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President Obama Faces Tough Sell On Iranian Nuclear Deal; Pluto's Closeup; Amazon Turns 20; Decision Day In Greece. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired July 15, 2015 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:12] ANDREW STEVENS, HOST: I'm Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream.

Decision day in Greece as lawmakers are set to vote on a tough new bailout package, a deal the IMF says is too tough for the debt ridden

country.

Iranians celebrate a landmark nuclear deal, but in Washington the U.S. president still has work to do selling it to congress.

And a tech icon turns 20. We look at the future of Amazon.

Well, the clock is ticking down. It's nearly decision time in Greece and Greek lawmakers are set to vote in the coming hours on tough new

economic reforms.

A heated debate over the proposals on a controversial new plan is taking place right now in Parliament. European leaders are demanding the

reforms in exchange for a third bailout. As the vote draws closer, we've learned one of the nation's deputy finance ministers has resigned over the

deal.

Now, the international monetary fund is also expressing concerns. It says the deal does not provide Athens with enough debt relief. The reforms

include changes to the tax systems and an overhaul of the pension system.

OK, for the latest, let's bring in Elinda Labropoulou now who joins us live from Athens.

And, Elinda, I want to start with the IMF and what they've been saying, because they have been an architect in so much of Greece's future

and bailout plans. They have turned around and said very clearly this is a bad deal. It is, quote, highly unsustainable.

Where does Greece go from here with that sort of information?

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it makes it much harder for Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, to persuade

his own MPs and other parliamentarians to vote these measures through parliament tonight.

Because what the IMF is saying that Greece really needs a grace period. It needs a rest of up to 30 years before actually being able to

really make its payment requirements if the debt is to become sustainable.

So, that's going to make things more difficult for Mr. Tsipras in parliament tonight.

At the same time, we do expect that he will be able to get these measures voted in simply because, as you said, the clock is ticking and

Greece really needs to come up with a solution that will unlock some aid to the banks. The European Central Bank is waiting for that signal to see

whether it's going to increase liquidity to the banks, and also a solution is needed before Monday when Greece has to make a payment to the European

Central Bank, a loan repayment to the Central Bank, to make sure that it does not default to the bank.

So, at the same time that this is taking place in Greece, in Brussels there are talks to try and find that bridge loan that Greece needs in order

to make that payment.

And as time passes, we're hearing more and more voices from the Greek government saying that they do not support, they do not think that these

measures are good in any way for Greece, but that many of them will vote in support regardless.

STEVENS: And just describe to us just life now in Greece across that country. What sort of daily hardships are people facing? And will most

likely continue to face after this deal has been agreed?

LABROPOULOU: Well, a lot of it has to do simply with uncertainty, because as we understand with all this contradicting information coming in

all the time, and really the rules changing. You know, this IMF report came as a big surprise. I mean, we knew that the IMF was supporting debt

relief for a long time now. And it's what the Greek government has been supporting as well.

But when news like that comes in, it just kind of puts everything back to questioning. And at the same time, these are the same people who listen

to this news who have to queue at ATMs to get 60 euros out a day, that's the daily allowance at the moment. And they're not quite sure when even

that money is running out or when the banks will reopen.

For the time being, we know that the banks will remain closed until -- through to tomorrow as well. And from there on, you know, they want to see

how their businesses will be able to function and how their lives can be put back in order.

So, for most Greeks, the most important thing is to get some sense of stability. And this is the only reason that many of them are supporting

these measures tonight.

[08:05:00] STEVENS: Most people internationally would know Greece and associate Greece with the islands and with the beautiful Aegean islands and

luxury tourism. How badly has that industry been hit? Or are people still going to Greece?

LABROUPOULOU: People are still going to Greece. And the industry is facing difficulties. From what we understand it's more to last minute

bookings. So people are being a little bit cautious about booking new holidays to Greece.

But for the time being, the people who are here are not facing major problems, it's the (inaudible) for credit cards that are not issued in

Greece, people can get more money out. But of course the situation is not really what people want to see where they're trying to decide where they're

going to go on holiday.

STEVENS: Elinda Labropoulou obviously dealing with a couple of technical issues behind the camera there. Thanks so much for joining us.

Elinda, of course, outside the parliament in Athens.

Now the U.S. president is readying himself for a fresh round of questioning over the complex nuclear agreement with Iran just a day after

international negotiators finally inked the deal in Vienna. Mr. Obama is scheduled to hold a news conference in Tehran.

Meanwhile, celebrations in the street as Iran's chief negotiator, the foreign minister, Mohammad Javid Zarif returned home.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, says that should Iran fail to live up to the terms of its deal, sanctions will snap right back

into place. Both he and his Iranian counterpart, Javid Zarif, spoke to CNN shortly after the nuclear deal was reached.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Remember, during all of this time Iran never pulled out of the nonproliferation treaty. They could

have. They could have said to hell with you, we'll do our own thing. They've lived by the NPT. They're living by it now.

And -- well, they say they're living by it now. They haven't lived by it completely, which is why we put the sanctions on them. So, now we're

putting to test whether or not there's a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of direction, and if there isn't we have every option available to

us every day that we have right now.

MOHAMMAD JAVID ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Neither side was prepared to provide the flexibility that has now led us to this agreement.

If you look at the fact that now Iran has a nuclear program, an enrichment program, a heavy water reactor, an R&D program, a complete nuclear --

peaceful, because it was always peaceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Well, the U.S. President, meanwhile, is preparing for what's likely to be a protracted battle with critics in congress. Today,

scheduled a news conference just the latest maneuver by the White House to protect the landmark deal that was nearly two years in the making.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have cut off every pathway for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

KOSINSKI: President Obama got his nuclear deal with Iran, the job now, to defend and sell it at home.

OBAMA: I think that criticism is misguided.

KOSINSKI: Taking on the skeptics and critics, asking why the U.S. and five other countries couldn't insist that Iran dismantle its nuclear

capability altogether. Here with the "New York Times."

OBAMA: The notion that the world signed up for these sanctions in order to either achieve regime change, to solve every problem in terms of

Iranian behavior, or to say to them in perpetuity they can never have peaceful nuclear power, that was never something that was in the cards.

KOSINSKI: But there are plenty of questions. What kind of access really will nuclear inspectors have if Iraq balks at opening certain doors?

There is a process in place for that, though gaining access through it could take nearly a month or longer.

JOE LIEBERMAN, FORMER SENATOR, (I) CONNECTICUT: The most disappointing part of it is the inspection part. It's not anywhere, any time. It's

nothing remotely like that.

KOSINSKI: Former senator Joe Lieberman and experts weighed in at a House committee hearing on the deal only hours after it was announced.

REP. ED ROYCE, (R) CHAIRMAN, HOUSE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Why would the United States sign off on such an agreement?

KOSINSKI: Many in Congress angry that Iran will still be able to enrich uranium at all, albeit at a vastly reduced supply and still retain

almost all of its industrial nuclear infrastructure. At the same time it will gain billions of dollars in sanctions relief and new trade, while not

unlikely continuing to fund terror, threaten neighbors, and destabilize the region. Some parts of the deal expire in 10 or 15 years.

AMBASSADOR NICOLAS BURNS, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: I would rather have seen 20 or 30 years rather than 10.

KOSINSKI: President Obama acknowledges the challenges.

OBAMA: Diplomacy can work. It doesn't work perfectly. It doesn't give us everything that we want.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: President Barack Obama bringing that report via Michelle Kosinski to a close.

Now a German court has sentenced former Nazi officer Oskar Groening to four years in prison for being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 Jews

during World War II. The 94-year-old, known as the bookkeeper of Auschwitz has been on trial since April. Earlier, he apologized in court, saying he

was, quote, "truly sorry."

The defense argued Groening's job was to sort money and that he had never killed anyone.

You're watching News Stream. Still ahead, nowhere to be found: the Mexican drug lord is still on the run days after he slipped through his

prison cell and vanished. We'll show you the moment he was last seen.

And one of the most successful pioneers of online retail marks an important milestone. We'll look at how Amazon has evolved through the

years and what plans it may have for the future.

Plus, an exciting day at NASA. Scientists celebrating wildly Pluto's first closeup. Hear from the head of the team about why this is an amazing

achievement not just for NASA, but all of mankind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:46] STEVENS: Welcome back. Mexican authorities are still trying to hunt down Joaquin Guzman, the notorious drug lord who escaped

from a maximum security prison four days ago.

New video shows the moment El Chapo fled his cell. Here you can see him pacing back and forth. And just moment later, Guzman walks towards the

shower area of his room. Officials say this is where he slipped through a hole never to be seen again.

He apparently made his way down to an elaborate tunnel and used a motorcycle to make his way to a half-built house outside the prison walls.

The question is where did he go from there?

CNN's Brian Todd has more on the leads being followed by law enforcement and the information that they may have missed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new picture of the menacing drug lord, Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman. Following his capture in

2014, DEA agents developed threads of information that Guzman's relatives and associates were looking for ways to get him out of prison.

The official says U.S. officials had no specific information on Guzman's escape on Saturday but they did pass along what they had to

Mexican authorities. Mexico's interior minister denies the assertion.

A Mexican official says that 50 people have been questioned and three top officials have been fired in the investigation into Guzman's escape.

The official says Guzman may head back to mountain hideaways in Sinaloa State and his hometown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In these communities he is seen as a hero. He is venerated. He is larger than life.

TODD: A U.S. law enforcement official tells CNN Guzman has an extensive support America in Sinaloa with advanced teams of lookouts, spies

and scouts who help him evade capture. A huge advantage for el Chapo, his Robin Hood reputation.

DUNCAN WOOD, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: He brings real benefits to local communities. He pays for things. Whether it is the 15-year-old party, or

whether it's putting on a rodeo for the local community or paying for something in the local church. He has done that for many years.

[08:15:02] TODD: Is this woman helping him? Emma Coronell (ph), a glamorous former beauty queen who married el Chapo when she was a teenager.

Guzman was 50. Coronell (ph) is a U.S. citizen and gave birth to Guzman's twin daughters near Los Angeles in 2011. Officials say she is related to a

notorious Mexican drug lord who was killed in a shootout with the Mexican army in 2010.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She comes from a similar background, from these communities in Sinaloa State, in the countryside, who have grown up around

and among drug traffickers. And it's almost like a large tribe of drug traffickers.

TODD: There is no indication from officials that Emma Coronell (ph) has been involved in Guzman's criminal activities or escape. And it's not

clear if she is being questioned by Mexican authorities at the moment.

One Mexican official tells CNN her phone was one of the leads used in el Chapo's capture last year. As far as tracking her down, a Mexican

official tells CNN she is traceable and she's usually not hiding.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Now search crews in the U.S. state of Washington have spotted wreckage they believe could be a small Montana plane that crashed

in the wilderness at the weekend. The search for that missing plane will resume today. 16-year-old Autumn Veatch miraculously survived the crash

and trekked for two days to find help. She's now out of hospital. Veatch was flying with her grandparents who are still missing and believed dead.

The mountainous terrain is complicating search efforts.

Well, China's economy has defied expectations by holding steady for another quarter. GDP growth in the second quarter coming in at a flat 7

percent, slightly higher than the 6.9 percent that Wall Street had been expecting.

Now, economic growth in China is the cornerstone of the Communist Party's legitimacy. Economic growth equals wealth and wealth equals social

stability, that is the equation.

So, at 7 percent China's economy is chugging along bang on target. That target set by the government itself, of course.

Many economist, though, say the GDP picture which measures overall economic activity is at best only a rough guide and that the economy could

actually be growing at a slower rate.

In fact, even the country's economic supremo, the Chinese premier Li Keqiant once famously described GDP figures as, quote, manmade, and for

reference only.

Now according to U.S. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, that's where that information came from.

The economist Andy Xie says inaccuracy is unavoidable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY XIE, ECONOMIST: China doesn't have an independent (inaudible), it depends on local governments reporting the number from bottom up. And

the local governments do have incentives to distort numbers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: So, the accuracy of China's GDP figures certainly not a new story. They've been questioned for years. And Beijing continues to defend

its position.

The latest response actually coming today, Wednesday. The National Bureau of Statistics said at a news conference that they, quote, don't

estimate -- overestimate I should say -- their GDP.

Now, Amazon is celebrating its 20th birthday. Coming up, we break down the company's tenure for its big successes to its big flops. Stay

with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:10] STEVENS: That is the view looks across Victoria Harbor to downtown Hong Kong at roughly 20 minutes past 8:00 this evening.

Welcome back. You're watching News Stream.

Now, one of the world's biggest online retailers celebrating a major milestone: Amazon turns 20 years old today. The company founded by CEO

Jeff Bezos launched as an online bookstore, and it since swelled in size, selling pretty much anything you can imagine.

Now, Amazon has been criticized for one business quirk. Despite its massive revenues Amazon consistently posts relatively low profits. But

it's apparently all part of the bigger picture. Analyst Benedict Evans explains it this way. He says the reason it looks like Amazon is not

accumulating any surplus cash or profits is, quote, "because every penny of cash is being plowed back into expanding the business further.

Evans says Bezos' view is pretty clear, quote, "keep investing, because to take profit out of the business would be to waste the

opportunity."

Now, this is why Amazon isn't just a store, it also makes tablets and smartphones, it hosts websites and it produces television shows all

designed to keep customers coming back to Amazon.

It hasn't always worked, though, the Fire Phone being a prime example. Some analysts say its failure comes down to Bezos fundamentally

misunderstanding Amazon's audience. He built a high-end feature packed smartphone for the people who wanted those extra features, just a low price

tag.

So, what exactly is Amazon? What does it want to be and where is it actually going? To give us a better idea, let's turn now to CNN's

contributor Nick Thompson. He joins us from New York. A friend certainly of this show. Nick, great to have you back on.

Let's just talk about this question: what actually Amazon is. It's a store, it's a cloud service provider, it's this, it's that. There's so

much. It's an electronics maker. Is there a big picture? A vision if you like that ties all this together that makes Amazon a specific entity?

NICK THOMPSON, NEW YORKER.COM: Well, you know, the best phrase for it is the everything store. Amazon wants to sell you everything. It wants

you to buy everything in sight. It wants to get all of the data that it can from you so it can sell you more stuff.

One of Jeff Bezos's first insights, and one of his many, many brilliant -- brilliant insights was to realize that customer data is one of

the essential foundation blocks in the internet era. Once you know what a customer wants, what you know what they like to buy, you can market other

things to them. You can adapt your business around their needs or the massive customer needs.

So, they took all the information they got from the kind of books you buy and figured out how to sell you a billion other things. And they're

just continuing that crazy, crazy expansion going into every new market they can possibly think of.

So, they're just going to grow and grow and be like an octopus.

STEVENS: Sort of never ending, isn't it.

THOMPSON: Never ending.

STEVENS: Let's talk -- downside, I mean, risks to this company. I mean, its strength may also be it's weakness. Because the wider it spreads

itself, the thinner it gets, does this become its Achilles heel? It can't take on all the competition in all the areas in all the markets.

THOMPSON: No, it can't take on all the competition in all the markets. And as you've seen and as you explained with the Fire Phone, some

times it goes into things where it's not particularly good and where it does the wrong thing and it builds a phone that nobody likes and nobody

wants to buy, so it makes mistakes.

The big risk to this company is, as you say, not only do they make small profits, they lose money most quarters. Amazon is a money losing

machine. And the reason why it's able to sustain itself and keep its employees there is because the stock market keeps rewarding it.

The stock market assumes that at some point is monopoly position will allow it to take huge profits and then investors will be rewarded. So, as

long as the stock price keeps going up, the employees who are compensated by stock options continue to make money.

As soon as the stock price goes down, and as soon as Wall Street sours on Bezos' strategy of losing money every quarter in order to get into more

businesses, then Amazon has a real problem.

Our people have been saying that for, you know, 17 years and it hasn't happened yet. The stock price just keeps going up and it reaches new

peaks. So, that's the risk. So far it hasn't come to a realization.

STEVENS: Yeah. I mean, gravity will assert itself at some stage. Yes, you know, you can look at the sort of -- the potential of the company.

But the question is can it actually develop that sort of monopoly, which it can then sort of monetize into vast profits? Or is that really just a

little bit too wishful thinking.

I guess I'm asking, what's the trigger point, if you like?

THOMPSON: Well, the trigger point will be when they've wiped away all of their competition

I mean, Amazon is very good. One of the things about Jeff Bezos is it's quite different from a normal Silicon Valley company, which sort of

has its roots in the counterculture, cares about open society, civil society. Jeff Bezos cares about one thing: that is making his company

bigger and crushing his competition.

They've done a very good job of that in a lot of markets.

So, the assumption is that once they've crushed enough of their competitors, then they'll be able to make money.

Or a second assumption, and this one may be more true, is that they'll use all of their data, all o their insights, all of the stuff they've

learned and enter into new businesses that nobody is in.

So, the best example of this is their cloud computing service. They were the first people to recognize the power of cloud hosting. They built

this thing called Amazon web services. Everybody said they were crazy at the beginning. They did this 10 years ago. Now it's a massive profit

engine for the company.

So, Bezos has two roots to profitability, one to help those monopoly positions by crushing the competition then charge high prices. And then

the second is build out new things with his incredible tech insights and data, such as AWS.

STEVENS: Interesting.

A word you mentioned there, I just want to pick up on -- in fact, there wasn't so much related to Amazon. You talked about the other Silicon

Valley firms being part of the San Francisco counterculture.

But culture -- the change that Jeff Bezos has made on culture in the U.S. and around the world, I want you to talk about that, because it really

is quite phenomenal isn't it? I mean, he has changed the way, which we consume.

THOMPSON: Right. Well, he's changed culture in lots of ways, right. He's changed the way we think about buying things, right. Just a week ago,

there was I needed to get something, and it was buried in the closet and I thought, oh, I had this flash in my mind I'll just buy it from Amazon, that

will be easier.

He's made us think about getting stuff delivered to us immediately with incredible ease.

So, he's changed -- that has changed the way we shop, the way we think about products, the amount of stuff we have in our home. We buy lots of

things we wouldn't have bought otherwise, because Amazon makes it so easy to buy them. So, he's changed that part of the culture.

So, you know, give him credit or criticize him for that.

He's also changed business culture and the internet. He's made it much more relentless, much more ruthless. And the biggest criticism, or

one of the biggest criticism of him is that he's really -- he's destroyed other parts of culture, right, by knocking out distinct businesses by

changing the publishing industry and knocking out so many book sellers. He's knocked out, you know, little engines of culture, little distinct

parts of culture and created this big, homogeneous blob.

So, that's another criticism of him.

So, the man is a genius. He's built a brilliant company. He's seen the future many, many times, but there are also a lot of things you can say

that are critical of him.

STEVENS: Absolutely. But he is boldly going, isn't he? And (inaudible) this stage we'll continue to do so.

Nick, fascinating insights. Always a pleasure to speak to you.

THOMPSON: Delighted to be here.

STEVENS: Nick Thompson there.

Now, after replacing its CEO last week, there are more changes ahead for Reddit. The new CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman says that he'll

introduce new content guidelines, because some of Reddit's offensive and obscene content should not be there.

One line in particular, though, caught the eye of many users on the notoriously open site. Huffman said, quote, "neither Alexis nor I created

Reddit to be a bastion of free speech. That is a direct contradiction of what the site's other co-owner said just a few years ago."

In 2012, Alexis Ohanian said -- or called Reddit a bastion of free speech on the worldwide web in an interview with Forbes.

Now, Reddit's new content policy will be revealed no Thursday, sure to make some interesting reading there.

Now, you're watching News Stream. Still to come, more on the historic nuclear deal with Iran. A day after celebrations to some, supporters try

to convince skeptic to support the plane. We'll take you live to Vienna for the latest.

Plus, a closer look at Pluto. NASA prepares to share new images of the dwarf planet from its first ever flyby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:07] STEVENS: I'm Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says that he's accepted an invitation from his Iranian counterpart to visit Tehran. The landmark

nuclear agreement reached on Tuesday represents a major turning point in Iran's relations with the west. It comes nearly two years after come --

two years of complex negotiations.

In the coming hours, the Greek lawmakers will vote in the economic reform plan the nations creditors are demanding in exchange for a third

bailout. The International Monetary Fund warns that the deal is not sustainable and does not provide Greece with enough debt relief.

A German court has sentenced former Nazi officer Oskar Groening to four years in prison. The 94-year-old, also known as the Bookkeeper of

Auschwitz was found guilty of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been admitted to a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate is being treated for a

persistent infection, that's according to his representatives. Tutu's daughter says the family hopes to have him home in a day or two.

Well, let's get more now on the Iran nuclear deal. Both the U.S. and Iran are calling this accord historic. But across the Middle East,

reaction is a little more divided.

Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is monitoring developments. He joins us live from Vienna.

Nic, we obviously heard Israel very quickly respond and very, very negatively to this deal. What about the rest of the Middle East?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and no surprise to hear as well that President Obama called the Israeli prime minister to

explain to him, no doubt, more of the details of the agreement now it's being made fully public.

But also some of those concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been shared by the Saudis. What they have said is that they support

the agreement, however, they believe that it should have a robust inspection system, which certainly you get into the details of the

agreement. There are steps and points in there that would indicate that this can be robust, certainly if the inspectors don't get access then they

have a relatively quick tool to escalate the situation, the point of snapping sanctions back on.

But what the Saudis also raise is a point that was expressed by the Israeli prime minister as well that they believe that as sanctions come off

Iran, they are concerned about what Iran will do with that money, and the improvement to the economy. And their concern in Saudi Arabia is that it

won't just be spent on its people, but it will be spent on fueling, as they say, terrorism in the region. That is a concern.

But of course in Tehran, people were out on the streets celebrating this deal. President Rouhani told the Iranian people essentially this was

a success -- a success for the negotiators that sanctions were being completely and fully lifted from the Iranian people and that had

fundamentally been one of the demands.

Of course, the sanctions, when you read the agreement, can be snapped back on. But after eight years, providing there's compliance all the way

along that time, those sanctions will come off.

So, as we're seeing, a very divided positions and views. And they're quite deeply polarized on this, Andrew.

[08:35:34] STEVENS: And the U.S. president still has to sell it to his own congress as well as the American people.

Nic, thanks so much for that. Nic Robertson joining us live from Vienna.

So, say hello to Pluto. More incredible photos of the icy dwarf planet are on their way back to Earth. We've got details on the near

decade long journey it took to get this shot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEVENS: Welcome back.

Now you have to admit that this is a pretty impressive picture of Pluto. Take a look at that. It's currently the most detailed image of the

icy dwarf planet. But expect an even better look a little later on Wednesday.

(CHEERING)

STEVENS: Those heartfelt cheers for the success of NASA's New Horizons space craft. The probe has completed the first ever mission to

Pluto and is currently beaming back new data.

It took nearly 10 years and 5 billion kilometers to get to this point. New Horizons launching back in January of 2006.

Now it used Jupiter's gravity as a slingshot to speed up its long journey, and then the probe spent nearly 2,000 days in hibernation.

New Horizons woke up from that nap in December last year. And a few months later, it started sending images of Pluto as well as its moons.

But the best is yet to come. NASA says it'll take 16 months to receive all of the data that New Horizons has collected. And now the space

craft is headed deeper into the Kuiper Belt to help us learn more about how planets are actually formed.

Well, a little earlier, I spoke to New Horizons principle investigator Alan Stern about what he hopes to learn and to prove about Pluto.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN STERN, NASA: I think when a lot of people see Pluto up close, they're going to be thinking of it as a planet, because we as planetary

scientists call it a planet all the time and we don't know what else to call it really. This is the kind of object that it is. And I think the

pictures of Pluto and its moons are going to knock people's socks off.

STEVENS: What did you think when they reclassified it from planet to dwarf planet?

STERN: Well, the biggest surprise was that the press swallowed down that mistake that the astronomers made. Frankly, a planetary scientists,

who are the experts in this, consider these small planets, planets and maybe you'll get on board too.

STEVENS: But we really know very, very little about this planet, or this dwarf planet, do we?

STERN: Well, we know that Pluto is a double planet. It has an atmosphere. It has five moons. Its surface is made of various ices like

nitrogen and methane ice, carbon monoxide. Its atmosphere is primarily made of nitrogen, the same stuff that we're breathing.

Of course, it's very cold. It's 400 degrees below zero there. The surface of the planet is icy, but inside its rocky just like the Earth.

Pretty amazing.

[08:40:17] STEVENS: Is there likely to be a eureka moment where you will discover something either you had no idea existed or you confirmed

something you thought may have existed?

STERN: Yeah, that's a great question. And you know in the previous flybys where we made the first explorations of Mars and Jupiter and Venus

and other planets, just those kind of things happened. So we're expecting that, but we can't predict what the discoveries will be, and that's the

best part. This is real exploration. And nothing has been done anything like this really since the 1980s in the Voyager program. It's been a long

time.;

STEVENS; And what happens to New Horizons after she sails past the 10 hour window?

STERN: Well, we'll spend about a year transmitting all the data back. There's so much data that it's going to take a very long time to get it

back. And then we hope to fly farther into the deep outer solar system and to go exploring again in 2019 with a flyby of something called a

plaetesimal, a building block of the planets located about a billion miles beyond Pluto.

STEVENS: And what is the fate of New Horizons? What eventually will happen to it?

STERN: Well, actually New Horizons is flying so fast that it's leaving our solar system and flying out into the galaxy. And in deep space

like that, there's really nothing to age it or change it. And although it will run out of power and eventually be a derelict space craft in a couple

of decades, it should last for billions of years. It may even outlive the Earth when the sun goes red giant and swallows the Earth, New Horizons

will be far away and safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: It's sort of mindboggling isn't it.

And NASA's Alan Stern speaking to me a little earlier.

New Horizons is about the size of a piano, in case you're wondering. It's got seven instruments on board to gather that data. And it's powered

by plutonium. And that one fittingly named, you guessed it, after Pluto.

The probe requires less energy than a pair of 100 watt light bulbs.

NASA estimates that New Horizons should have enough fuel to operate for another 20 years. And then it just keeps on going.

The probe has already changed our perceptions of Pluto. Scientists say the dwarf planet is slightly bigger than they thought. And there are

signs of snow on the surface. Some stargazers have fallen for Pluto's heart shaped marking, but others see a different image in that bright

space, a silhouette of the cartoon character with the same name.

Disney tweeted this, putting Pluto the pup on Pluto the planet for all to enjoy.

And on that note, I shall say farewell for now. Thanks for joining us here at News Stream. I'm Andrew Stevens. Don't go anywhere. World Sport

with Don Riddell is up just ahead.

END