Accident. And a walk to remember. Nik wallenda amazes once again, tightrope walking between two sky escapers in chicago. Its absolutely beautiful. Stunning. He will join us live today, monday, november 3rd, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And, good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Im matt lauer alongside al roker, Natalie Morales and after 12 weeks she has left baby vale. Oh in the good hands of her husband, mike, and savannah is back from her Maternity Leave. And i thought you were going to say and samantha godfrey, welcome back. I remember the name. How did that alarm feel . It sounds like a baby crying, but its so great to see everybody and all our friends behind the scenes. Its fun. Too much of that vale video and you may have some waterworks. Out on the plaza, people welcoming you back from Maternity Leave. Look at that one. I was up all night working on that sign. Great to have you back. Well have visits with vale later on. Meanwhile, look who is back from chicago after a late night. It was a thrilling night and so glad it all went off amazingly. Nik wallenda. Nik wallenda, making history again with two walks over the city. A nail biter. It was. Huge crowd turned out. Its good to have you here. Well have more on nichlt ks amazing feats later on. Lets get to our top story this morning. And its a sad one. A choice by Brittany Maynard, that 29yearold who became the face of death with Dignity Movement to end her own life. Tamron has the latest on that. Good morning to you. Brittany maynard made that decision months ago after being diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. She went through with her promise over the weekend, dying peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. She made her final Facebook Post on saturday, writing, goodbye to all my dear friends and family that i love. Today is the day i have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness. This terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me but would have taken so much more. The story of the 29yearold diagnosed with terminal brain cancer made headlines when she moved to oregon to take advantage of that states death with dignity act. A video explaining her decision to end her life on november 1st went viral with 10 million views on youtube. I dont have to die the way that it has been described to me the way that my brain tumor would take me. Just last week, a new video, alluding to a possible delay. November 2nd comes along and im still alive, i know that well just still be moving forward as a family like out of love for each other and that decision will come later. Reporter overnight a statement from end of Life Association associated with with maynard read in part, she chose to abbreviate the dying process by taking the aid in dying medication she received months ago. She died as she intended, peacefully, in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones. There were heartfelt tweets about maynards passing. Your story, compassion and fight will never leave me. She modeled the bravery of facing death with dignity. She, not cancer, had the last word. In her last online post, she thanked family and close friends, who she called her ring of support before ending with a final message. Goodbye, world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward. Her official obituary released sunday night reading she left this world with zero regrets on time spent, places been or people she loved in her 29 years. Seize the day. Whats important to you . What do you care about . What matters . Pursue that. Forget the rest. Just last month she and her family took a trip to the grand canyon, the last task on her bucket list. In the end, Brittany Maynard said about her decision, the freedom is in the choice. Guys, back over to you. Tamron, thank you very much. A lot of people will be weighing in on this and sharing their emotions, both positive and in some cases, negative. It is a controversial decision. Controversial but what a remarkable young woman. Absolutely. Brutal cold being felt by tens of millions across the east this morning. That, after a nasty storm brought snow from maine to the deep south. Todays dylan dreyer is in a very chilly bangor, maine. I recognize that winter coat. I didnt think it would be out this early. Reporter me either. It was warm when you left. You come back, it feels like the heart of winter and i know you were not gone that long. Even hardy new englanders are saying this snow storm hit way too early. That erright. 14 1 2 of snow on the ground here. Thats typically what you would see around christmastime, not right after halloween. Trying to restore power to the more than 100,000 people that lost it. Its not just the snow, but the cold stretches all the way down south. Judging by all this, its hard to believe that winter is still more than six weeks away. In bangor, maine, this morning, theyre waking up to more than a foot of snow. Mid fall and already heavy snow and 50mileperhour wind gusts are making highways look downright wintry. Snow dusting pumpkins and covering foliage just days after halloween. Its funny. Yesterday, you could see i was out here, cleaning my leaves up out of putting my garden beds away. What a difference a day makes. Reporter in foxborough, massachusetts, wet and white weather couldnt keep Patriots Fans down. This is patriot football weather. I love it. Reporter 50,000 runners bundled up for the 44th new york city marathon, making an already brutal 26. 2 miles even more difficult. Even for the professionals. Very strong run. I feel like i fought the whole way in these tough conditions. Reporter even the south couldnt escape early snow. Cold temperatures from georgia to the carolinas. Skiers, reveling in the second earliest opening at north carolinas Sugar Mountain ski resort. Theyre great. Just getting them warmed up for the rest of the season. So cold, records were set in florida. Yes, florida, where cold air brought new lows to miami, Daytona Beach and orlando. So, of course, november wasnt off to a great start this weekend. The good news is we should already start to turn the corner. By this afternoon, temperatures should rebound down across the south and the midatlantic. Get back to normal. Dylan, thank you so much. Warm up. Were also watching a major system coming out from the south. This will be a big impact for a wide south for election day from del rio, texas, dallas, up into oklahoma. Were talking some areas picking up three to five inches of rain. Thats going to be spreading to the north. We also have another major system coming onshore into the pacific northwest. And that area is going to be looking over the next 48 hours anywhere from three to six inches of rain. And that moisture down south, thats going to be making its way here into the northeast. And we may be looking at another storm system coming up this weekend. Al. Yea happy dance all right, al. Thank you very much. In the meantime, were learning more this morning about what may have led to that tragic crashative Virgin Galactic space plane during a test flight. In a moment well talk to the companys founder, sir Richard Branson. First, jacob rascon has the latest on the investigation. Good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning to you. The ntsb wants us to be clear, these new facts dont tell us the official cause of the crash. That will take much longer. Video and flight data taken inside and outside the cockpit was a mistake by both man and machine. A break in the investigation into Virgin Galactics failed test flight killed one pilot and injured another, active chairman saying the tails or feathers of the space plane, which are only supposed to deploy as the aircraft reenters the atmosphere deployed before the plane ever got into space. Ntsb saying video from inside the cockpit shows the copilot, michael alsbury, who died in the crash, unlocked the feathers as the rocket ignited. They dont deploy simply because theyre unlocked. Video and flight data confirmed nobody pulled that lever. The feathers deployed on their own. Seconds later, the aircraft came apart. Were a long way from finding cause. We still have months and months of investigation, a lot to do, a lot we dont know. Reporter this is the biggest piece of what is left. What would have carried six space tourists and two pilots into suborbit. More than 700 people have already bought tickets including justin bieber, katy perry and leonardo dicaprio. The community is mourning the loss of alsbury. He was a friend and a colleague to, you know, to all of us. Never gets replaced. Reporter and the surviving pilot, peter siebolt, is recovering after surgery. Is he talking to doctors but not yet well enough to talk to investigators. He may prove critical, matt, into understanding what the ntsb just found. Jacob rascon, thank you very much. Sir Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Galactic. Sir richard, good morning to you. Good morning. I know its early and the ntsb is saying its going to take a long time to have concrete answers. The preliminary ideas that the copilot on this flight may have started the deployment process of those tails or feathers at the wrong time, have you seen that video . Can you confirm that . I havent seen the video myself. The ntsb, you know, are leading the investigation. And we go by exactly what they tell us. But, you know, if the deployment did take place early, obviously, theyre indicating that may well be the cause. But we need them to examine that further and let us know. I know youre taking a wait and see approach, sir richard. But people are already wondering whether this accident and the death of this copilot is a crippling blow. There have been delays, setbacks in the past with this program and can Virgin Galactic survive the image thats now been seen around the world of that space vehicle coming apart at 45,000 feet . I think that if we can find what the ntsb is pointing to, and if that ends up to be the case, that is something which is easy to fix and we can make absolutely certain that, you know, it cannot be done again in the future. So, i think, you know, we have a wonderful spacecraft, spaceship, wonderful 400 engineers trying to make history and theyre not going to put down tools. Theyre going to move forward and create a Spaceship Company that will be, hopefully, one day the marvel of the world. Yes, its been a horrible setback, obviously, for mike alsburys family and mike himself but we owe it to him to continue. And that, we will do. Even as you say we owe it to him to continue, im thinking back to the early days of the nasa programs going into space. Although they had tragic loss of life as well, that was about the advancement of science. It was about that giant leap for mankind and rightly or wrongly, people dont see your program in the same light. They think it is more of an expensive thrill ride. So, is it worth the risks . Absolutely, its worth the risks. I mean, our program is about many different things. First of all, its about giving the millions of people who would like to go to space the chance to go to space. Secondly, its about putting up massive arrays of satellites to enable the 3 billion people, for instance, who dont have mobile phone, Internet Access or wifi access to get them. Third its about pointtopoint travel in the future in an environmentally friendly way at a fraction of the time it takes today. And i can carry on. So, its a grand its a grand program which has had a horrible setback, but i dont think anybody watching this program would want us to abandon it at this stage. Sir Richard Branson, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks, matt. All right. Turn over to natalie and troubling news out of iraq this morning. Thats right. Its being called the worst blood shed in iraq in months. Isis rounded up and massacred a sunni tribal leader, says his men were overrun by isis. Islamic militants then shot 200 men at close range along with dozens of women and children. State television is reporting that iraqs Prime Minister has ordered air strikes on isis targets in response to the killings. World trade center is open for business, 13 years after the 9 11 terror attacks, conde nast will start moving into the building today. It is americas tallest building. Its executive director says the new york city skyline is whole again. Republicans and democrats are deadlocked going into tomorrows midterm elections, according to the latest wall street journal poll. 46 of likely voters prefer a republicancontrolled congress. Control of the senate and 36 governor seats. A patient who recently return friday liberia is being closely monitored for ebola at Duke University medical center. According to health officials, the individual developed a fever sunday morning. The patient did not have any known exposure to ebola while in liberia. Preliminary test results are expected later today. And tensions boiling over at the racetrack on sunday as a brawl erupted on pit road. Drivers jeff gordon and Brad Keselowski faced off after a race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Cars bumped on the track a few moments earlier but Kevin Harvick and several crew men also getting involved. Free for all, pushing and shoving and plenty of punches thrown in, too. Both gordon and keselowski suffered cuts to their faces in the melee. Pretty hard to see that. Keep it on the track, guys. Like hockey. A really quick rebound, which is the good news. Outside, you can see basically beautiful weather up and down the eastern seaboard. Lot of that snow in new england will be gone by late this afternoon. Heavy rain moving into the pacific northwest. Plenty of sunshine through the plains. Gorgeous day in los angeles today. Sunny skies and 75. Today. Sunny skies and 75. Well get to let us be lovers, well marry our fortunes together ive got some real estate here in my bag it took me four days to hitchhike from saginaw ive come to look for america good morning. Im meteorologist bill henley. A cold start this morning, but a warmer afternoon. In the upper 50s to near 60 degrees with much less wind than yesterday. Tomorrow will be even warmer. It wont be as cold in the morning. 44 to start with, 65 degrees tuesday afternoon. And a mild day on wednesday, but sunshine will start to fade as clouds come in with a chance of showers for thursday and into friday. Friday afternoon will be drying out. This weekend well get chilly once again with highs near 50. Have a great day. And thats your latest weather. All right, al. Tamron is here. Everybody talking about what happened in chicago. Do you guys have nails . I passed by to wave at natalie and willie. I saw that tightrope. I couldnt believe it. What it did to sunday night twitter traffic was incredible. Nik wallenda successfully walked that high wire between two famous chicago skyscrapers. This was stunning tv. He did it blindfolded, as mentioned. Willie and natalie were right there, following the action. Social media, guys, 42,000 tweets, mentioning Nik Wallendas name still at the top of the google trend and Facebook Page. Some of the tweets that stood out to us. Boyfriend just sneezed and i yelled dont make him fall. There were a lot of really cute vines as well. This one set up the process. If you missed it last night i know you didnt. This speeds it up. Boom, boom, boom. Another one that caught our eye. Look at this. Blink. So nik had a little assistance from ian on this. Tabatha wrote he made it look easy. I hope they left the wire up. I want to try it tomorrow. How did it feel, natalie . It wasnt as gut wrenching as the grand canyon walk. I was astonish ed hes sit tlg, talking to you and willie. Took a selfei. It was incredible. He was trying to talk to us. I was like, nik, focus. Its a little thin wire, less than an inch thick in front of you. How cold was it up there . Freezing but im sure much colder for him. Exactly. Well check back in in a moment with nik. Were going to ask him what he might do for an encore. He will join us live in a few. Big holiday deals are already being rolled out. Should you jump at them now or will they get bigger the closer we get to christmas . Well talk about that. First this is today on nbc. Ryan costello went into politics. In 2001, doctor Manan Trivedi joined the marines. Trivedi served as a battlefield surgeon in iraq. Costello served himself by voting to raise his own pay. And while trivedi cared for patients in pennsylvania, costello gave millions in government contracts to his Campaign Contributors even as he cut funding for child abuse prevention. In congress, only trivedi will do whats right for you. Im Manan Trivedi, and i approve this message. 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