>> robach, gio, we can hear you. you all said you were closer than you had been on previous launches. can you tell us what you're seeing there just from your naked eye? >> yeah. so the booster is about to land right behind us here on the landing pad and it's going to land upright on its own and we're going to hear that sonic boom in a moment here. >> and feel the sonic boom you say too. all right, it's about to make landfall right now. it was coming down pretty quickly. i'm glad to know that was just the booster. >> yes. >> if that was them, they're coming in hot. >> robach -- >> whoa! >> all right. so the booster has landed and now we're going to wait for the capsule to come down. you're watching a little bit of a delay there, but you're going to see it on your screen in just a moment as it lands upright on that landing pad. >> and you can hear everyone cheering. one of my favorite parts, it was cutting in and out a little bit, you can imagine they're in space. but the laughter, wow, you hear that? whoa. just roarin

tj hom a, robach. beautiful van horn, texas. thank you everyone for joining us on this incredibly exciting saturday morning. the weather is cooperating as we're all here in west texas to watch history be made here as we mark another exciting chapter in space history. you are looking live at the new shepherd rocket where our very own michael strahan and five other civilians are inside. they are about to begin. in a lifetime journey to the edge of space and it's all happening in just a few moments from now tj. yes, and we are minutes away. it's a momentous occasion. it's another chapter in space history, but for me and robot and all of us here at abc news, our thoughts are not far away from the folks of course and tennessee in arkansas in kentucky as well as missouri who experienced those devastating storms overnight our thoughts continue to be with you, but we do come on the air here to document. something hopeful to document something that we can all be in awe of to document something in human achievement. this is going to be th

of course, our very own amy robach and her husband andrew shue's "better together" so we love those books this time of year. >> she said something nice to andrew after i just threw him under the bus. thank you, ginger. >> the woman not his wife is the one saying something nice about him. >> that's all right. >> how does that work? >>> we have a special now. a very special pop-in to this binge. let's welcome, everybody, miss reba mcentire. >> yay. >> there she is. >> how you guys doing? >> we are doing great. how are you doing for the holidays right now? >> doing wonderful. we're finally off tour and at home and cooking up a storm and wrapping presents, ready for christmas. >> that sounds perfect. we're talking "binge this" and everybody is talking about what they like to watch around the holiday. you got some pretty special people could watch as well. >> i sure do. my boyfriend and i love television. we binge everything from "young sheldon" to "better call saul" to "the crown," "ted lasso," "barry," "peaky blinders," "call the midwife." we love television. >> you clearly do but you have y

amy robach here with us now. we watched this together, i had a different seat than you did. you were right there in the desert to watch this thing take off saturday. >> i was. it was an incredible moment for me, and even more momentous for michael strahan, and it brought a whole new meaning to the word touchdown. i went there. for our friend stray. when we asked him about his trip, he said it's almost like an out-of-body experience. >> hey! we did it! >> reporter: michael along with his five fellow crew members blasting off into space saturday morning on the new shepard capsule beyond the 62-mile-high carman line marking the edge of space. >> this is so much fun. >> reporter: back on earth, i spent the morning reporting live from blue origin launch site 1 with my fellow abc colleagues. there was nothing i imagined quite like experiencing a rocket blastoff here on earth. >> yep. >> reporter: thrilled, yet full of nerves watching it all unfold. >> robach, yes, we are covering an event, but this is a friend of ours. >> reporter: for michael, it was like game day feeling upbeat

and gary robach in washington, d.c. where record cases are urging health care workers to stay home. cnn correspondent dr. john torres is also joining us. ellison, we'll go ahead and start with you. you've been talking with doctors about in child hospitalization number. what are they learning about whether kids seem to be more susceptible to omicron? >> on that, doctors we've spoken to in new york city, they say pretty much time will tell. it could be that simply because there is a higher percent, a larger community spread, that naturally that means it will spread to other groups, and children would be among those groups, and that ultimately it could just be more numbers amongst this group because there are more numbers, higher numbers, in new york city amongst the general population. again, it's sort of, they say, something that time will tell whether or not there is something specific in this variant that affects children in a different way, but for now they think this is just the numbers. at least those who we've spoken to, the numbers rising because community spread is very signi

i'm amy robach. >> and i'm david muir. from all of us at "20/20" and abc news, good night. anchor: travel picking up for christmas. what experts are saying about omicron. anchor 2: and what

amy robach talked to dr. ashish jha earlier about how transmissible the omicron variant is. >> it's an incredibly contagious variant. i think people should understand that the goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs. that's an unrealistic goal. the goal should be prevent deaths and severe illness which vaccines will do, keep our hospitals from getting crushed which again, vaccinations and testing can help with. >> reporter: and bouncing off dr. jha, some good news from moderna, the company saying that its current booster increases the omicron-neutralizing antibodies 37 times after taking that initial booster. if you double the dose, you get 83 times the production. t.j.? >> matt for us this morning. thank you so much. >>> we're going to turn to that news breaking overnight. we are hearing the voice of tennis star peng shuai for the first time after she vanished from public view. the player now denying that she ever accused a former chinese vice premier of sexual assault. let's say good morning now to o

. >> robach? >>> now to holiday travel concerns heading into the biggest flying days cracking down on unruly passengers as incidents have soared to record highs this year. our transportation correspondent gio benitez is at laguardia airport. starting with delta air lines warning the omicron variant could cause staffing shortages which is not good news. >> reporter: amy, that's right. tomorrow is expected to be the busiest travel day in almost two years. as you said, delta is now asking the cdc to make sure they're shortening the quarantine time for vaccinated employees who test positive down from ten days down to five saying the omicron surge may exacerbate shortages and create significant disruptions. meanwhile we're also following the rise in unruly passengers. now more than 5,600 reports since the start of the year. the faa says in addition to the thousands of dollars in potential fines, they may also revoke any tsa precheck privileges. now, we keep seeing videos like this, a fight breaking out

but the good news is, you don't need to go and run a marathon like our gal pal amy robach although that is amazing, okay, any little bit helps, all right. so 20 minutes a day of moderate activity. you know, like walking, biking, ten minutes a day of vigorous activity, any little bit matters. so the bottom line is it's never too late. >> and it can fight the aging process so ten years younger i'll work out an hour a day. it's not just about exercise but diet. >> it's about diet and what we eat and the fuel and how we rest, but in terms of nutrition, there are some key points that people need to remember at any age. number one, load up on the fruit and vegetable, that's going to give you a lot of good fiber, which is incredibly important and reduces cancer risk, limit the sodium and sugar and avoiding excess alcohol. all these things are not good for us at any age. a little bit in moderation is okay, but this is a good study. >> i can like it. if somebody else could work out for you that would be a better study and i would let amy do all my exercising because she's always on top of it. >>