on top of all of that, many texasans are dealing with burst pipes, a gas shortage, and stores running out of food and bottled water. >> i've got down all of the blankets out of the attic that, like, for everything extra blanket we had and we piled on the couch and slept on the couch and depended on body heat. and that's probably what we'll do tonight. >> i'm out of candles. can't charge batteries. we've got flash lights. w we can't recharge the batteries. there's no propane to be found. there is none in the area. >> no water. and i have a 7-year-old, and it's tough. >> i don't think any of us was expecting this. so, it's all about survival right now until they can restore getting warm. >> we have a dog, baby, a cat all in our bed. >> you're angry, you're cold. you just want to cry because you're, like, so frustrated. it's awful. >> story after story here. and on top of it all the winter storm is also impacting the covid-19 vaccination effort. 19 states have been forced to cancel or postpone appointments. and as texas faces one of the worst crises in its history, it picture, senator ted cruz of texas packed up his family and flew to a sunnier and warmer locale, cancun, mexico. these pictures were posted all over twitter. cruz's office has now responded that -- actually, excuse me, requested that a houston police department assist the senator during his departure in houston, an already strapped police department. but the senator has now issued this statement seemingly blaming his kids. let me read part of this for you. he says with school canceled for the week our girls asked to take a trip with friends wanting to be a good dad, i flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. we will get a texas congressman to address that momentarily. but first let's go straight to ed lavandera. he's been all over this in texas. ed, what's the story? is it improving at all? >> reporter: well, we're actually seeing dramatic improvements. last night when we were finishing up our reporting, there were about 1.8 million households across the state that still didn't have electrical power. i just checked. that number is down to about 417,000 households across the state that are still without power. so, obviously a great deal of movement and dramatic change here in less than the last 24 hours. however, it is still going to take some time. state power grid officials say that the majority of -- or what appears to be one of the bigger problems for the remaining people without power is that it could be damage to powerlines that crews have to go out into the field and repair that it's not necessarily a power generation issue at this point or it's getting more into that area. so, that is going to take some time to be able to get the crews out into the field where they need to be. and one of the most significantly hard-hit areas that remains off the grid is the central texas area out into the hill country around austin. so, an area with large trees, live oaks with leaves. and you can imagine the weight of the ice on those trees break. and that's what causes the damage to the powerlines. but we've also learned, brooke, just how dangerously close the entire power grid system, and you alluded to this just a moment ago. but we heard yesterday from a texas democratic congressman of the fort worth area who told me that he had been told that the power grid system wasn't just -- was seconds away from a total blackout collapse across the state. and that has been at the center of the political finger-pointing that has been going on throughout the week here in texas. ercot officials, that's the state power grid agency, they confirmed the details of that story this morning in a conference call with reporters. and they say what they did was to prevent a catastrophic failure that would have taken perhaps months to repair had they not did what they did early monday morning, shutting down so much power to millions of people. >> and i know people at home are thinking, wait, this wasn't already a catastrophic failure? but i'm hearing from you this could have been much worse. ed lavandera, thank you so much to your crew there and dallas. with me now congressman lloyd, his district spans from san antonio to austin. i see you bundled up there, sir. congressman, thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you very much for the coverage of this disaster that you provided. >> of course. it is what we need to be doing day in and day out until this thing gets fixed. i know that your power has been out since monday 2:00 a.m. how are you doing? and it's my understanding your daughter actually had to rescue you. >> well, i've been very fortunate. yes, we did have a sudden power outage. finally it's been restored a few hours ago. but as you can see from my attire, it's still a little cool inside. but we've been so much more fortunate than the people who have been calling our office. the number of people that are suffering out there is tremendous. our state government has failed us. our local leaders, our mayors, our county judges, just as they did with the covid epidemic, they're working overtime to try to make up the difference. and now texas, with state leaders that are always attacking the federal government, are relying on assistance from the federal government that we're calling for to try to bail them out of a situation that should never have occurred, that could have been prevented and adequate notice provided but they just did not do that. >> i want to come back to your point on failure in just a second. but i really want to highlight people's stories. i know you're talking to your constituents. as you mentioned, pipes are bursting, there was this boil water advisory for people who were lucky enough to have water. i was sitting here in new york just to be fortunate enough to be sitting in my dentist appointment reading about how people in texas are learning how to boil snow safely. like, this is where you are right now. what are some of the stories you're hearing? >> well, the stories that have concerned me the most have come from those with disabilities or seniors with medical problems, reliance on oxygen, not being able to get the help that they needed. we have moved very much from an energy problem, an electric problem, to a water problem now. and -- >> what do you mean by that specifically? flooding? >> no, the same daughter who did rescue me who lives only a short distance away now has no water at all. more significantly, the lack of water pressure affects the ability of our firefighters to sp respond. and it affects hospital heating systems. so that one area of a hospital already evacuated some of its patients. others have called on us to get tanker trucks to provide the water that leads to the steam that allows for the heating of our hospitals. all over, there is an issue now that there are boil your water alerts from san antonio and every community right on up to the north end of austin. there's a question of where people will get the water they need for drinking, for everyday needs. there is not an ample bottle water supply here. so folks are trying to get by as best they can. >> you know, i was talking to an energy expert who was also in a lot of layers yesterday talking to me from texas. and he was saying to me, because i think a lot of people are thinking, well, why is texas getting the brunt of this? and he was saying, brooke, there is an east power grid, there's a west power grid and there's a texas power grid. part of the texas ethos essentially is that pioneering spirit. it's that we can handle it ourselves. but in this case, because you all have your own grid, you can't lean on your neighbors for help. and i'm just wondering, you know, when this storm ends and you have still all these problems between water, food distribution, et cetera, what needs to happen? you pointed to state leaders who failed. what needs to happen so this never happens again? >> the response of our governor instead of addressing people to explain the situation, the dire circumstances we were in, was to go on the broadcast of one of president trump's cheer leaders and use the opportunity to attack renewable energy. >> wheich we know is factually incorrect. >> indeed just within the last few hours, ercot, the energy reliability council of texas, which is that independent grid, said the reason they were able to restore more power to people here within the last few hours, perhaps to my house as well, is because of solar power. solar, wind, of which texas is the number one producer, have contributed greatly to our success. and the attempt of republican officials, particularly the governor and some of my congressional colleagues to attack renewables and just continue to spout out their fossilized thinking that we can rely solely on fossil fuels is a serious blunder and a misdirection. what we need is cooperation across our country to address the climate crisis. and that's what they're refusing to do, to follow the science and know that this is not the last crisis we will face. >> right. >> if we do not get a better handle on it. >> speaking of serious blunders, and i'm not going to put words in your mouth. i truly want to hear your response to all of this. you're a colleague on the other side of the aisle in the senate, texas senator ted cruz, has confirmed that, yes, he did up and leave his home, his constituents to take this trip to cancun with his family after repeated attempts, the senator has finally issued this statement. let me just read everyone part of it. he says with school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. wanted to be a good dad, i flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. my staff and i are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in texas. we want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. my team and i will continue using all our resources to keep texans informed and safe. congressman, what would you like to say to ted cruz? >> well, i think the most important thing is to be a good senator. and it's disappointing. it really sends out a message that there's one standard for the jetsetters and one standard for the rest of us. i think he really fails to recognize how much people are suffering, what a failure has occurred here under our republican state government, and the need for everybody to pitch in and do all they can to get people the water and the electricity that they desperately need. >> congressman lloyd doggett, thank you so much sir. stay as was rm as you can. this brutal weather is wreaking havoc on vaccination efforts. now, dr. fauci says the u.s. will have to work double time just to make up for all these massive delays. plus, president biden is unveiling a sweeping immigration reform bill that creates a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. we have those details ahead. and, get excited, a live look at nasa mission control in california as the world waits for the landing of this perseverance rover. that's the name of it, on the red planet on mars in mere minutes. it's happening a little later this hour. we've got it live for you, talking to an astronaut. stay with me. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. you don't trust me here in vegas, do you? 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(laughs) get more from your neighborhood. doordash. it's time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. get more from your neighborhood. you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but, can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. will it help me come out swinging? you got this. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise... prove. and now, during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time. welcome back. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. another round of winter storms is threatening to further disrupt the distribution of covid vaccines. dr. anthony fauci is now saying the u.s. is going to need to work double time just to make up for delays caused by severe weather. dr. fauci isn't sure just how much of the nation's vaccine rollout has been impacted but says in some places it has come to a, and a quote, grinding halt. cnn's alexandra field is live in a snowy new york. alex, how badly is that weather disrupting vaccination efforts? >> brooke, we're talking about problems on top of problems. in some places the weather is stopping people from being able to go get the shots. in other places it's stopping sites from being able to administer shots. but really the picture that we're seeing nationwide is the shipping delays. they are causing shortages being felt right here in new york city when they've had to close down some sites, delay other sites from opening. and here in brooklyn they're prioritizing only giving out second doses. progress towards getting more shots in arms derailed by severe weather across the country. storms crippling efforts to keep vaccines moving. the delays could last as long as two weeks. >> the challenge we have right now is that there's about 22 million americans who have received their first dose waiting for their second dose. >> reporter: supplies are running dry from new york all the way to idaho where only a limited number of pfizer doses arrived this week. same goes for washington state. major problems stemming from storms affecting fedex hub in memphis and the ups hub in louisville. ups says that hub is up and running again after shutting down for the first time in its history. fedex says it's prioritizing vaccine delivery. but weather is still affecting most of the network. in texas, a cold weather crisis creating an avalanche of problems. >> we even had a facility lose power. so we have to figure out -- a public health facility lose power. so we had to figure out how to distribute and salvage those vaccines which we were able to do. >> reporter: the city of houston left with no choice but to shut down vaccine clinics. >> the biggest challenge we had up until the cold weather was not enough vaccine to begin with. >> reporter: a brutal storm leaving us more vulnerable while many americans are at their most vulnerable. new variants from virus are fueling concerns about another surge. >> the continued spread of variants that are more transmissible could jeopardize the progress we have made in the last month if we let our guard down. >> reporter: doctor anthony fauci says part of our best defense against those new variants is administering more of those critical vaccines. >> you have a vaccine that works against this variant. >> reporter: the new england squournl of medicine showing that the pfizer and moderna vaccines are highly effective against the variant that originated in the uk, and still effective against the variant first found in south africa but with less antibody protection. the country is posting its lowest numbers on new covid cases in months. the average now just over 77,000 cases a day. hospitalizations now as low as they've been since early november. deaths are declining, but still averaging more than 2,000 a day. the lasting toll of the virus that leaves a permanent scar on us all. the cdc now reports that in the first half of 2020, average american life expectancy fell by more than a year. the biggest decline since world war ii. and, brooke, within that shortened life expectancy, a widening gap, life expectancy for black americans falling three times what it did for white americans. and, brooke, don't forget we are only seeing data from the firsl just the broader look at everything and where we need to really focus our attention. thank you. a sweeping immigration bill from the white house lands on capitol hill, but there are still multiple obstacles. ahead, we'll talk about that. also senate minority leader mitch mcconnell has a new plan to deal with former president donald trump. two words, ignore him. how is that going to go? 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(laughs) we created virtual wallet® to help people save and spend smarter. easily see the big picture of your finances... ...and set up alerts to help avoid overdrafts. you see that? virtual wallet® for digital banking. one way we're helping to make a difference at pnc bank. major moves on the immigration front today. congressional democrats following president joe biden's lead unveiled a new sweeping bill that clears a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are currently living right here in the united states. let's go to the white house and our senior white house correspondent phil mattingly is with me. walk us through the bill. >> this is a democratic bill from capitol hill that really tracks with what president biden outlined in his first day in office lining up very closely to what the white house wants. and it is really the most sweeping immigration proposal if it were signed into law in more than three decades. the cornerstone of that proposal is an eight-year window for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country to have a pathway to citizenship. there also would be a surge in funding for immigration judges, about $4 billion for those northern triangle countries that have faced so many difficulties and have led to such a surge in immigration across the border over the course of the last several years. you also have elements that would involve technology and border security not to the extent that we've seen in past proposals. obviously this is a key area that republicans often lock onto. and there would also be a significant increase in diversity visas as well. i think the big picture right now is here at the white house, they know that this is a long road ahead, and there are significant hurdles to get bipartisan support. if you think back, brooke, over the course of just the last 15 years, the number of times that the possibility of immigration reform seemed to be right on the brink and then was snatched from the jaws of victory multiple times over and over again, and i think people here in particular many of them were experienced with 2005, with 2013, some of them during the trump administration as well. so they understand the reality here, particularly if they need to get the republican support, at least ten republicans in the u.s. senate. but what this means is a couple things. one, the president made clear during this campaign this was a key priority for him, backing that up by backing this bill today. and also that they understand this is going to be a process. and they wanted to put something on the cable both in the first day and office and now with democrats on capitol hill that can at least start the conversation. this isn't going to happen fast. this will take time, if it happens at all. but democrats and here at the white house believe that they now have something on the table, let the talks begin in the hopes that it could lead to something at some point over the course of the next year, brooke. >> try, try again. we'll see if they can pull it off this time. phil, thank you. now that the republican party where we see senate minority leader mitch mcconnell adopting to, shall we say, a new approach to president donald trump. ignore, ignore, ignore. instead we are hearing that he will reportedly focus solely on winning back the senate majority. it is certainly a gamble as more and more gop lawmakers weigh whether they can win in 2022 without staying aligned with former president trump. cnn chief political analyst gloria borger is with me now. and, gloria, i know that you have some scoop on this. cnn learned that senator mcconnell basically when he read that, read to me is just a really long tweet, that statement from trump that he laughed, right? but this rift has very real implications including, as i mentioned, the republican fight to take back the senate in two years. what do you know about that? >> well, according to a source familiar with mcconnell's thinking, i've been told that, look, it's all about getting back control of the senate and that i was told, and here's a quote, if the animating question is whether we need more trump, that's not going to work. so, what mcconnell is saying is, what mcconnell is saying it, and i was told this, that, quote, he's not going to bend the knee and go visit donald trump at mar-a-lago. nor does he intend to talk to him. nor does he intend to talk about him. there will be times that perhaps they'll end up endorsing the same candidate because they agree that the same candidate will help mcconnell and the republicans win back control of the senate. but if they don't, mcconnell is going to go his own way, and he's had it with donald trump. he does not believe, and he's going to try and make sure that trump is not the future of the party. >> i was talking to jeff flake yesterday on tv, former republican senator. and he said to me basically, brooke, there's never been love for donald trump, but there's been this real palpable fear of trump's control of the base. he says that's ebbing fast. don't bet against mitch mcconnell when you're looking at senate races coming up. obviously the lindsey grahams of the world who believe donald trump is winning, winning, winning, would disagree. what are you hearing? >> well, we just don't know the answer to that yet. if you talk to folks like flake, he's going to say, yeah, trump's influence is ebbing because really that's what he wants and that's what he hopes will occur. i think that's the bet that mitch mcconnell is obviously making. he's making the bet that the republican party can be restored somewhat to what it was before it became the cult of personality about donald trump. and he's going to try and make sure that happens. he doesn't really care if trump tweets about him or makes him the enemy. he just feels that they need to get things back under control and they need to win back the majority, and this is the way to do it. >> one more for you. this is all on -- there's been all this speculation there could be a number of trump family members on 2020 tickets. but we have just learned today that ivanka trump told, actually told senator marco rubio that she will not challenge him in that florida primary. what does that signal to you, gloria? >> well, i have being a cynical journalist, perhaps. >> what, you are? no. >> has behaved -- >> oh, no. well, but it signals that marco rubio has behaved well and that marco rubio has been a friend to donald trump and has not crossed the line against the former president, and that challenging him is something that perhaps ivanka might've thought of if marco rubio had been a jeff flake, for example. but, of course, he hasn't been. and remember back to the election of 2016, he called donald trump every name in the book. but things have changed. and so i think if ivanka trump has any political ambition, maybe she'll set it aside for a while. >> gloria borger, good to see you. thank you so much. >> thanks, brooke. breaking news now on this disaster in texas. officials now say the power grid there was, quote, seconds or minutes away from catastrophic failure. we'll talk to the man who actually saw this coming years ago. and any moment now narsa's perseverance rover is set to land on mars ending a nearly 300 million-mile journey from earth. we will bring it to you live. stay right here. ally? 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>> well, nobody really likes hearing bad news, brooke. that's the nature of politics. the answer of course would've been we would have to spend money to upgrade the grid. and no one was willing to stake the political firepower to go do that. the situation we have in texas, the market is set up so that there's one buyer. and that's ercot, the electric reliability council of texas, the grid manager. and so generators were forced to compete to bring their power to market because in an electricity-only market like we have in texas, they only get paid if they're providing electrons. we're talking in atlanta this is just like the braves taking the field, and only those players taking the field would get paid in this type of market. those on the bench, those wouldn't be paid unless they were actually on the field during the major league game. and so the other players would bid, i don't know, offering the manager a bribe or bidding into the game. and they'd keep undercutting each other. and eventually of course some would go away and leave the market. and that's the direction we've had in texas. >> listen, as a baseball fan, i appreciate the metaphor growing up in atlanta and rooting for the braves. but i just want to cut right through it. you mentioned ercot, for the nearly half a million texans that are sitting there freezing, when is this going to get fixed? >> it's going to get fixed when it gets warmer because these generation units that were not available to answer the call, that were not winterized or those that broke. this is not something you can go down to the corner and have your mechanic fix it. busted turbines. we're still in a freeze. this is really difficult to get maintenance to come fix. >> ed, i'm going to leave it there because we have to go to mars. i've never said that before, but that's the truth. ed, thank you so much for all of your expertise there in texas. but i've got to pivot. we're monitoring breaking news now. we're going to take another live look at nasa mission control pasadena, california, everyone preparing for the perseverance rover to land on mars. we will bring it to you live when it happens momentarily. let's listen to this. louder. take these guys? i mean, there's room. maybe next time, fellas. now we're talking. alright. let's. go. ♪ ♪ these days you need more than an education. so that's what we give you. introducing career services for life. learn more at phoenix.edu [ traffic passing by ] [ birds chirping ] mondays, right? 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threats. the precision focus to end attacks instantly. on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. join the world's leading companies in our mission to defend. cybereason. end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. all right, everyone. sara my producer just got in my ear. she says we're three minutes away from atmospheric entry. we'll talk to an expert who actually knows who that means in a second. but we are potentially about to learn whether or not there is life on mars. the perseverance rover, this is what it's called. it's about to attempt to land on the red planet. this is happening in mere minutes. it is nasa's most sophisticated rover to date. it has traveled for six months on a nearly 300 million-mile journey from earth. with me now retired nasa astronaut colonel ron gehren and author of "floating in darkness: a journey of revolution." i feel uniquely qualified for you to help us walk through this. we're minutes away. how huge is this? >> this is incredible. it's an incredible not just for its own sake, but the fact that it's the third spacecraft that's entering the martian orbit. and we're doing a lot of science on the surface of mars coming up here. and it's really exciting. >> that's. it's been china, u.a.e. just because that was successful from everything i've read doesn't mean this will be successful. perseverance will have to decelerate for more than 12,000 miles per hour to this full stop to what nasa is calling it the seven minutes of terror from the time it enters into the atmosphere until it's landing, and it only has one try. can you speak to that? >> yeah. i mean, it's called seven minutes of terror. but we had seven minutes of terror on curiosity's descent as well. and that was successful. it's a very, very similar dissent. we hit the top of the atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour. and we've got to get to zero on the surface. and one of the things that both helps and hurts us is the thinness of the martian atmosphere. but it's not so thin that we don't need a heat shield. so we have to put a heat shield on the vehicle to protect the spacecraft from the heat of that re-entry. but it's not so thick that we can touchdown with parachutes. we don't have enough aerodynamic breaking to touchdown with parachutes. so we have to have this elaborate method where we have a sky crane and a jet pack. and it's really going to be a spectacular landing. this is not a done deal is what i'm hearing you say. let's pause our conversation -- >> there's a lot that can go wrong. >> let's listen into mission controls at nasa there in pasadena. >> 5.3 kilometers per second, altitude of 150 -- from the surface of mars. i have confirmation of entry interface. perseverance is currently going 5.3 kilometers per second at an altitude of about 120 kilometers from the surface of mars. -- is now waiting until it begins feeling the atmosphere of mars slow down. once there is enough atmosphere, it will start controlling its path to the landing target. navigation is also confirming that we can see a little bit of that slowdown of the atmosphere on the perseverance our current velocity is about 5.36 kilometers per second and an altitude of about 67 kilometers from the surface. >> we are probably seeing mrl plasma blackout at this point. >> the vehicle should be doing its turns right now. >> has lost lock. >> we have indications that perseverance is now performing bank reversals in the atmosphere. these are the steps in order to control its distance to the landing target. perseverance has just passed through the point of maximum deceleration and has indicated that its approximately ten earth gs of celebration. >> mrl has locked again. >> yes. yes, yes. >> we saw a small outage of the telemetry from mars reconnaissance orbiter during that peak heating phase likely caused by the plasma blackout. perseverance is still continuing to perform bank reversals in the atmosphere to control its descent to the landing target. perseverance is going about 1 kilometers per second at an altitude of about 16 kilometers from the surface of mars. we have entered heading alignment, which means perseverance is no longer trying to control the distance to mars, but to the target on mars, but instead is flying straight to the target . our current velocity is about 550 meters per second, an a altitude of about 15 kilometers from the surface. >> mrl is reporting good telemetry lock. >> we are coming upon the straighten -- we are starting to straighten up and fly right maneuver, where the spacecraft will jettison the entry balance masses in preparation for parachute deploy and to roll over to give the radar a better look at the ground. >> yes, yes, yes! >> the navigation has confirmed that the parachute has deployed and we are seeing significant deceleration in the velocity. our current velocity is 450 meters per second at an altitude of about 12 kilometers from the surface of mars. perseverance has now slowed to subsonic speeds and the heat shield has been separated. this allows both the radar and the cameras to get their first look at the surface. current velocity is 145 meters per second at an altitude of about 10 -- 9 1/2 kilometers above the surface. >> yes! yes! yes! >> perseverance now has radar lock on the ground. current velocity is about 100 meters per second, 6.6 kilometers from the surface. perseverance is continuing to descend on the parachute. we are coming up on the initialization of terrain relative navigation and subsequently, the priming of the landing engines. our current velocity is about 90 meters per second at an altitude of 4.2 kilometers. we have confirmation that the lander vision system has produced a valid solution and part of terrain alter navigation. we have priming of the landing engines. current velocity is 83 meters per second at about 2.6 kilometers from the surface of mars. we have confirmation that the back shell has separated. we are currently performing the divert maneuver. current velocity is about 75 meters per second at an altitude of about a kilometer off the surface of mars. >> safety bravo. >> we have completed our terrain relative navigation. current speed is about 30 meters per second. altitude of about 300 meters off the surface of mars. we have started our constant velocity, which means we are conducting the sky crane. >> we have lost direct-to-earth tones. >> as expected. as expected. >> sky team maneuver has started. about 20 meters off the surface. >> we're getting signals from m mrl. touchdown kconfirmed! perseverance safely on the surface of mars, ready to begin seeking the sands of past life. [ cheers and applause ] at this point, perseverance is continuing to transmit direct through orbiter to earth. [ cheers and applause ] >> oh, my god. >> oh. >> still getting telemetry from the lander. >> all right, all stations. touchdown confirmed. we're going to wait for the images. >> this is so exciting. the team is besides themselves. it's so surreal. stay tuned. we might get some pictures. so much has been riding on this. >> yeah, we just heard the news -- >> all right. so touchdown -- touchdown, ron. yog makes me happier than some fist bumping nasa scientists at the jet propulsion lab there in pasadena, so score one for them. before i hear from you, i want to tell our viewers, what we were watching is the animation, right? it was impossible for nasa to see actual live video of this perseverance rover touching down on the red planet, but we will get those pictures. they will get those pictures tomorrow. ron -- oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh! >> amazing. amazing. >> think about what we just witnessed. that spacecraft traveled 300 million miles. it hit the top of the atmosphere of the martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour, went through that seven minutes of terror, and it did that all automatically, because it takes 11 minutes for a signal to reach the earth from mars. all that has to be done automatically. >> talk about -- so, you saw on that animation map the crater, it's called the -- i don't know if i'm saying this correctly, the jesaro crater. this is where this rover is headed. it's all about figuring out, you know, signs of life from billions of years ago. >> yeah. this is an ancient -- it's a crater, but it used to be a lake, right? and so there are going to be areas there that are the prime places to look for life. and i think -- imagine if we see evidence that there was once life on mars. i mean, that would be amazing in itself. but to me, the other part of that is, we want to know why there's not life there now. we would want to know why a planet that used to have water and used to potentially be able to support life no longer does. and that has incredible implications for our own climate study here on earth. >> last question for you, ron. as an astronaut, as someone who's obviously studied space for -- and all of it for years and years, for our viewers at home, why is this truly spectacular? what will this mean for the u.s. moving forward in terms of space discovery? >> i think it's -- these are the baby steps of exploring our whole solar system. and really, everything we do in space directly benefits life on earth. it directly benefits our ability to survive all the cries that might come at us, whether that's super volcanic eruptions, global warming, whatever the case is, a better understanding of how planetary science works, how planets function, and the life cycle of planets is going to help us here on earth immensely. and it's going to also going to help us understand our place in the universe. >> for sure. for sure, for sure. we'll get all of those pictures tomorrow and continue chewing on all of this. touchdown, i love it. thanks for sharing that moment with me, ron. i really, really appreciate you. >> you bet, brock. >>. thank you all for being with me. "the lead with jake tapper" starts right now. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin today with the national lead. deadly winter weather crippling the united states. the already-fragile distribution of coronavirus vaccines taking a major hit from new york to washington state. desperately-needed vaccine appointments have been canceled and shipments of doses delayed because of the weather. in texas, the hardest hit, perhaps, it's now the fourth straight day without power, heat, and water. for hundreds of thousands of texans struggling to survive, as a deep freeze has paraly

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