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Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, April 1st, 2026
00:52:01
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A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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Good evening, America. Happy Wednesday. It's a historic Wednesday. We're going to explain that in a second. And welcome to the latest edition of Just Just the News. No noise. I'm your host, John Solomon reporting to you as always from the nation's capital, where we are tracking four major stories. This has been a historic day. Let me break them down in rapid succession because I want to get you out to Cape Canaveral where in just a few minutes, One of those four historic stories are going to occur. Artemis 2 is going to launch. It's on track to launch it just a little bit after 6:20 today. We're going to go out in a second to Tracey Anthony, our correspondent from the great Weather Nation. She's on scene there. But before we do that, we're going to the moon. We're going to swing around and come back in the next 10 days. First time in a half century. For the first time in American history, a president sat, a sitting president sat in the audience at the Supreme Court as the nine justices heard the birthright citizenship case. It was a tough day for the Trump administration. The Trump's lawyers had a difficult time with the justice. There was a lot of cynicism and doubt about the argument, but the president sat right there in front of them. That was a historic moment. And then on top of that, the president announced that he will be giving a speech at 9 o' clock tonight from the White House. All indications are the president will be announcing the ending, the soon ending of the Iran military operation. A success by all measures. He'll explain why it's a success, why we think we're about to end. And by the way, Iran is sending signals today it's ready to end, too. It said, hey, if the United States stops, we won't make any more attacks. That's what the president said a while ago from Iran. We'll see what the president says. We're going to have that live and covered all throughout America's Voice. And then on top of that, if that wasn't enough news for one day, House Republicans and Senate Republicans reached a deal to cut Democrats out and fund the Homeland Security Department for the entirety of President Trump's presidency. They're going to do it through a reconciliation bill. Democrats left holding a bag of coal and no political leverage. All of that over just the news dot com. Go check it out. All right. I want to get down to Cape Canal, but first I'm going to bring in my amazing co host Amanda Head. This is quite a historic day. I can't imagine four bigger stories all happening in a 12 hour window. Amanda.
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C
Absolutely. News through a fire hose. Right. I am so excited about this launch. The first time back to the moon for basically for my generation. This is something that is generational from my parents. John, your parents generation. I'm excited to see it. I'm excited that we have all gotten to know a little bit these four pilots. If you were watching the NASA stream earlier, they were explaining who they are, their backgrounds, a lot of them, of course, in the US Navy and fighter pilots and things like that, it's going to be an incredible mission. And for all the naysayers out there who say the moon landing was on a Hollywood backstage, hopefully this will shut them up.
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B
Well, we're going to go around the moon, then on the moon, then we're going to build a moon base and then we're going to Mars. That's the plan. All right. Every Tuesday I get to follow this amazing meteorologist Tracy Anthony here on Real America's Voice. She's part of Weather Nation, my favorite weather outlet in America. It's also one of our partners here at Real America's Voice. And Tracy's out at the launch site, Cape Canaveral, Florida. She's joining us right now. Tracy, looks like we hit a jackpot at least when it comes to the weather.
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D
Yeah, you know, if you would have checked in two hours ago, it was overcast, it was rainy. We kind of had weather whiplash throughout the day. I was a little nervous thinking that it's the weather that's going to scrub this mission. But it cleared out very quickly. The sky skies dried out and now we have beautiful weather conditions. A little breezy, but as long as those winds stay under about 43 miles per hour, we should be in the clear. Now, the only other thing that could scrub the mission is technical problems. But as of right now, you know, the hatch is closed and it looks like we are on track. So we are going to continue to follow that. It's crazy. We're at Jetty Park. This is a campground that is fully booked, fully packed for this launch. And we've been talking to people all day today and a lot of them have come for several launches in the past. But they all have said this one's different, this is more historic, this is patriotic. And they're all feeling some type of way about what's going to happen here tonight. So fingers crossed that everything goes as planned. I mean, these four astronauts are going farther away from Earth than anyone else has ever gone. So going around the dark side of the moon and it's a 10 day mission so we are hoping everything goes well. And hey, the weather is looking to check out. Okay, John Tracy, for how long are
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C
we going to lose communication with them?
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D
I am not quite sure on that front. I don't know the details on that.
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C
I was just curious also.
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D
Unfortunately, he stumped me. That's no problem.
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C
That's no problem. So. So as far as the schizophrenic weather as you were talking about, is that still a concern? And other than the battery issue or maybe the battery issue is the biggest problem or the, the biggest possible hiccup heading into this, what should people be watching the most?
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D
Yeah, you know, that's the only big hiccup on the tech side that I've heard of. And as for weather, we look to be in the clear. So as I was mentioning, it was the sea breeze that just stuck around a little too long and we went from light drizzle to sunshine to heavy downpours and it just lasted into the afternoon. But once it cleared out, it cleared out quick. And now we've got the clear skies we need. We've got the light winds. So as long as those winds stay calm, I think we should be good on the weather front.
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B
Now, Tracey, you've been doing a great job all day on Real America's voice. Really appreciative. You are right there on the spot. We're going to turn to you right after the launch. Get back to you, but thanks for giving us that last minute update. Good to have you. All right, folks, get right to these. We're going to squeeze, we're going to squeeze in a lot in the next 20 minutes. We are T minus 20 from launch at 622. We're going to let you listen in and watch as NASA counts down to the final seconds of launch. But first we want to get to a guy, he launches a lot of things in Congress. Common sensing he represents a great state of Tennessee and he is a friend of the show. Congressman Tim Burchard joins us now. Sir, good to have you on.
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I was glad to be here with y'.
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All.
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E
It's. I can remember the first time we allegedly went to the mine.
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B
You're in the doubter camp, are you? That's so funny. Allegedly. Allegedly. We have a deal in Congress to get the Homeland Security funded. Republicans in the House held their ground against the Senate. It looks like you got a deal. Tell us what you think of it.
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E
Well, Any deal that we can get Americans back to work and pay our hard working folks. You know, we fully fund the Department of homeland security for six weeks at least until May 22. Of course, the Senate fund Department of Homeland Security, but it didn't include any funding for Immigration or Customs Enforcement, ICE as I guess we should call it, and the Border Patrol. So hopefully we can get everybody paid. And I believe the President probably has a pretty good idea what's going on in his pulse on needs to happen. America's ready for it and we need to get on with it.
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C
Congressman, it seems like Congress has follow congressional Republicans, I should say follow in the footsteps of President Trump when it comes to outside the box ideas. Obviously getting this done through reconciliation. Is there an outside of the box idea queued up for the Save America Act?
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E
Well, I would hope it would. Something would happen with it. I just don't know if I've got the confidence in the Senate to do anything. They haven't done it yet. You know, they should have nuked the plan. Filibuster. I know the Democrats, that's the first thing they will do once they take control after they file impeachment on the President and most of his staff and, and, and, and everyone that he's appointed, I suspect. So I would hope we could get that included somewhere and I don't know, I don't know. I don't think it would, it would work in reconciliation, but we shall see.
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B
Yeah, that's the big issue. Can they sneak it in to pass the parliamentarian? We'll see. Congressman, I want to Turn to tonight, 9 o'. Clock. The President's going to address the nation. We're five weeks in to the conflict. We have devastated every capability Iran had militarily. We've achieved our objectives. What do you expect the President to say and how do you think the American people are going to react?
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E
I hope he says that we're going to have cooperation out of some of these other Middle Eastern countries to where American boys and girls won't be sacrificed on this altar. I just don't, I just don't see it as necessary. I think the President gets it. He knows America is not ready for something like that or has the stomach for it actually. And, and frankly I, I just don't think anything like that would pass in the House regardless of, of what's going on. I think we, we've, we want to get in, we want to get out and I would hope that the Middle Eastern countries would start putting their, their boots on the ground. And we would see some more cooperation in the strait through there to get trade open again. And hopefully that would be the, that would be the end.
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C
Conclusion, Congressman, are you concerned that this conflict currently is affecting Republicans ability to keep the majority in the House? And if not, what, what point, at what point does that start happening?
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I would hope, I'm not. I would hope we just do what was right, ma'.
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Am.
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E
Regardless of the outcome, we tend to use that baromet too much. And, and I think that what, what's going to happen the last 30 to 60 days before the election is what's really going to matter the most right now. And then when we close in on those times, I think we should, we should make sure we focus on those things. But, but I would hope again that we could end this conflict successfully and get trade routes back open and get this, the oil markets back to some stability and then, and working Americans wouldn't be suffering because right now this is hurting. This is hurting. There's no question it's hurting. It's hurting at the gas pumps. And then that just affects every bit of trade. Anytime you haul anything over the road, you know I have a diesel dually. I said the other day, I couldn't decide that I want to go down to Starbucks and buy a cup of coffee. Did I want to send my daughter to college for a year or did I want to fill up my dually? Because all three of those things cost about the same thing. So, you know, working Americans are hurting, ma'.
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Am.
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And this piles on to it. I was at a private school in Knoxville today talking to some high schoolers. And that was the number one question was when is this going to end? What's the end game? And why is gas so high?
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B
Yeah, yeah, you got your finger right on the pulse. You talked about doing the right thing. And I know one of those things you want to be done that is the right thing. Getting the congressional stock trading ban through Congress, prevent lawmakers from cashing in on the internal knowledge of their job thinking get it done.
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E
No, I mean, I don't think we're going to get done what needs to be done. I think we're going to pass some wind addressing that will go to the Senate and they'll probably pass something a little different. And then we'll never, we'll either come to an agreement that amounts to nothing or it'll be two different bills. So I just don't think the bill that I had and Representative Luna and I worked on was a very simple bill. It Just said no stock trading. If you have stocks, you put them in a mutual fund, as I do with my buddy Tommy Seiler and my other friend Andy Venable, who are both in that business. And they always, you know, it's very easy to get a mutual fund and you just turn it over. But America doesn't trust what we're doing right now, and frankly, they shouldn't because we're not going to end up doing what's right, I think because both parties are in on it.
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B
Yeah. Well, sir, we're going to be watching. We know Americans are on your side on this. They agree with you that we need to do the right thing, not the window dressing thing. Great honor to have you on. We're on a tight clock day, but it is such a great opportunity every time you come on the show. Thank you for joining us, sir.
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E
Let's go, Artemis.
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B
We are watching. All right. You're exactly right, sir. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick commercial break. We have all eyes on Cape Canaveral. We're going to turn there. But first after the commercial break, North Carolina Senate Kennedy Michael Whatley will join us. We're going to have a great conversation with him right after these messages.
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B
One in our bump shot. Amanda, you are live.
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Welcome back, everybody. You are seeing that live shot of Artemis 2. This is set to happen in just a few minutes. In fact, on the other side of this segment that we have the Artemis 2 been cleared by NASA for takeoff. The final issue that we were discussing at the top, the battery issue, has been resolved, so everything is clear. So we're going to see Artemis 2 take off with those four astronauts and orbit the far side of the moon and come back to earth in just 10 very, very short days. But in the meantime, on the other side of 10 days, we have the midterms. Yes, they are right around the corner now, especially with the midterms right around the corner. Obviously soft on crime policies in blue states and purple states continue to pose a threat to Americans. Our next guest is to talk about that because of one, one very high profile case in his state. So joining us now is someone who can talk about all of this and more is former chairman of the Republican National Committee and current candidate for Senate in North Carolina, friend of the show, too, Michael Watley. Sir, thank you so much for being here.
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H
It's great to be on with both of you.
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C
Absolutely. All right, I want to start with that news at the top. We are sending four humans into space again. It's going to be exciting for the American people. Is this considered because it's happening during the Trump administration, It's happening with Republic Republicans in control. Is this maybe a little bit of a notch in the belt for Republicans heading into midterms?
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H
I think this is a notch in the belt for America. You know, you think about America, this is the greatest nation in the history of the world. And when you look at what we are able to accomplish with science, with math, with technology, with innovation, we just keep getting better and better. And the fact that they've been able to put this mission together within a year, you know, and Jared Isaacman and the NASA team really deserve a lot of credit for it. The president deserves a lot of credit for it, for being able to push this agenda forward and give it a green light and make sure that it goes. But I am so proud of America. And when you think about us and our 250th anniversary, it just continues to show that we are the greatest country in the history of the world.
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B
All right, folks, I want to break in. Before we get back to Michael, we just got word from NASA. They are putting a hold on the countdown. We don't know the reason yet, but there has been a pause on the countdown at about eight minutes. I believe it is. We're looking at. But we will get back to that as soon as we get more news. We cut in. Michael, I want to turn to something that happened at cpac. I missed you there. I felt terrible. My schedule just got mixed up. But a person came up to me. They're from Indiana. They had a lot of family in North Carolina. They said, I'm telling everybody I know in North Carolina to vote in November for Michael Whiteley. Like Irina's life depends on him. Referring to that poor Ukrainian immigrant who got slashed to death on the subway there. A man who had been out of prison, who should not have been out of prison. How powerful is that issue that someone in Indiana knows it matters.
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H
In North Carolina, it's very powerful. You know, the fact is Roy Cooper was the most pro crime president in the history of North Carolina that. That when he was governor, he signed an executive order which brought pretrial release and cashless bail to North Carolina, set up a revolving door that put criminals back on the streets immediately after they were arrested again and again and again. It didn't matter if they were arrested 20 or 30 or 40 or even 50 times. They would be right back on the streets. He also signed a court settlement agreement with the ACLU and the NAACP where he let over 35 hardened criminals out of North Carolina prisoners because he was afraid they were going to get Covid. And he said none of them were violent. He said none of them were violent criminals. And he lied. You know, and the fact is that DeCarlos Brown Jr. Was on that list. He was released not just that time, but he was arrested and released 12 more times after that example, 14 times in total. And he should have never been on the streets. He should never have been on that light rail car. And Arizona Zarovska should be alive today. In fact, her blood is on Roy Cooper's hands.
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C
Earlier today, some very, very important court proceedings happening at the Supreme Court. And of course, any time we're talking about law and order, you got to talk about immigration and this issue of birthright citizenship. I feel quite bad, actually, for the government's lawyers and the Solicitor General having the President of the United States right there. I would be quite nervous. But your. Your thoughts on that? I mean, we know what the polling says on this, and it is. It is with the Trump administration.
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H
Yeah. You know, and it's tough to perform like that in front of President Trump. It's an audience of one at that point. Look, you know, immigration is such a phenomenally important issue. You know, you think about with Joe Biden allowing 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants into the United States. He opened up our borders. He put people on planes and flew them into the heartland, and then he gave them billions and billions and billions of dollars in free government assistance. That should have never happened. The fact is that the president, on day one, sealed that border. And you see now that we have month after month where zero illegal immigrants are being caught at the border and released into the United States. And he is working every day to get the most violent criminals out, you know, the criminal illegal aliens out of the United States. That is something that is tremendously important. You know, you see the fact that fentanyl deaths are way down, that migrant crime is way down, sex trafficking is down. This is all because President Trump sealed that border. The highest, most important function for Any government, whether it's the state government, federal government or local governments, is protecting its citizens, is making sure that we're keeping our kids and our communities safe. And Roy Cooper was an abject failure that here in North Carolina and does not need to be promoted up to the Senate. I'm very thankful that the president has taken the stances that he has and making sure that he has sealed that border and we're getting these violent criminals out.
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C
Perfect. John, I've just got an update. I want to give everybody that they, they held for a few minutes for a check and they're now doing the checklist poll to resume the countdown at T minus 10.
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B
Good. All right, we'll be watching that. And when we get to that two minute critical moment, we're going to go right over there. But let's stay on topic with Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for U.S. senate, North Carolina, one of the most closely watched races places in America. Michael, tonight the president will look into the camera. He'll be surrounded by an audience in the White House. He's expected to say we've achieved our objectives in Iran and lay out a timetable for how military operations stop and what comes next in that moment. Iran making some soundings today. Hey, if you don't attack us anymore, we're not going to attack you anymore. They got 47 years of history that cat some doubt on that. But where do you think we are and what do you want to hear from the President tonight?
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H
I want to hear from the president that we are continuing to make sure that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, that they cannot deliver payloads on their missiles into the Middle east or Europe or the United States and they're not going to export terrorism anymore. These are the fundamental principles that the president put on the table when he went into Iran. Those are principles that I support, that most of North Carolina supports. And it's very important that we stay on that mission. The fact is we have had deaths which are very, very tragic. And my thoughts and my prayers go out to the families of those who've been affected. But North Carolina is the tip of the spear when it comes to protecting our interests and allies around the world. Almost 100,000 men and women in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard are based here in North Carolina. And when it comes to protecting our interests and allies around the world, we're going to be the tip of the spear. We support this mission and we need to make sure that we see it through.
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C
Michael, we have watched you in your position at North Carolina gop. We watched you at the head of the rnc, and I know you to be a man who works hard. So I know that you want to go to Capitol Hill to work hard for the American people and the people of North Carolina. But if Democrats take the Senate, then your time will probably all be spent defending impeachment and defending removal from office. How important is it that Republicans at least hold the Senate?
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H
Oh, it's absolutely critical. You know, you think about our agenda right now, which is to create jobs, make sure people are taking home more money, that they get to keep more money, that we're going to keep our kids and our communities safe, that our men and women in uniform are going to get the support they need to carry out their missions here and around the world. We don't need to go back to the agenda that Joe Biden and the Democrats brought in with open borders, inflationary spending, and a weak woke America. That's not what the people of North Carolina want. I'm excited to get into the majority and be a conservative champion for North Carolina and an ally for President Trump.
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B
Yeah, it's such an extraordinary moment. And keeping that Trump legacy going another two years will have enormous momentum for years to come. I want to turn to a subject that I think befuddles a lot of Americans. We have criminal illegal aliens in a prison in a city or a state. There's a detainer on them, they're allowed to be deported. And that jail, that governor, that mayor, somebody won't allow that person to be turned over to ice. Now, there's a law in the books called the Alien Harboring act, says you can't do that. Is it time to have a sheriff or a prosecutor or someone that harbors an illegal alien in a prison when there's a lawful detainer, apply that law to them and prosecute them for refusing to turn over an alien?
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H
Yeah, you got to have a conversation about that. The fact is that Roy Cooper vetoed legislation here in North Carolina that would have forced the sheriffs to honor ICE detainers and get the violent criminals out of North Carolina. And you know that. Shame on him. And I'm glad that the legislature overrode those vetoes. But the fact is we still have sheriffs who do not want to iron our ICE detainers. And we see it all across the country right now. Tom Homan has been very clear that the safest place for the, for the ICE to pick up an illegal alien criminal is in the jail. You don't need to have outside folks that are going to be weighing in on that. You don't have to put the public at risk. You need to be able to do that. And shame on Roy Cooper for vetoing that legislation. We need the sheriffs all across the country to honor those ICE detainers and get these violent criminals out of America.
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C
Yeah, Michael, it's not often that I am citing or especially applauding tmz, but TMZ is tracking members of Congress as they are not doing the work of the people, although some of them are there over in Ireland or maybe, you know, here, there and yonder and they are actually doing congressional business. But do you think that that applies pressure on Democrats and Republicans too, possibly, to get back to Capitol Hill to get DHS funded and the Save America act passed?
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H
They need to get back to Capitol Hill. These are two very, very high priorities. You know, people forget that DHS was founded after 9, 11. It was created after the worst attack on American soil in history where thousands of Americans were killed in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. and it was created to protect the homeland, to protect American citizens. Shame on the Democrats for shutting down DHS and for political gamesmanship. This is really callous politics at its worst. Congress needs to be here and have that conversation every single day. When it comes to election integrity, it is absolutely critical for us to pass the Save America act and make sure that we're going to have voter ID all across the country and that people have to prove their citizenship when they vote. These are 80, 20 issues around the country and the Democrats steadfastly refuse to to move forward on it. Let's go to the floor. Let's have that conversation and let's force them to defend these radical ideas.
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C
Fantastic. Sir, tell everybody where they can find more about your website.
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H
So my website is michaelwadley.com, they can follow me on X atleync. And we really hope that people will go, they will sign up, they will contribute and they will join this movement to make sure that North Carolina has a conservative champion and an ally for President Trump in the Senate.
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C
Well, you are well known and well loved in that state and we appreciate you being with us tonight. Sir, current candidate for Senate in North Carolina, of course, former chairman of the rnc. Michael, great to see you. All right, everybody, we've got to take a quick break. We are going to check in and see what's happening over at Cape Canaveral and hopefully on the other side we will be ready to take that feed and prepare for lunch. We'll be right back.
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B
Welcome back everybody. You're looking live at Artemis 2 about to launch in less than six minutes. Off to space around the moon, the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth. The four astronauts will be making a complete trip around the moon and then coming back in a 10 day mission. The first such mission in over 50 years, 52 years to be exact. There was a brief pause. That is normal. They check all systems one more time, then they get a final go. Right now we are on track for a 06:35 Eastern Time launch. Artemis going to the moon. I want to see if we can get out to Tracy Anthony. She is standing by from Weather Nation, one of our great partners here at Real America's Voice. In just the news, let's see if we can get Tracy on to see if we got any last minute look at things. Tracy, what are you seeing and hearing with just a few minutes left before launch?
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D
You know, everyone's just anxious in anticipation, waiting for it to happen. Everyone's excited. This is going to be a historic moment and it's just really cool to be a part of. I feel blessed. This is my first shuttle launch ever, so I'm excited to experience it and hear it. And they say you can just feel the ground shake.
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B
It is an amazing thing to watch and experience and you're going to be our eyes and ears and witness to it all in about a minute or so. Folks, we're going to just let you listen in to the NASA audio and you're going to hear that final countdown. T minus 1 minute, T minus 10 second. We just want to get out of the way at that moment before we do. Tracy, what will NASA be looking at in the first hour or so of this mission? What are some of the benchmarks that NASA is going to look at to make sure they're off to a successful start?
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D
Yeah, you know, there's a lot of different things that they have to look at and measure. But you know, once they take off, it's kind of on its, you know, on its own. So again, I know more about the weather side of things. I do know when they come back to Earth, the weather does come play a big role as well.
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B
Yeah, that'll be something we have to watch on the return. Make sure that there's a good window, weather window for that. Amanda, your family was in this industry for a long time. What are some of the things that usually go on in this final minute and then the first hour after? What are they watching for?
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C
So, so the access Arm has been retracted. So that's kind of like the final visual of okay, this is really happening. You know, John, it's so interesting. You look at these missions nowadays, these modern missions compared to, you know, the Gemini missions or the Apollo missions and the restrictions that they had on astronauts back then, not only were there size restrictions because the lunar modules were so tiny, so they needed almost jockey sized men and women to be manning these spacecrafts, but you also obviously had to have perfect vision. If you had any type of correction whatsoever, you were not able to do that. And nowadays, of course, we have modern technology that addresses things like not perfect vision. And size is not nearly as much of a restrictor because of just, I mean the sheer machinery and the size of these things and the power of them as well. And I love seeing this. I think this is so great for our country. I think in, in the year of our 250th. What a, what a, what an amazing way to launch things off, John, because as you know, for us living in Washington, we are about to embark upon the summer of America, the summer of our 250th. And I think this is a great way to launch that patriotism.
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B
Now, the last time we sent humans to the moon, it was only three in the capsule. We've made the capsule bigger. We got four, we got a woman for the first time. There's just so much history in this. And then as you mentioned, the man at the beginning, we're going to go farther than any time in history. We're going farther around the backside of the moon before we come back. So this is a record for just how far humans have traveled in the space as well. So many milestones after the launch. What will you be watching for in the first hour or so? Okay, guys, I understand we've got the live audio. We're just going to get out of the way. You're going to watch NASA do its job and send Artemis to into space. Have a listen.
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I
And now going to battery power. GLS's go for upper states to internal powers. All right, power is removed from the rocket's upper stage, the icps and it's been switched to battery. Same milestone for the lower core stage coming up at T minus 1 minute and 30 seconds. Right now, the four person Artemis II crew is 248,000 miles away from the moon. And if all goes well, they will fly by it in six days. DLS's go for core stage to internal power. All right, there's the rocket's core stage which Houses three flight computers, is now on its own power. There's no more hold time because there's no more margin on these batteries. So we would have to recycle back to T 10 to recharge if we had a hold.
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B
One minute.
- [31:21]
I
Right now, the rocket does not know what the T0 is. But coming up at T minus 33 seconds, control shifts from the ground launch sequencer to the rocket's onboard autonomous launch sequencer, or als. The rocket will count itself down, but honor any holds that could come from the ground. Now, shortly after liftoff, Houston will take control of the rocket and my colleague Gary Jordan will take over commentary. Great call out. The rocket is on its own. Four brave explorers ready to ride the most powerful rocket NASA has ever launched. Sound suppression water is flowing.
- [32:04]
E
15.
- [32:07]
I
And here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7. RS 25 engines hit. 4, 3, 2, 1. Booster ignition and lift off. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.
- [32:33]
H
Good roll P.
- [32:36]
G
Roger, roll pitch.
- [32:40]
F
Houston now controlling the flight of integrity on the Artemis 2 mission around the
- [32:44]
C
moon
- [32:48]
G
integrity AMT high.
- [32:51]
F
AMT high on time. Passing 30 seconds to the flights. Integrity passes the alternate Eagle target milestone. Mission control Houston seeing good performance on four main engines. Space Launch System Core Stage Integrity 3 miles and Altitud traveling more than 1200 miles per hour. Mission elapsed time passing 1 minute. Approaching max q on
- [33:39]
B
to clear on mon.
- [33:41]
G
Have you the same
- [33:44]
F
communication signal transform confirmed as Integrity and its crew go supersonic. Approaching 90 seconds into the Artemis 2. Mission integrity is 14 miles in altitude 8 miles downrange. Traveling more than 2600 miles per hour. 1 minute 50 seconds of mission elapsed time. Standing by for main engine throttle down to 85% ahead of solid rocker. Booster separation expected at the 2 minute 9 second mark. We see throttle down. Confirmed. Separation main engines throttling up. Guidance converged.
- [34:47]
G
Integrity guidance converged. Performance nominal. Upper stage RCS ready.
- [34:54]
B
Copy off Stan.
- [34:59]
G
Integrity. SM priming complete.
- [35:03]
B
SM priming complete.
- [35:07]
F
2 minutes 45 seconds of mission elapsed time into the Artemis 2. Mission thrusters on. Integrity and upper stage confirmed in a ready state ahead of service mod module fairing separation. Three minutes into the flight. Integrity, 49 miles in altitude 78 miles downrange, now passing 5,000 miles per hour. Standing by for launch. Abort system jettison.
- [35:48]
B
Houston integrity good last jettison. Great view.
- [35:54]
G
Copy jettison. Team Eco 8 plus 02.
- [36:01]
B
We see the same on board Stan.
- [36:04]
G
And Houston has you loud and clear on TDRS at the Karman Line
- [36:11]
B
outstanding. Stan, we have you the same.
- [36:15]
F
3 minutes 50 seconds into the flight of Artemis 2. Wiseman, Glover, Cook and Hansen cross the boundary to space with good com checks. GPS signals acquired after last jettison. Now working on internal checks to verify accuracy. Flight Dynamics officer analyzed the time of main engine Cutoff confirmed at 8 minutes 2 seconds. Time of MECO.
- [37:00]
B
All right, folks, you've been watching live here in real America's voice, something that more than half Americans weren't even alive the last time it happened. A powerful rocket headed into space and headed to the moon. It hasn't happened in over a half a century. Today you got to watch it uninterrupted. Thus far, all the parameters look good. They are officially those four astronauts in space. I know America says, Godspeed, Artemis 2. America's with you. Just to put in perspective, thousands of Americans have worked to make this moment possible. Engineers, mechanics, scientists, an extraordinary group of people. And thus far a flawless start to a 10 day journey to the moon and back. I want to go back out to Cape Canaveral. We've got just been an amazing moment. Tracy, what's it been like? What did that ground feel like when those rockets fired up?
- [37:56]
D
Yeah, it definitely, you can definitely feel it once that sound kicks in. I don't know if you can see the, you know, the condensation trail from the rocket behind me, but it totally makes sense now. Why, you know, the winds matter at different elevations and different heights, but just very cool, very powerful to know that, you know, we're sending humans back around the moon and the farther that they've ever been. So very incredible to see. It's something I'm going to remember forever.
- [38:27]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tracy, are you finding that people there are emotional? Because, I mean, for my generation, for millennials, we remember a friend of mine's aunt actually was one of the astronauts on Columbia. So when you have these launches there, there tends to be these flashes back to those moments and you desperately don't want it to happen. Were people, were people there emotional?
- [38:52]
D
You know, we didn't have too many emotions. Everyone was just more excited. I think they kind of know, you know, we've the stops and the protocols that are in place. So hopefully, you know, things like that don't happen and everything is safe and it was more excitement and everyone was just thrilled to be a part of history. And it's just kind of a, you can almost hear and feel everyone just take a pause as that rocket is going into space. So very cool.
- [39:19]
B
Yeah, it's mesmerizing to watch such a massive object just lift into space and get to hypersonic in just a few short seconds. I heard a lot of cheers as things were going on. What did you hear as you were watching?
- [39:32]
D
Yep. Yeah, definitely, you know, cheers. Once the boosters fell off, that was kind of cool. You know, it's just looks like little dots in the sky, but very cool to kind of know, you know, a few steps of the process there. But everyone was, you know, thrilled and excited to see that this went off well.
- [39:52]
B
Yeah, pretty amazing. Well, Tracy, we couldn't have done today without you. You've been our eyes and our ears on the ground. A big thank you to you to Weather Nation and all the great coverage we get every day from that network. We appreciate you so much. We're going to take a quick commercial break, folks. When we come back, a little more discussion about Iran. That big speech less than two and a half hours away. President Trump speaking in the White House at 9:00'. Clock. We're going to cover that next right after these messages. Standing by for confirmation of Nico and
- [40:25]
F
core stage separation
- [40:28]
B
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- [42:46]
C
Welcome back everybody. President Trump's address on Iran is just a few short hours away. So what are we likely to hear and what, what are what the President's options are for winding down the conflict in Iran. So with us to discuss all of this and more, the perfect person to do it is a former Advisor to the U.S. special Operations South Commander as well as Senior Vice President at the Institute of War Politics, Christine Bolling. Christine, great to see you again. Thanks for being here.
- [43:12]
J
Thank you very much.
- [43:14]
C
You know, what do you anticipate we're going to hear from the President tonight?
- [43:19]
J
Well, I think what we're going to hear is number one, reassurance that the mission is going well, that there is a defined end game. And I think also to send a message to Iran and the world that when the President of the United States says, stay tuned, I'll be getting back to you all in 24 hours, there are not many heads of state. In fact, I think he is the only head of state that can command such an audience. So the very fact that he is even having this address and we're all waiting with bated breath, obviously we as Americans are, but the world is, is already what I would call an information operations flex. And further, I would say that he's going to, just like Secretary of State Rubio outlined on yesterday and in various situations, there are four goals that the United States had. The destruction of the Air Force the destruction of the Iranian navy, the crippling of their missile launch capability, and the destruction of the facility, excuse me, the facilities that the Iranians use to make their weapons and their ammunition. And the bottom line is, is without all of that, even if they kept the enriched uranium, they wouldn't be able to do anything with it. And I think that's an important point to make because I think there's some naysayers who are suggesting that, oh, if we don't actually send special operations folks down to get the actual enriched uranium, then we will have failed in our mission. But Secretary of State Rubio made it very clear that if those four aforementioned objectives are met, then again, they can't do anything with that enriched uranium.
- [45:22]
B
That's a great point, Christine. When we break, you said something profound. This is kind of an extraordinary day because the President is going to detail for us tonight how America's military, in five short weeks took a major military power of Iran and basically crushed it to the ground. Took away decades of capability. And then we watch a massive, the largest rocket ever to lift off from Earth. It's going to go the farthest distance of any time man has traveled into space. It's kind of an extraordinary day just to be an American, right?
- [45:54]
J
Absolutely. And you know, it is an example, a wonderfully on the nose example of American exceptionalism. And that sort of exceptionalism, the ability to continue to achieve as we do as a people, requires a safe and secure country and world. And so the other phrase, freedom isn't free. Well, that's exactly what President Trump is concerned with, with everything that we're accomplishing in Iran. It's not just for fun. At the risk of sounding flip, this is a very important mission because Iran for years has been an enemy of ours, a successful one through proxies, obviously, trying to kill as many of the citizens of our ally Israel as possible. I mean, this is the first time a president of the United States is saying enough is enough. Why are we even sitting around and letting Iran continue to have the capability to hit us? And you know, the Europeans, I would imagine it was a pretty big wake up call when lo and behold, it turns out that their missiles can go as far as to hit European capitals. That's something I don't think. I'm not sure about this, but at least publicly, Western intelligence never shared that capability. So. So, you know, it's not just that Iran is Israel's problem or the United, or the problem of the United States. The Europeans now know it. It's their Problem, too.
- [47:33]
B
That's a great point. Great point.
- [47:35]
C
Absolutely. And you brought up that freedom isn't free. And we know that very, very dearly in this country. But it seems that our NATO allies, I don't know if there's just too much distance from the situation, if their memories are too short, but they don't seem to understand that. Do you anticipate that they will, and maybe they will move a little way from their residents to get involved?
- [47:57]
J
Yes. The short answer is, yet I would say Spain is the exception. The prime minister of Spain, Sanchez, was not doing very well in the polls. So by becoming the I will stand up to President Trump guy, he's actually really boostered his popularity. So I think that was very much why he decided to take the stand. He did. Italy was a little bit surprising, but actually, this is interesting. It's almost an example of fake news, because if one reads defense news, the coverage of what happened, actually what happened is our planes took off and sent the flight plan when they were already in the air, which was against procedure. So under the rules that the Italians set, the parliament has to. Or the military, the government has to approve each flyover. So it was actually a procedural misstep on the US Part, which is why the defense minister got upset and said, okay, you can't land. Italy actually came through with a statement saying it's business as usual. We are still cooperating with the United States. So as I said, I think there, you know, outlets such as Newsweek, when they covered this story, they didn't include all the details. And I think that's because there was an editorial decision to hype up the idea that, you know, we're all alone and we're not supported by our allies.
- [49:33]
B
But great point.
- [49:35]
J
The last thing I'll say about it is that obviously, obviously, President Trump wanted the European nations to do more than just host this, host us on our air bases. Obviously, he wants them to be more involved in the region itself.
- [49:51]
C
Absolutely. Christine Balling, senior vice president of the Institute of World Politics, love your perspective. Thanks for being here.
- [49:58]
J
Thank you.
- [49:59]
C
Absolutely. All right, everybody, before we wrap it up, John, as I was watching that launch, you know, I wasn't alive during the first time that we went to the moon, but I love hearing that ripping sound when, you know, when the shuttle breaks through the sound barrier. That's one of the most dangerous parts in the mission, by the way, because the friction changes and it can heat up that module.
- [50:19]
B
That's right.
- [50:19]
C
And that actually has been a critical point in a number of our missions in the past. But as she was saying, I mean, American exceptionalism, very on the nose, just displaying it to the, to the entire world. American, you know, American might, you know, it's.
- [50:36]
B
I was thinking about this today, Amanda. The one constant thing since the last time we sent humans to the moon has been Iran. Iran, for most of the half century since we last went to the moon, has been a menace to society, a terrorist to its region, and a absolute attacker of Americans anywhere they are in the world. President Trump tonight has the ability to restart the moon mission and tell the world that he has neutered Iran in ways that it can't reach Europe, it can't reach America for years to come. And I think that that will be a moment of exceptionalism, also. Just exceptional decision making. I think people will get to understand tonight, unfiltered, there won't be a Newsweek in New York Times, CBS News trying to inject themselves. The President could talk right to the American people without anchors there, but right here in real America's voice. You'll be watching him and he's going to tell us why he made those decisions, not why the New York Times thinks he made decisions, why he did it and what we achieved. And I think that'll be a pretty exceptional moment in this five week journey that we've all been on.
- [51:40]
D
Yeah.
- [51:40]
C
You know, and John, the conventional wisdom is if you're explaining, you're losing. But President Trump is anything but conventional. And I think that he is such, he has such laser precision when it comes to messaging on things like this. And he is the best marketer of what we are doing. He, he is the best person for the job to talk about the mission, to support it, to drum up support from the American people. We all know when this first. Well, I mean, even the strikes last summer, there were a lot of folks who were saying, oh, no, the polling's gonna kill him, the polling's gonna kill Republicans. And you look at the polling and most of his base, by a vast majority still very much supports this mission. They see what has happened over the last 47 years.
- [52:20]
F
Years.
- [52:21]
B
Everybody should stay here tonight. We got great real America's coverage all the way before and after. So everybody stay with us tonight.
- [52:27]
C
Absolutely. And that's going to do it for this evening. But we'll be back tomorrow night at the same time, same place. See you then.
- [52:36]
A
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