to liftoff for nasa s return to the moon and harry s smith on the end of the road for two american classics this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening over 93 million covid cases in today came a stunning admission from the head of the cdc. in our big moment our performance did not reliably meet expectations. with her agency still confronting not just the pandemic but evolving threats including monkeypox and a troubling reappearance of polio, cdc director dr. rochelle walensky acknowledging the cdc s poor messaging and at times confusing guidance all this as she kicks off a sweeping overhaul of the agency including a bid to arm it with new powers the reckoning coming on the heels of an internal review of the cdc. the immediate challenges couldn t be anymore urgent as demand grows for monkeypox vaccine doses, as well as experts monitoring the awakening of a dangerous disease long thought to have been defeated i get reaction from the white house covid resp
preparation for their missions to the moon. they need to replicate what it is like on the south pole of the moon, where the sun is very low, right in your eyesight, but everywhere else is pitch black. nasa believes, there is water ice on the south pole. a possible source of drinking water, and rocket fuel. but, as colder, with less sunlight, lisa shore is the deputy chief of the pool lab. you will have this dusk lighting, and behind any large rock, or things like that, you will have a long shadow where we ll be pitch black. certainly, it s easier to drive when you are in the sunlight. absolutely. those shadows are so long. already, astronauts are using simulators to practice driving a rover on the moon. so, astronauts need to learn how to drive a rover, without going into one of these holes, and craters. exactly. you, very often, don t know how deep these creators are. it is difficult to tell how big these rocks are, with 18 inches
their missions to the moon reporter: lisa shore is the deputy chief of the pool lab. are you taking those lessons from 50 years ago and applying it to the pool here? we re absolutely doing that every time somebody gets in that spacesuit and on the bottom of the pool climbing ladders we learn something new, where the suit works, where the doesn t, where communication works, where it doesn t reporter: even practice planting the american flag. new technology and a new space race as china promises that soon its own astronauts will also be on the moon tom costello, nbc news, houston. pretty exciting stuff going on at nasa up next, time capsules on the road why two of detroit s famed muscle cars are being driven into history. why two of detroit famed muscle cars are being driven into history. or active psoriatics and. take. it. on. with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue. it can stop