once the capsule lands and they're going to be performing a variety of checks on the spacecraft once it lands. But you know, Laura, just to put this all in perspective, we're learning as well that we are seeing right now, it's in the Earth's atmosphere and they are able to see Starliner from the ground now. Katie, talk to me about what it is you're seeing right now and the fact that it is now visible from the ground. >> Well, I think it's pretty exciting to folks, you know, across the Baja Peninsula and Mexico. And you know, I think it's pretty amazing when you realize that there's really, there's going to be the next time this goes, that there would be people on board. And so I think the fact that you can see it just makes it that much more tangible, but they've still got a ways to go, I mean, in about what, well, right now we're looking for dropshoots, I believe. >> Yeah, I mean, Garrett, we're about, yeah, I think we're about six minutes away from being able to land and as Kristen has described, Garrett, we're expecting there to be a communication blackout at some point in time. Is that going to be happening in this moment? It's happening now? Why is that communication blackout happening? And what could be going on? >> Well, as the vehicle goes through that period of peak heating, it's inside a giant ball of plasma, which is just ionized gas and it's super hot, like about 3,000 degrees. So it doesn't really matter if I'm talking about Fahrenheit or Celsius, right? And we're talking 3,000, it's a lot, okay, it's really hot. And so even radio signals can't penetrate that and that's why you have this calm blackout for a period of time. However, it'll come through that, it'll get through that period of peak heating, which for a capsule design like this is actually a relatively short period of time. And then once it's lower in the atmosphere, then you get the parachutes that come out and then the airbags, deploys, you jettison some heat shields and it comes down out to the ground. It's worthy of noting that Boeing has done this several times already successfully with this vehicle. They had two other flight tests where they successfully did open up the parachutes and land in the in white sands. >> What we're seeing right now too, Garrett, I mean, there's a big light, it's a strobe light that's visible, that's on so that it's easier for us to see it from the ground and obviously the, those who are meeting it, it's about 12 miles, I understand, and five minutes from landing. >> That's right. And what you're seeing there is, you're seeing, it looks like now we're having some >> What are we, what are we seeing? >> Those are the drogue chutes, the first two parachutes, excuse me one second, let's say. >> Now deployed, they slow the vehicle down, initially until it gets to a safe speed for the enormous main parachutes to follow. >> We're hearing for NASA feed intermittently as we're watching it descend quickly to the ground as well, the parachutes have been deployed. >> No, no, no, no, no. >> NASA saying about four minutes to go until touchdown, we see the countdown there, Katie, there is two parachutes visible. >> Now I have two of you from the Cessna aircraft in the vicinity of the landing site, again, this is a view from a little lower than the WB57 we were seeing. >> So this is the initial shoots and now we're waiting for the main shoots. >> The next thing we're going to see here is the three main parachutes come out and everything will happen pretty quickly from that point on. >> After those mains are out, we'll see the bottom heat shield that has been protecting a star liner through its journey through the atmosphere, come off, that makes way for the landing airbags to deploy. >> And there's the main parachutes there on your screen. We see three out, currently reefing. The recovery teams report that they heard the booms. >> As those came in, three good mains fully open there. >> You can see star liner in a slight tilt, so we're going to see the rotation handle, move here shortly, and it will level out star liner. >> But three good parachutes looking great. Just a little over two minutes until the expected landing time and we heard the rotational handle has been released, so you can see that tilt evened out. >> Next up is the back heat shield jettison. >> And there it goes. [BLANK_AUDIO]
