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Announcer: This is
a special presentation
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of MSNBC News
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with Jenny Lerner.
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Good evening.
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Sometime in the next hour,
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the Messiah mission will
enter its most critical phase:
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the interception
of Wolf-Biederman
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and the setting of
the nuclear devices
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that will deflect it off
its collision course with Earth.
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But first,
Captain Spurgeon Tanner
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will have to guide
the spacecraft
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through the blizzard
of rocks, sand, and ice
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that make up
the comet's tail, or coma.
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The crew will have to complete
its work before the sun rises.
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Sublimator
looks good, Mick.
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Tanner, Over lntercom:
Disengaging auto now.
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I'm eyeballs out
from here on in.
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How come that doesn't
make me feel any better?
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Tanner: I heard that.
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Lights on.
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Cameras on.
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Tanner: On the Mississippi River
in Mark Twain's time,
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there were riverboat pilots
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who only knew a few miles
of the river.
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I mean, conditions
changed so much,
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you couldn't
know the whole trip.
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Floods, sandbars,
fallen logs--
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It was all a riverboat pilot
could do
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was to know his little
piece of the puzzle.
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So for the next few hours,
this is my ship.
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We start our approach.
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Jenny:
...are images from cameras
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mounted inside the cargo bay
of the Messiah.
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Now, these images are delayed
by approximately 20 seconds,
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due to the distance
they must travel.
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OK, you can see that the image
is breaking up a bit.
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Uh, Houston is prepared
for this.
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They've informed us that
due to the uncertain make-up
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of the comet's coma,
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they're unsure whether or not
transmission will be possible.
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OK, now, now, it ap-appears
we're losing reception here.