Osgood ship of state is a figure of speech we sometimes use to refer to this country and those in charge of it. This morning Mark Strassman will be taking us aboard the United States not the figure of speech but the real ship. Reporter the s. S. United states was once the pride of our nation. She still holds the title of the fastest and some would say most beautiful ship weve ever built. But today shes in danger of being sold for scrap. Her legend fading like the paint on her smoke stacks. Later on sunday morning. They dont build em like this anymore. Osgood wayne brady is entertainer very much of our own time boasting a multitude of talents that can barely be catalogued let alone contained. With lee cowan well watch him at work. Make me reminisce reporter he can sing dance and deal. Who wants to make a deal. Reporter wayne brady does it all and loves it all. How do you see yourself . I see myself as the guy who can do whatever you want him to do. Theres something. Reporter he juggles more in a day than many entertainers do in a month. Keeping up that pace is the deal he made with himself ahead on sunday morning. Osgood kelly looks into the murder charges against olympian Oscar Pistorius. Steve hartman honors a hero of the Sandy Hook School shooting. Mo rocca offers president s day weekend honors to the memory of ulysses s. Grant. First here are the headlines for this sunday morning the 17th of february, 2013. Russian Officials Say damage from fridays High Altitude meteor explosion in russia could run more than 30 million dollars. Thousands of people over a wide area are spending this weekend replacing windows shattered by shock waves from the blast. South African Television last night aired a reality show starring Reeva Steenkamp the model shot to death on valentines day in the pretoria home of olympic track star Oscar Pistorius. This morning a minister prayed with pistorius at the jail where hes being held on murder charges. Well have more on this later on sunday morning. Pakistan says at least 81 people were killed and nearly 200 injured were injured when a bomb exploded yesterday at a Vegetable Market in a mostly shiite neighborhood. Many of the wounded are said to be in critical condition. Usa today reports that the draft of a proposed white house immigration bill allows for legal residency for millions of Illegal Immigrants within the next eight years or so. Love is in the air in south korea, lots of love. Today 3500 couples exchanged vows in a mass ceremony outside seoul. The brides and grooms are members of the unification church. Some of the newlyweds said they had just met. Heres todays weather. Cold and windy from the great lakes to new england. A foot of snow could fall in parts of maine and massachusetts. The cool weather will stick around during the week ahead accompanied at times by cold rain. Next intruders from above. And later,. Buddy hackett, alan osgood this is an actual meteorite on loan to us from the smithsonians Natural Museum of Natural History. A smaller cousin to the object that fell out of the blue in russia the other day. Our sunday morning cover story is reported now by rit a braver. Reporter the meteor that shot through the sky over central russia on friday exploding into a shower of fire balls created shock waves that were felt for miles. More than 1200 people were injured. Shattered glass was everywhere, and thousands of buildings were damaged. The meteors do fall frequently, such devastating events are rare. But remember many scientists believe it was an asteroid smashing into the earth some 65 million years ago that caused wild fires that changed the environment so much dinosaurs could no longer survive. And for generations humans have been trying to understand the hows and whys of these missiles from outer space. This is probably the largest exhibit in the world in terms of meteorites on display. Reporter the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has amassed a major collection of them, overseen by linda wellsinback. This looks like a piece of sculpture. Iron meteorites are interesting in many ways because they are fragments of an asteroid that has been completely disrupted. Were getting pieces of something that at one time was a full planet. Reporter in fact, most of the meteorites that land on earth come from the asteroid belt, an area between mars and jupiter where space debris collects. Here is a little space terminology. Asteroids are minor planetlike objects that usually orbit the sun. Meteoroids are much smaller bodies. When either enters the earths atmosphere its known as a meteor. After it hits the earth its called a meteorite. Youve got 50,000 meteorites in your collection. Why are you still trying to get more . Because every single one is a puzzle piece that adds to the information that we understand about the history of our solar system and the history of the development of the earth. Reporter you put me in my place. Meteorites are so sought after that theres a little known federal government project. The antarctic search for meteorites program. It sends scientists, including wellsinback, on annual expeditions. When somebody sees one they stop and their first job is to do a little dance. We have a wave that people do. Then we all converge on the site. Reporter ralph harvey, associate professor of Planetary Science at clevelands Case Western Reserve University has been leading the 37yearold Program Since 1991. The reason we know this is a meteorite is that burnt black coating. Reporter he says its not that there are more meteorites in antarctica than the rest of the world but that they are better preserved in the frigid landscape. There are meteorites weve collected in antarctica where theyre so young we cant measure that age. There are others we found that fell several million years ago. Theres everything in between. The average seems to be about 25 to 30,000 years. Reporter to the scientists delight theyve even found samples from the moon and mars. This is an Easter Egg Hunt unlike any Easter Egg Hunt anywhere. Reporter the yearly catch is shipped to nasas Johnson Space center. Here in the nondecember crypt building number 31. This is the air shower. Reporter . Where you have to suit up to protect the meteorites from contamination. The precious cargo is unpacked and catalogued under the watchful eye of curator kevin rider. Theyre frozen from the time theyre collected and returned all the way along the legs of the journey to get to houston. Reporter each sample is carefully examined and given a name based on where it was found. So we get to see a martian meteorite. This sample is elephant morain 79001. Its a basaltic rock from mars. Reporter it was studying a martian meteorite found in antarctica that led scientists to the discovery that there was once water on mars. And those these ugly ducklings may all look similar to the naked eye each meteorite has different chemical and mineral content. Under a polarizing microscope, there is beautiful. Theyre as beautiful as stained glass windows for its what they may some day tell us that really matters. I would say that the study of meteorites is akin to where biology was in the predarwin era. Were bringing back all sorts of funky new creatures and were trying to fit them into a framework and understand how one relates to another. Reporter since the Antarctic Program began in 1976, its cost about 25 million. The Curiosity Rover Mission now analyzing samples on the surface of mars, cost about 2. 5 billion and wont even bring back any material to earth. This is a way to get a piece of mars that costs us a millionth of what that project might cost. Reporter youve described this whole operation as kind of a poor mans space mission. A poor persons space mission. Reporter poor persons. The antarctic missions have brought back more than 20,000 meteorites, and the program has loaned thousands of samples to researchers all over the world who are trying to make discoveries about the evolution of planets and stars. Still, at the smithsonian. We have calcium aluminum rich inclusions. Those were the first things to form in the solar system. Reporter Antarctic Meteorite curator Kerry Kerrigan and her colleague linda wellsinback are well aware that some members of Congress Want to shut down the project. Thats very disheartening to me because i think thats not looking at the big picture. I think thats a little short sighted. This silly little rock that it looks like you could just pick up in your backyard can tell us four billion years of history of the solar system. Reporter as you might expect theres major interest at the smithsonian in what happened in russia. Keep in mind fridays russian meteor is estimated at about 50 feet in diameter versus more than six miles across for the one believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. So could something even worse ever be headed our way . There are a lot of large object out there. At anyone time they can be put into the inner solar system and intersect earths orbit. The answer is, it could happen. Reporter but the unsettling reality is theres nothing researchers could do about it. So, they are far more focused on the idea of solving the puzzle of how the solar system formed. Its a daunting task for sure. It is. But the picture does become slightly clearer each and every time we find something new. And the new questions that are generated from that next thing is what keeps us going. Osgood next, small wonder. I get so worried today when someone in my family gets the flu. Fact advil not only relieves body aches and pains that can come with the flu it also reduces fever fast. Relief doesnt get any better than this. Advil. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina change engineering in dubai aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. And now a page from our sunday morning almanac. February 17, 1972, 41 years ago today. Memorable mile post for the little car that could. For that was the day the 15,74th volkswagen beatle rolled off the assembly line. Surpassing the old record set by the ford modelt which shut down production in 1927 after a 19year run. It was german chancellor Adolph Hitler who launched the v. W. In 1933 when he called on the legendary Ferdinand Porsche to design a lowcost peoples car or volkswagen. Largescale production didnt begin until after world war ii. Worldwide success was a while in coming. In all of 1949 exactly two beatles were sold in the United States. Over time, however the small car with the rearmounted aircooled engine became genuinely cool. Helped in large measure but those witty and understated ads. Though ford initially disputed v. W. s claim to the production record no one disputes the beatles claim to a special place in our popular culture. After all theres a beatle behind the beatles on the cover of abby road. What is it . A 200yearold volkswagen. Osgood woody allen paid tribute in the 1973 time travel movie. They really built these things, didnt they . Reporter and disney cast the beatle as the star of the herbie the love boat films. The last of the original design beatles was built in mexico in 2003. Five years after the debut of a newer and more futuristic beatle, which has just rolled into modern year 2013. Today the v. W. Beatle is 4th in alltime production ranks between the toyota core al a the Ford F Series and volkswagens own gulf. As for the modelt nearly 86 years after production stopped the tin lizy still finishes number 8. I kristen thee United States. Osgood coming up full steam ahead. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . [ theresa ] it does surprise me how much acidic foods im actually taking in a day. In the morning i start with coffee then i move to diet cola. I usually have a salad with dressing. And tomatoes. Certain things in my diet could be causing acid erosion. When the enamel of your teeth erodes. Its not coming back. My dentist suggested that i use pronamel. It was going to help protect against some of the acid that i was taking in throughout the day. By using pronamel twice a day. I feel more confident about my smile and about the health of my teeth. [ male announcer ] ive seen incredible things. Otherworldly things. But there are some things ive never seen before. This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. pupx÷÷pwpwpw osgood sail on, owe ship of state. Sail on, you union strong and great. Henry wad worths longfellow wrote those stirring words in his 1849 poem the building of the ship. A ship he meant as a metaphor for our country. Roughly a century later we built a ship that really did stand for our country. But as Mark Strassman is about to show us, today that ship of state is no longer sailing on. Reporter if you ever find yourself south of downtown philadelphia in the parking lot of this strip mall, take a look past the buzzing traffic. Announcer americas bid for the supremacy of the seas. Reporter there chained to an idle dock floats a legend, forlorn and largely forgotten. Only her name still speaks to the pride she once inspired across the nation. The s. S. United states. Announcer a ship that would be so fast and so easily handled handled, she could outmaneuver any other. This is the most famous ship that didnt sink. We all know the titanic. And this spectacular Maiden Voyage catastrophe. This ship is famous precisely because she did her job. Reporter susan gibbs, the executive director of the s. S. United states conservancy, never sailed on this ship. But interest in the vessels fate runs in her blood. Her grandfather William Francis gibbs, was the ships designer. How important is this to you . This has become. Certainly my grandfather was obsessed with the ship. My children would say i am following in his footsteps. Reporter gibbs was a selftaught naval architect a harvard dropout with a singleminded devotion to his work. He was once asked mr. Gibbs do you love that ship more than your wife . And gibbs responded youre 1,000 correct. His wife happened to be there and didnt mind. She understood what the ship men to him. This author has set out to restore the acclaimed gibbs once enjoyed. Consider this. Announcer one year after entering the war United States gains in naval tonnage shatter all records. Reporter during world war ii, three quarters of the u. S. Naval vessels built were designed by gibbs firm, from destroyers to liberty ships. Announcer this is the supreme moment of invasion. Reporter . To the Landing Craft used on dday. The prime requisites where speed, power and passenger comfort. Reporter after the war gibbs poured everything he knew into one ultimate ship. I kristen thee United States. Reporter larger, faster and far safer than the titanic. The vessel could accommodate 2,000 passengers in high style though if war broke out she could be converted to carry 14,000 troops. The design was so revolutionary it was classified. While censorship for bids revealing details of her lower held construction it is no secret that the new liner possesses structural strength and features for safety unknown in shipbuilding even a few short years ago. Reporter on her very First Atlantic crossing in july 1952, she set the world speed record three days ten hours and 40 minutes. Her return time from england to new york remains unbeaten to this day. Announcer on her return to new york city, nearly everyone seemed to turn out to see the sleek new ship slide into the harbor. Imagine taking a structure the size of the Chrysler Building turning it on its side and pushing it through the atlantic at a 44 miles an hour speed. Thats a heck of a lot of engineering. On top of that, make it the most beautiful ship in the world. Reporter this beautiful ship attracted the Beautiful People of her day. Marilyn monroe, marlin brand oh, the duke and deutch he is of windsor, artist sal dore dali. Even that legendary european beauty the mona lisa made the crossing aboard the big u. It was a heady experience for everyone on board. I remembered how absolutely gorgeous those stacks were. What it looks like when its painted properly. Reporter back in 1958, fiveyearold Roz Mcpherson and her family sailed to her fathers new army posting in europe. They had come from the segregated south. But mcpherson discovered something remarkable on board. The ship was color blind. You figure thats 1958. That was a big deal to us as a family from the south because i would not have been frolicking in a pool in new orleans, i can guarantee you that. Reporter with the white kids. And white families. Here my parents are dressed up in the lounge sitting there with white people. We were really treated like regular human beings on this voyage. Reporter everything about the experience made passengers feel special. And yet no ship could compete with