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COY WIRE: What's up, lovely people?
Terrific Tuesday to you.
I'm Coy Wire, this is CNN 10 where we put together the best
10 minutes in news for you.
So let's maximize these moments and get
a little smarter and wiser and have
a little fun while doing it.
We start today's episode by talking about the air up there.
Is it just me, or does it feel like America just
can't escape these mysterious threats
we've been seeing from the sky?
It started a week ago with the incident involving a suspected
Chinese spy balloon, which was shot down off the South
Carolina coast on February 4.
And the deepening national security mystery
keeps evolving, with US fighter Jets blasting
three unidentified objects out of the skies
three days in a row now.
The latest incident was a high altitude object
shot down on Sunday by an F-16 over Lake Huron, which lies
between Michigan and Ontario.
On Saturday, a missile took down an object
flying at 40,000 feet over Central Yukon, way up in north
western Canada.
And that's just some of the aerial action that's
happened in the last few days.
No one within the Pentagon, the White House, or the government
of Canada seems to be able to say what exactly in the world
is going on.
We'll hear from CNN White House reporter
Natasha Bertrand, who's been following this story.
And in the coming weeks as this story continues to unfold,
you know we'll keep you up to date right here on CNN 10.
NATASHA BERTRAND: The US on edge, dispatching fighter jets
to shoot down yet another mysterious object
near Michigan's Lake Huron on Sunday.
The incident is the third time in as many days
that the US military has shot down an unidentified object
that was assessed to pose a risk to civilian aircraft, an
unprecedented series of events.
GLEN VANHERCK: I believe this is the first time within United
States of America airspace that NORAD or United States
Northern Command has taken kinetic action
against an airborne object.
NATASHA BERTRAND: On Friday and Saturday,
US jets shot down two more objects near Alaska
and over northern Canada.
Those objects were flying at around 40,000 feet
and had balloon-like features with a small metal cylinder
underneath, officials said.
Sunday's object over Lake Huron was flying at around 20,000
feet and it was described by officials
as "octagonal" with "potential surveillance capabilities."
The incidents have sparked confusion
and prompted bipartisan criticism from lawmakers.
JIM HIMES: I have real concerns about why the administration is
not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows,
but part of the problem here is that the second
and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas.
So my guess is that there's just not a lot of information
out there yet to share.
NATASHA BERTRAND: After a Chinese spy balloon transited
the US earlier this month and was also shot down,
the North American Aerospace Defense Command
readjusted its filters to better spot slow-moving targets
operating above a certain altitude, officials said,
which may be leading to more detections.
But officials say they won't know more about the objects
until they can recover and analyze all of the debris.
The incidents have also raised questions
about whether similar objects have simply gone undetected
in the past and whether shooting each one down
is the right response.
- What's become clear in the public discussion is that we
don't really have adequate radar systems,
we certainly don't have an integrated
missile defense system.
We're going to have to begin to look at the United States air
space as one that we need to defend
and that we need to have appropriate sensors to do so.
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COY WIRE: 10 Second Trivia.
Of the original 13 colonies, which
was the last to be established?
Georgia, Rhode Island, North Carolina, or Virginia?
[BEEPING]
Founded in 1732, Georgia was created
as a buffer between South Carolina
and the Spanish in Florida.
Up next, we're headed to the Barrier Islands
off southeastern Georgia.
The region is home to miles of undeveloped beaches,
seaside forests, salt marshes, and a proposed spaceport
hoping to launch rockets directly
over the National Seashore.
This has been quite the controversial topic,
as you can imagine, for nearby communities.
The residents, they don't want their serene and undisturbed
lands to be altered.
Let's go on the ground to this beautiful region for more.
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JIM RENNER: Directly across the river, right there
in those trees, that's the spaceport site and, actually,
the proposed launch pad site.
It's crazy to propose to launch rockets over Cumberland
Island National Seashore.
- This is Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island.
They're two barrier islands that form part of a wildlife
sanctuary off the southeastern coast of Georgia,
but a proposed spaceport is hoping to send rockets directly
over the National Seashore, altering the horizon
and stirring controversy in the secluded community.
The proposed rocket would also travel over private homes
on Little Cumberland Island.
This is something that's unprecedented.
SUE HUFF: My house is five miles downrange from the launch pad.
My understanding is I'm directly in the middle of the cone.
The fear of rockets going over my head is the failure rate.
And with a high failure rate, the concern is debris
falling on my property, on me.
- Small class rockets, like the one
Spaceport Camden hopes to launch,
can have up to a 20% failure rate.
Several of these small class rockets
have experienced issues in recent years,
showing what can happen when these types of rockets fail.
The odds of a direct impact crash are extremely low,
but many residents feel there is no acceptable amount
of risk when humans are in the rocket's path.
[RUMBLING]
[EXPLOSION]
[EXCLAIMING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
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JIM RENNER: This is part of the Cumberland
Island National Seashore.
And the idea that Camden County thinks they can safely launch
rockets over an area like this, where there's no opportunity
to monitor whether people are here or not,
there's no opportunity to bring firefighting equipment on here
and to fight a fire in maritime forests like this,
it's just ridiculous.
So this is a firebox, one of several
that we have stationed along the trails around Little
Cumberland Island.
This is our fire station.
We've got flappers, for putting out
if there's, you know, flames and a ground fire, rakes,
and they've got a hand-operated pump.
So take that, exploding rocket.
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STEVE HOWARD: There's all kinds of, you know,
risks that you have to look at and you have to evaluate it.
All of those things will be looked at when
a company comes forward.
You have to prepare for all those things,
but they're very remote that that would happen.
The likelihood of somebody getting hurt or worse, numbers
I looked at ranged from between 1 and 10 million to 1
in a billion with a B. This is more
than just launching rockets.
It's about all the opportunities to inspire the next generation.
Spaceport Camden will become the Silicon
Marsh of the East Coast.
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- In addition to the safety concerns,
skeptics point out that the outcome of Spaceport Camden
is by no means guaranteed and, therefore,
not worth the hefty price tag.
Camden County has spent more than $12 million
on the project over the last decade.
That's taxpayer money some residents say they
wish could be spent elsewhere.
The FAA has licensed 14 spaceports across the United
States, but Spaceport Camden would
be the first private spaceport to launch
rockets vertically over US citizens a few miles away.
And then there's the potential ecological risks
with the National Park and the proposed trajectory.
STEVE HOWARD: What you do in a launch site
application process is really a represented rocket.
We hope some of those companies at some point
will actually come here, you know, in the future,
but at this point, it'd be representative.
It was never about the rockets.
That becomes a catalyst, economic driver,
but you want all this innovation.
You want all this high-tech opportunity.
You want to drive that innovation
and lift up the whole coast of Georgia.
- After a series of delays, the County secured a Spaceport
Operator License from the FAA in late 2021,
but Camden County residents petitioned
for a special election where they overwhelmingly
voted to block the County from purchasing
the land for the spaceport.
In February 2023, Georgia's Supreme Court unanimously
rejected an appeal by Camden County officials,
preventing the coastal community from moving
forward with the spaceport.
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COY WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10?
Hootie-hoo!
An owl taking up residence in a library of Agnes Scott College
in Georgia for almost a week.
After flying in through a chimney,
it took days for the school to remove
the feathery friend before it was finally
released outside on Friday.
Students were finally able to use the library again.
And I'm telling you, the whole ordeal has
become a joke around campus.
That poor bird just didn't want to be like Celine Dion.
(SINGING) Owl by myself.
[LAUGHS]
Oh gosh, I should never sing ever again.
All right, lovely people, a special
shout out to Woodbridge High School
in Woodbridge, New Jersey.
And Happy Valentine's Day to you and you and you from me
and my team.
We're putting up our heart hands for you.
Today's a great opportunity to spread
some love and appreciation.
So go on out and make someone smile today.
I'm Coy Wire and we are on CNN 10.
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