minutes. it is being followed all the way on its journey, which has been 300 million miles and 6 1/2 months by two satellites marco a and marco b. they have been transmitting back the information and have just confirmed, as you heard there from the exciting mission control room, that it has indeed landed. we re in a room with a lot of media and lot of what i would describe as space geeks. all extremely excited that this has happened successfully. this was the riskiest part of this mission. it began a long time ago in the minds of these nasa scientists dreaming up this mission. one scientist told us he had been working on it for 40 years. he got the vision for this mission. then it s been a long juourney o get here. took off may 5th of this year from here in california. and as i say, has traveled some 300 million miles.
this is a $90 million, we believe, 90 mi$90 million missi. this is not a public company so he doesn t disclose all this. that s a fraction of what it normally cost to put satellites into orbit. why is it cheaper? you got right to the point. because they can reuse these rockets. instead of letting them fall into the ocean, they re able to bring them right back down, land them right here at cape canaveral and then they land one out at a platform out on the ocean. if they can do that successfully, they can reuse these rockets and that cuts their costs dramatically. this is a win-win technologywise. can i just give you one more oh cool factor? when they come back down to earth, they will have the sonic booms associated with them. two of them per rocket. so we could have six sonic booms as these three rockets come back down to earth. a lot of people here who are space geeks say this is really going to be something special.
all right, for the first time ever, astronomers confirm making visual contact with a visitor from beyond our solar system. take a look at amua-mua. loosely translated, that s hawaiian for messenger who reaches out from a distant past. astronomers who first spotted it through a telescope from maui first thought it was an asteroid from our solar system, but they quickly found it came from interstellar space. it s roughly the size of a football field, and for you space geeks, its hue is similar to those objects found in the kuiper belt in and outer part of our solar system, but its orbit and shape quickly placed in the category of interstellar origin. i wish we had creepy space music underneath that. president trump expected to wield his pardon power without controversy today. at a rose garden ceremony, he will pardon two turkeys, drumstick and wishbone. this video shows the turkeys
the crew talked to the pope about that so-called overview effect, the fact that there are no borders or conflicts visible from space. just one world. and while they see lightning and hurricanes and wildfires and dust storms and northern lights, they see only peace on earth. and there s always a view of earth out their window. and by the way, this calls for a reminder. as space geeks already know, anyone can sign up for text alerts from nasa by entering your zip code here on earth, your phone, they ll let you know when the space station is making its next pass over your area. brightly making its way across the night sky, moving from horizon to horizon in just seconds. it is instantly visible to the naked eye. and on a cloudless night, it s a sight to behold. so that is our broadcast for tonight here on earth. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from all of us at nbc news headquarters here in new
from a makeshift papal studio today, pope francis spent time chatting and interviewing with the crew. as you heard it got profound in a hurry, with questions about our place in the universe. the crew talked to the pope about that so-called overview effect, the fact that there are no borders or conflicts visible from space. just one world. and while they see lightning and hurricanes and wildfires and dust storms and northern lights, they see only peace on earth. and there is always a view of earth out their window. and by the way, this calls for a reminder, as space geeks already know anyone can sign up for text alerts from nasa, by entering your zip code here on earth from your phone they will let you know when the space station is making its next pass over your area brightly making its way from the night sky moving from horizon to horizon in just seconds. it is instantly visible to the