And i look forward to it because this is such a great story. It is super exciting. Tell me about rosetta and what was it about. What did we learn from it. , incredibly exciting. People know they are these large balls of ice and rock, that he how people dont know incredible they are. They are actually time capsules. When our solar system was forming, there were these little bits left over that became, its omets or asteroids. We have a chance to understand where we all came from. The interesting thing to me about rosetta, there was the beauty of the images that returned, but we had the chance to learn that the water in our bodies was more like asteroids and comets. Charlie am i right in that this was a 12 year flight . That is right. In 2004. Was iaunch was the rosetta actually had two different touchdowns. 2014. Uched down in and today, the entire spacecraft came down onto the comet. Now, there are two different little spacecrafts part of the human race that are out there in till the end of time. Charlie this landing must have been very difficult, though. Well, they had some practice before. We had the landing back in 2014. That was not without its dramatic moment, of course. The scientists wanted it to land on a flat surface, so it would not bounce around and leave the comet, because it does not have as much of a gravitational pull as earth. But as they discovered later, it bounced around a little bit. This time, they are not able to really know what happened to it. The link back, the communication link back to us is now severed. Charlie what is most surprising about this, then . About . Charlie the Successful Mission and landing on the comet. Is it the landing and the data they have gained, or understanding something about the way comets work . I think it was something that came to be after many, many years of dreaming, that Something Like this could happen. The idea for this mission goes back to the 1970s. Approvedt until the 1990s and finally took off in 2004. It springs all of this imagination fourth. Imagination forth. We are trying to land on and mine asteroids. The data that came back, the linkage back to the beginnings of time is beautiful. Charlie rachel feldman, what do you love about this story . I love a lot about this story. I have been following this since the orbiter a couple years ago. The Early Landing was fantastic. It really captured the publics imagination. People have been way more engaged in this Scientific Research on comics them he would have been otherwise because people got really attached to this lander and really invested in its story when it went missing. It is all wrapped up kind of nicely. It is very recently that they actually located the lander in its final resting place. One thing i love about the end of the Rosetta Mission is it sounds like a waste of a billiondollar spacecraft to crash into the comet, but it is a perfect way to end the mission. The comet is on the outward leg of its landing out. As the spacecraft about farther away, it would have lost the sunlight and needed to power its system. So, instead of watching it slowly die or hoping that they could wake it back up again in five years, they decided to send it on a final nosedive into a particularly interesting part of the comet. The crashhey got from landing today will actually contribute to the body of knowledge that we have about this comet, and comets in general. It is a really awesome way to send off a Successful Mission. Charlie i want to remind our viewers, the comet is moving at 80,000 miles per hour. Help us understand more about comets. What happens to them when they approach the sun . What do we learn from them and why are they important . Was one of the main goals of the mission, to observe the comet as it approaches the sun. Comets have a beautiful tale. Has a beautiful tail. The solar wind blows the tail out. That is what you usually see associated with a comet, this beautiful, long tail. We were actually there as it approached the sun. We saw jets of gas coming off of the comet. This was a ringside seat of understanding the process of a creates the tail. That was exciting for me, every day as it got closer to the sun, you see more activity and dramatic things going on. Charlie two things happened this week. We were also reminded by elon musk he is going to try to go to mars, and try to send a spacecraft to mars, and people to mars at some point in the future. And then, this remarkable landing on a comet by rosetta. This says one more time that the exploration of skies is continuing. There has been a constant exploration of what we dont know. It is continuing, even though it might not have had as much attendant publicity as we were sending up spacecrafts to land on the moon. Yes . Well, one of the things for me is the advent of social media has changed the publicity means. I was very impressed by the fact that when we flew by pluto we had a social media footprint of over 12 billion, which means they were billions of people around the world who came back more than once to learn about the mission. It is true that in the apollo days things were being talked about in the united states, things were frontpage news. But i am proud of the fact that we have a very broad reach now. That is an evolution i have enjoyed seeing. The European Space agency took wonderful advantage of this rosetta. Nasa was along to help with that as well. Charlie nasa was involved with this in what way . Nasa contributed three of the instruments. There were a number of the projects n that included nasa scientists. As far as social media, they had these cartoon characters for both the orbiter and the lander. The characters would show you what is going on. Gotte to say, but people emotionally attached to them. I found myself choking back tears. It really got me very absorbed into this mission. Charlie army going to learn new things are we going to learn new things about the formation of the universe . Well, we have learned quite a bit already. For example, we know that, as a fellow said, there were amino acids on the comet. Scientists dont think there was life on these comets, but when they crashed onto earth, maybe they brought with them a starter pack for life. Charlie a starter pack for life. Exactly. So, bryson, for example, is one of these compounds. Right now, it is one of the compounds that is found in lots of proteins. You also have phosphorus being brought by things like this. Thats involved in dna make up. Theseu have these, um, elements that link us back to the beginnings of the universe. There is tons of tons of data, images, the rosetta spacecraft took that scientists will continue to analyze for years to come. Charlie the Associated Press wrote, should earth ever be threatened by an asteroid, the experience gained by the Rosetta Mission would prove valuable. Yeah, so, you know, in general, when we talk about flying space rocks, you want to understand how they are, how they behaved during their orbit. One thing that is interesting is that when we look at asteroids eear earth and you know, th upcoming asteroidrelated missions that nasa has planned. They will grab a little piece of an asteroid or try to redirect an asteroid. A big part of those missions is just understanding the way those bodies interact with the sun as they come closer to it. For example, we know that when t hese bodies warm up it changes their trajectory a little bit, but we dont quite understand that well enough to factor that into you know, models of how close it might get. Which is why there is often a when margin of error youre talking about how likely something is to hit earth. So, just understanding how these things are composed, how they came to be, how the act when they are close to the sun will really help us determine whether or not something is actually a goodt, but also, if we get at having a spacecraft that can can successfully orbit o or land on these bodies, we can stop them from hitting earth. Charlie what is the most tantalizing question for you about Space Exploration mark i will start with you, michelle . About space expiration . I will start with you, michelle . [laughter] well, we are trying to find a bit of our own history out there. Comets are a very important piece of that puzzle. We have a sample of what you were like, about what your molecules were like, what the conditions were like billions of years ago. So, i am looking for that story of, why am i here talking to you . How did the universe make that happen . Charlie rachel . For me, i am excited about the upcoming planned mission , and will launch in 2022 these other missions looking at our own moons and is Alert Systems that have these Global Oceans on them that for all we know, could be filled with microbial life. For me, it is always exciting when we talk about other planets. It is always exciting when we talk about other solar systems, but the idea that we might be able to find life so close to home, or not find life, even though all the conditions that should support it exist is so intriguing. And i cant wait until we are far enough along to answer those questions. Charlie and for you . I am a huge traveler. For me, it is the idea that perhaps in my lifetime, i could pay a couple hundred thousand dollars or less to get into space. I want to go up there and see the earth and the moon up closer. Charlie me too. Because anybody who has seen it says it is like nothing you cant imagine the experience of seeing the perspective of, there is earth. I get choked up just seeing glaciers. Arth from abovee would be spectacular. Charlie thank you all. You have wet my appetite to know more about the expiration into space. About the exploration into space. We will be right back. Charlie Mark Phillips is here, foreignor correspondent for cbs news. He blends accuracy and attitude with a little humor mixed in on the side. His catalog of work has earned him the respect of his peers and him multiple emmyslt enemieg edward r. Murrowrmor o award. Princess, not yet 10 years old when she left the palace with her parents. Eyes, she opened here she would see what would become a familiar sight, millions of people looking at here. I used to work there. The queen doesnt only understand the job. The royal author says she defined it. The queen is not elected. She is there to be, not to do. Charlie i am pleased to have Mark Phillips here. He is a colic and highly respected by me and my colleagues at the cbs morning program. Can you think of anything you would rather do . Other than go sailing . [laughter] no, i could not think of a career that i would have rather had than the one i have had. There, its, you know, it is not all gallivanting through the worlds garden spots, i will say that. Charlie some of them can be like hell. Some of them are and the hours are crazy because if you work overseas, you are up until midnight to 1 00 in the morning. But no, it has been pretty satisfying. Charlie is it simply storytelling that you love . It is finding out stuff. I guess that amounts to the same thing. And figuring out how to get across what it is that you are witnessing, and not just that, but even more important, what you are witnessing means, not just to the people there, but to the people in the audience back here. Charlie you did a little q a with the people over at cbs, and i read the transcript of that. [laughter] charlie here is what came out of it, a great sense of the explanatory role of journalism, connecting events to the lives of people. So, it is not just the shock of the new. It is the meaning of the new. Yeah, i think we all recognize in television that its not the best medium for explaining stuff. Its too easy to rely on the emotional. It is a close of medium. The trying, tearstained babys face. It is the journalism of victimhood. Because a, it is the thing you see. It is a lot easier to put that picture on the air, and let it tell its story, than it is to get into the reasons as to why that kid is in that situation. Charlie people always ask me, why so many fires and why so much blood . It is not just in television. There is a tendency right through the medium and journalism generally the if it bleeds it needs, maxim. But i do want to get too highminded about this. Havef you are there, you the responsibility to tell people what is going on and white is going on. Charlie the London Bureau is legendary within the halls of cbs. A goes back to it goes back to murrow. There is something there. There is. I think it is a very special place, within the company, and within the business. It was effectively, the first foriegn bureau established by rs,row during the war yea which was radio. Charlie is london your favorite place to live . I think the more places he lived, there is no favorite play. But london is a good place to live. Charlie it also depends on where you are and what the story isa at that place. If you were there during the years when it went from gorbachev to i had three general secretary. At the very end of andropov, i had the beginnings of the whole gorbachev thing. It was a whirlwind when i was there. It was also during the period when you could actually see the bits falling off of the system. The dissident story was very active at that point. Street markets were being set up. Ofre was a desperate sense trying to keep the system together. Gorbachev said letter that it was a losing cause. So, yes, it was a terrific time to be there. Charlie at cbs news, one of the most meaningful moments to me because i was so new and green, i was doing night watch. I was the person who had to announced the death to the world from cbs news in washington. Was and we opened up to moscow. And i thought, my god. I had interviewed lots of russians, including Foreign Ministers and one president. What do you think of putin today . Well, i think it is such a familiar pattern. Charlie mike andropov, like kgb. Op ofandropov, a former well, they like the levers of power. He follows in that mold, the great democratic experiment, the post 1990 years. It is a tough place to be an opposition politician these days, or an opposition journalist these days. Charlie like turkey. In some ways, like turkey. Journalistically, i prefer the old moscow. I have been back quite a few times and i giggle when i walked down the streets now because the old building, which had the names literally carved into stone are now covered with glitzy signs for panasonic and what have you. It is pretty amusing sometimes. Charlie what was the most interesting war you have covered . It is hard to talk about having a favorite. The most interesting war . I dont know if there is a more interesting. I think i did a count of somewhere around 20 different conflicts. Charlie there is Something Interesting about that, too. How do you know when you have decided, this is the last one. I spoke with Richard Ingle the other day. Fan of what i a bullets whisked around me. I am not a fan. Because i dont charlie you mean the tradition. That is right. I dont think you have to be seen to jumping into holes and covered in dust to explain these things. I think there probably is one roll of the dice too many. Sadly, people have paid the ultimate price. You never know when that is coming, but sometimes, i think you can smell when it is close. Charlie can you really . I think you can, yeah. I can think of two or three times when i thought, i really shouldnt be here. Charlie when you feel that, what is your instinct . Initially, to duck and be more careful. Mostly, you are thinking, how do i get out of this particular one . Will be more careful next time. Charlie there is a lot of culture in london and a lot of theater. There is a lot of opera. It is a wonderful city and there is a history, which would be enormously appealing to me, to be in the midst of all of that. Yes, it is a great place to live. Charlie but as a journalist as well. There are two places in europe that are a story in and among themselves. Britain is one because of all the things you mentioned. Charlie britain, and not just london. Yes, and people will make the case that london isnt britain like they make the case that new york isnt america. [laughter] charlie it is the notion that it ends at the hudson. The other one is italy. There is a kind of residual interest in the audience here. People find the brits amusing, so you can do a lot of softer pieces, cultural pieces about the british. And you can kind of do it about the italians. Nobody finds the french or the germans amusing. Fabulous,ondon is a fabulous place to live. There is a lot going on. Charlie so, if the powers that be tell me what kinds of stories that you would most like to do. What would you tell them . I said, the thing i am trying to push most now is the climate story. I think the climate story is the big story around now, and it has invocations that are economic, that are social. Charlie the whole climate diaries. Diariesi have a climate series that runs when i have time to get added in the mi dst of Everything Else going on. It is driving a lot of the refugee question, particularly out of africa. It is undeniable that something is going on and that we have to adjust and somehow cope with what is coming. And we should be doing more. Charlie whatever limitations there are, in terms of doing imate, for example, is it your time or air time that is the greater restriction . I would say my time. The company that is interested in the story is pretty good about it. Mostly it is the question of freeing enough time. News stories kind fof happen. I saw bits of the refugee story going on. They take place within a certain restricted time period. The climate stories you have to go get. So, it is travel time and production time. There are fewer of them than th ere are for you average daily news story. Charlie it is the biggest story and the biggest challenge. It has been argued that it is bigger than terrorism. It has the power to threaten our entire civilization. Guest no question about it. Climate is a Freight Train chugging down the tracks. Charlie there is a lot of coverage, but you dont sense that, you notice there and a big story, but you dont see people having the same fear. It is like you cannot see it. To places were the melting are taking place. Guest you are starting to see it. If you look at the numbers, you are stirring to see it. If you look at the climate refugee problem, it is already happening. Charlie explain that. Guest i just did a piece that has not gone on area it. The un now estimates an area the size of alaska is called salt affected agricultural land, because of approaching sea levels and Climate Change, there are areas were people stop growing stuff, p