tort nasa/spacex mission. we move into this press conference indoors originally planned for the countdown clock to do with but good news. the weather has improved and right now with 60% chance of favorable weather f

have the nasa administrator, the commercial crew

so what she meant to nasa was that we won the space race. and katherine johnson played a significant role in that. you know, katherine is from a small town a few hours from west virginia state university. it's called white sulfur springs. and we had the privilege to have er little beautiful face on our campus at the age of 10. because she was unable to go to high school in her hometown because of the hue of her skin. so she and her family had to travel two hours to come to west virginia state university. we had an elementary and a high school that was a part of the university at the time. a young katherine johnson with all of her mathematical skims and intelligence came here, and she graduated at the age of 15. and westbury is state college -- what was then west virginia state college. she left us at the age of 18. she never looked back. in 1937 when she graduated, she went into the field of teaching. she was inspired here and understood the very significance of teaching and paying it forward. and so she went into teaching for about 13 years

he was joined by nasa administrator who gave an update on nasa's work in the upcoming spacex dragon mission. this is half an hour. and to be joined by the nasa administrator who was in houston as we speak doing important preparations. jim is with us. welcome to the launch america addition of the national space council. we are one week and one day away from when america will return american astronauts on american space. to it's an extraordinarily exciting time in the life of this program. i know speak on behalf of the president when i express my appreciation. to you and the nasa team, my profound and humble admiration for the astronauts that we will be speaking to in a few moments. it will be carrying a meeting -- american leadership next week i hope -- and i know i speak for the president when he say how grateful we are. it has put into practice president's vision for renewed american leadership in space. i have the great privilege -- i see the journal with us, the vice chair of the joint chiefs of staff. i had the privilege of being at the air force academy will -- not long ago when we com

then within the nasa contract. that came a little bit later or toward the end of 2008 and those are the two key things that saved spacex otherwise we would have, you know, not made it, so -- yeah. those doubters were probably correct. fortunately, we had smale upon us and brought us to this day. >> pat, anything else about bob and doug before they launched? >> they were calm and focused. i that i this was chance to get back to space themes they felt liability was privilege to represent nasa and the astronaut corp in this endeavor and they, i gar reason tie you, are going to enjoy their time on the international space station. chris joked with them when they didn't get up the first time. the the administrator heard this, they were trying to get out of the weekend cleaning that we do on the iss but they will be glad to get there and glad to come back. >> we'll take the last question from space.com. report hi. congratulations on amazing launch today. i am wondering if could talk about what else bob and doug will be do

congratulations to nasa team. congratulations for the leaders who have been on the nasa side leading our commercial crew program all along, and you and your team have done an absolutely marvelous job. of course, elon musk and your team in spacex, this launch represents the best of everything that america has to offer. showso will -- it also the process, to my nasa administrator who got the program off the ground when there was not a lot of political support and now there is a lot of political support because there has been success after success, so this is an important round stone for the nation, and i am so honored and grateful to have really there's moment in my life to be at the head of this agency, so what an amazing group of people who made all of this happen. thank you, administrator. next, elon musk. >> i would like to, yeah, acknowledge the incredible work nasa, people of spacex, culminated ins getting astros back to orbit -- astronauts back to orbit after almost a decade. this is something that should get

seek nasa today. -- see nasa today. i had the pleasure on katherine johnson's 99th birthday to meet with her. i was in of how sharp she still was. we laughed, joked, had a great and, she is as radiant beautiful at 99 as she was when she walked our campus in the early 1930's. when i met her at the 99th birthday, i started asking myself, as people learned more , at thetherine johnson university she loved and we love her, we have to do something to recognize her and make sure history never forget how profound she was in helping nasa when the space race. so i put together a team of faculty and students and we started rain storming. i said we are going to honor katherine johnson placing a statue of her here on her alma mater campus. we had about eight to nine months from when i started planning. the goal was to do it for her 100th birthday. [applause] katherine coleman johnson, you are no longer and never again hidden. [applause] so on august 25, 2018, we had katherine johnson and about 1000 fans and supporters here on our c

tort nasa/spacex mission. we move into this press conference indoors originally planned for the countdown clock to do with but good news. the weather has improved and right now with 60% chance of favorable weather for lunch. we will have lots about the launch of a great guest today. we have bob cabana, director for the candy space to come jim bridenstine, administrator, commercial crew astronauts, and nasa deputy administrator jim or more hard. we'll be hearing more from them in a minute but first let's talk to bob. >> thanks. good morning and welcome to get space center. i don't have to do how exciting it is to the first light that humans to space from the kennedy space center in nine years. and what is tort bad to be doing it from. we went to the men from pad 39a, 882 over 135 shuttle missions launched off that path including three of my. brazzaville brushing away in the air through a partnership with spacex, that pat is being used once again and it is not for commercial crew program as well as of the missio

and nasa. it's also a tribute to the vision and leadership of a president who from the very first days of this administration was determined to revive nasa and american leadership in human space exploration. today is a tribute to the leadership of president donald trump. [applause] as the president said in his inaugural address, we stand at the birth of a new millennium ready to unlock the mysteries of space. that is exactly what we are doing. the president revived the national space council after it laid dormant for 25 years. he brought together the best minds in and out of the government to revive the american space enterprise. we reformed the national space traffic management system. we streamlined regulation for the commercial use of space. in 2017, president trump made it the policy of the u.s. to return to the moon by 2024 and ensure the next man and next woman to set foot on the moon would be american astronauts. [applause] and we are on hour away. at the president's direction, we won't

i would tell you the nasa -- you as the nasa administrator, i have heard from a lot of people that you are to bring back the worm. [laughter] i have heard it over and over again. i am the first nasa administrator in history that wasn't alive when we had people walking on the surface of the moon. not in 1969 and not in 1972. my generation grew up with the worm, and when i say that it is the nasa logo that is red and written out. the logo that is blue, we call that the meatball. by grew upith -- with the worm as the logo of nasa. it is personal to me, because that is how i grew up. the meatball, the blue logo, the circle logo, that is a logo that is very near and dear to a lot of other people, the people of the apollo generation, for example. the nasa style guide is very clear, the worm no longer exists, but i write the style guide, so i made a determination that for this particular mission and this particular day, we were going to bring back the worm, and we did. the reason i thought it was important to do it on this launch was because it got so much attention. i wanted all of america t

deputy nasa administrator and a great friend. we are honored to have him as our deputy, having worked many years in the senate, he helps us a lot with the political aspects of the job that i deal with. thank you, jim. jim: good morning, i just really want to start by saying, we are at the dawn of a new age. we are really leading the beginning of a space revolution. and, think about it. this is really something much bigger than all of us. but really, our hope and prayer for tomorrow is for us to inspire the next generation and to give hope for many people who need it right now. and, also to unite our country, and the world and you think about -- i guess what i'm trying to say is we need your support and we hope you will stay with us, as we get this flight test, whether it is the next day or the next day after that. a mercury seven astronaut said a good scrub is better than a bad launch any day, and that is where we are at. thank you. >> we will go to questions. >> good morning, irene, "aviation week." was there anything at all out

the mission if nasa feels it is necessary. adm. bridenstine: the answer to that question is yes. we, of course, are the customer here. so, we do. our goal is to have spacex be able to do missions one day without nasa. we want them to go get customers that are not us. we want to make sure they are making decisions, but if we see something we disagree with, certainly we have the right to intervene. i don't see that being necessary. at this point, but yes, we can intervene if necessary. >> our next question comes from paul burkman from upi. paul: i would like one of you to comment on the sort of built-in uncertainty of this mission in terms of the length of the mission, anywhere from six to 16 weeks, i believe. i know any manned space flight spaceflight has uncertainty, but i'm wondering how much of the readiness reviews went over the astronauts' training and the uncertainty of that time period. adm. bridenstine: there are a lot of things that go into this. number one, we have to get our astronauts to the international space stat

jim bridenstine, the nasa administrator. we have commercial group astronauts. -- commercial crew astronauts. we have the nasa deputy administrator. we will hear more from them in a minute. first, let's talk to bob cabana. dir. cabana: good morning and welcome to the kennedy space center. i don't have to tell you how exciting it is to have the first flights of humans to space from the kennedy space center in nine years. and what a historic pad to be doing it from. we went to the moon from pad 39a. 82 of the 135 shuttle missions launched, including three of my flights. with our partnership with spacex, the pad is being used again and is now for the commercial crew program and for other spacex missions. i think it is absolutely outstanding. truly an historic time from an historic pad. we are pleased to have our nasa administrator with us this morning. as a member of congress, jim was a huge advocate and proponent for aviation and spaceflight as a member of the armed services committee and the science and technology committee. n

we predate nasa by a little under 18 years. naca, which extends for the national advisory committee for aeronautics, was founded in 1915, in the infancy of aviation in this country to study this new technology and figure out how we can harness it for economic, military use. but prior to this center, they had really only focused on general aeronautics. they had not really done anything with aircraft engines. they had been seeing what they were doing in europe and found that they were way ahead of us when it came to aircraft engine research, especially the germans. in the late 1930's, that made them a little nervous. congress approved the establishment of a third laboratory that would focus on aircraft engines. you could do all the research you want, but you will never make a plane fly higher or faster if you don't have good engines. , to was our single role improve aircraft engines. 75 years later, we're still working on aircraft engine research and improving that technology. we've had five names over the course of our history.

nasa has it ready to go. we have a number of contractors that can land on the moon with a small lander. we will do that for the first time in 2021. the artemis program, the sister of apollo in greek mythology. it is strong. the chairman of the national space council making sure we can -- we have the resources necessary to achieve these milestones. when we talk about the -- that is the starting point for going to mars. the long-term goal. we are launching american astronauts on american rockets to the international space station for the first time since the shuttle. [indiscernible] in the meantime, china and others around the world are heading for the moon quickly. but we are coming back. we have everything we need to lead the world. in order to get there, we first have to be able to launch american astronauts on american rockets. the commercial crew program is the standard. [indiscernible] these were veterans of the program. each has flown numerous times on the space shuttle to the international space station

we have the nasa administrator. we have the nasa deputy administrator. we will hear more from them in a minute. first talk to bob cabana. and cabana: good morning welcome to the kennedy space center. i don't have to tell you how intoing it is to launch dutch astronauts into space for the first time in nine years. our shuttle missions launched from that pad, including my flight. with our partnership with spacex, the pad is being used again and is now for the commercial crew program and for other spacex projects. truly in his start time from an historic pad. time fromn historic an historic pad. jim was a huge advocate and proponent for aviation and spaceflight as the armed services committee and the science and technology committee and he is no sharing that passion as he needs nasa into a new era of space expiration. jim. it is great toe: be here at the kennedy space center's. we are now launching american astronauts from an american rocket on american soil. it has been nine years since we have this opportunity. youcabana, we want to thank for getting the

as theup with the worm logo of nasa. it is kind of personal to me just because that is how i grew up. i will tell you that the meatball, the circle blue logo, that is a logo that is very near and dear to a lot of other people, the people of the apollo generation for example. the nasa style guide is very clear -- the worm no longer exists. i write the style guide. i made a determination that for this particular mission, on this particular day, we were going to bring back the worm. and we did. this launcher, and the reason i thisht it was in -- launch, and the reason i thought it was important to do it on it isaunch, was because so important. this is an american launch, yes it is commercial crew, but this is nasa. it is a little nostalgic for me. i am a navy pilot by trade. i grew up with my favorite airplane being the x-29. it is a forward swept wing aircraft that looks really awesome. if i may say so myself. i had a big poster of it on my wall and on the side of it was the nasa worm. i will be honest, i love the worm. it

nasa made us way better than we would have been and we could not even have gotten started without nasa so thank you very much for your support. >> let us celebrate safety when we get them home. fromr next question is afp. >> thank you very much. a question for elon musk. could you expand on the starship development on when you expect you will go around the moon? elon: [laughter] i tend to be a little optimistic about schedules. >> [laughter] elon: [laughter] i am optimistic in general so i guess that expands to the schedules also. guesst know -- i mean, i i would wish that we could do it in two years. four.ight mean i think it is not out of the question that it could be two years. i would be surprised if it took more than four. >> ok. our next question is from dave mosher of business insider. for taking my question and congratulations on an amazing launch. you have been working for this moment for 18 years and have encountered some resistance along the way. i think even at nasa at one point. what would you say to those that doubted spacex could do this? and your last conversation with

i am very proud of the nasa team, proud of the spacex team. from american soil and we will do it with the absolute priority being the safety of our astronauts. i am very proud of the nasa team, proud of the spacex team. a lot of the comments that i had in the interviews ahead of time were, are you going to feel undue pressure, because of all of the attention on this, not just attention on the united states, but globally, all the vip's here. are you going to feel undue pressure to launch? and we have all been in agreement that there will be no pressure, we will launch when we are ready, and the president and vice president were proud of the nasa and spacex team for making the right call for the right reasons. when we do this again saturday, if we do it again on sunday, we will feel no pressure. we will go when we are ready. safety is the highest priority, and that is what we are focused on. we will open it up to questions? jim morhart, deputy nasa administrator and a great friend. we are honored to have him as our deputy, having worked many yea

will hear from shall .inger in, nasa astronaut >> what an incredible privilege to be part of this nasa spacex partnership. past part of this historic 24 hours, to see the launch, to see the vehicle. at the international space station. for the past year and a half, i had the opportunity to train as a backup and work with bob and , and it isx and nasa so cool to see those procedures, the simulation all culminate in it happening in real time. incredibly excited to see bob and doug get to work now as they do and then return safely home. friendsy colleagues and are incredibly excited. this mission represents the opportunity to launch from u.s. soil and we are excited about the mission and to have the opportunity for this and other partner spaceship -- other partner spacecraft. ask ayou would like to question, press star one and you will be part of the q. questionsk for a one per recorder -- per reporter. please direct your question to the person you want to get answers. we will start with the first question from marina curran. everyone and congratulations on a successful docking. ground ini

three nasa s brought -- three nasa astronauts and one from japan. we are at the start of this mission. it is hard to imagine we are ticking forward to the next one so quickly. but that is the nature of the business now. things are picking up in space. >> as a spacex engineer, part of my job is to help nasa come in and certify the hardware we are building. i have been inside of the capsule that is now in space. i have been inside the capsule mentioned earlier, the dragon clean room, hallway from us which is now in a different building, for it to complete high-pressure testing. as someone who has spent the last five years working for this mission we are executing today, it is so surreal to now be performing the parts of testing, of demonstrating, with the astronauts. i storm ever hearing the comes check on wednesday -- comms check on wednesday, preflight, making sure all the key players in the mission could contribute -- could communicate back and forth, as well as with bob and doug. i got chills whenever i heard that tone of them commit to getting ba

he was joined by nasa administrator who gave an update on nasa's work in the upcoming spacex dragon mission. scheduled for may 27. this is .5 hours. >> allow me to welcome members of the president's cabinet and numbers of the national space council to the seventh meeting of the national space council, it is of particular pleasure to be back here at the washington headquarters and to be joined by the nasa been a straighter who is in houston as we speak doing important preparations. in brighton stan is with us. bridenstine isim with us. we are one day away from when america will return american astronauts on american rockets from american soil to space. nearly site -- extraordinarily exciting time in the life of this program. i know i speak on behalf of the president of the united states and express my appreciation. , the entire nasa team, my humble admiration for the astronauts we will be speaking to in just a few moments. they will be carrying american leadership back into space. i know i speak for the president when i say how grateful we are. it has put into practice president trump's visi

nasa says the rocket is being fueled as we speak. this is bloomberg. ♪ romaine: broadcasting live from new york tower viewers worldwide, i am romaine bostick and this is "what'd you miss?" scarlet: the indexes powered above, the s&p 500 closed its 200 day moving average, increasing optimism that we have seen the worst of the economic pain as several parts of the u.s. reopened. we are keeping an ion what is going on in florida because all systems are a go. at capethe launchpad canaveral in florida. time,3 p.m. eastern spacex will attempt to launch two astronauts into space. they will be heading to the international space station. we will be following the historic flight live and take you to with it -- take you to it when it begins. romaine: the u.s. has certified longerng kong is no politically separate from china. us, friedman chair in china studies. let's start off with the announcement we heard earlier from the u.s. secretary of state, mike pompeo. what are the immediate implications of this designation that pompeo has laid out r

, nasa built with help from contractors, and the decisions were made by nasa staffers. it is a very different construct and the idea is to make it a lot cheaper and easier to get to space. we'll see how it turns out here. >> so, scott kelly, what is going through the minds of bob behnken and doug hurley right now or should i say the stomachs? i don't know where butterflies actually go physiologically. >> you know, they're thinking about their jobs. at this point most of the apprehension is left behind. you are committed to doing this. their life work basically, 20 plus goals at nasa for each of them. you know, they're thinking about what they have to do in a nominal situation but also off nominally. i am not that familiar with the spacex. even though it is autonomous there are functions they have to perform. that is what they're pleasing being of the right now. >> scott kelly, miles hoechlt brian if you will what we are going to do when we look at the pictures of the astronauts on the right-hand side shall the crew capsule on the left-hand side, we'll open up to the sou

i am proud of the nasa team, proud of the spacex team. a lot of the comments i had ahead of time were, are you going to fill undue pressure? undue pressure, and we have all been in agreement that there will be no pressure, we will launch when we are ready, and and the president and vice president were proud of the nasa and spacex team for making the right call for the right reasons. when we do this again saturday, if we do it again on sunday, we will feel no pressure. we will go when we are ready. safety is the highest priority, and that is what we are focused on. we will open it up to questions? jim: jim morhart, and a great friend, and we are honored to have him as our deputy, having worked many years in the senate, he helps us a lot with the political aspects of the job that i deal with. thank you, jim. jim m.: thank you jim. -- jim m.: thank you, jim. good morning, i just really want to start by saying, we are at the dawn of a new age. we are really leading the beginning of a space revolution. and, think about it. this is really somet

almost five years and working side-by-side, we've had nasa engineers, nasa technicians, nasa astronauts working with spacex to develop this new era in human space flight. they are ready to go. i have given them the green light if they want me to, i will stop this flight. but they are ready to go. they said, we are go for launch. we are excited. >> neil: i don't want to bring up the unthinkable, but you did touch on it. you have the power to stop this at any moment. even after launch and even right up to orbit where they can jettison, god forbid, out of that capsule. these are precautions that were never taken with the shuttle. i'm sure that was by design. can you update me on that? >> absolutely. in theory, this is the safest human spacecraft that has ever been built. i will say that again, the safest human spacecraft that has ever been built. because we are doing is commercially, spacex launches the falcon nine rocket all the time. they are launching commercial payload, scientific payloads. for the air force, and for nasa. but now they are launching humans. if you look at the space shu

the team nasa and space ex. their family and friends that really helped them get up there. >> i know we were talking about what is next with the program. anything to add on that? >> obviously, you know, we've had a big agenda to commercialize lower earth orbit. that's under way. we're launching american astronauts commercially. we need spacex to get customers that are not nasa. we've seen evidence of that, which is a positive thing for the agency because it will drive down our cost in the long run. we need to get another commercial partner on board. boeing is working towards that objective with nasa, and i think that we're going to have success there within the next year. we think about really why are we doing these commercial public-private partnerships? we're doing it because we're changing the business model. you know, if the government is providing all of the demand for human space flight and then the government is providing all of the supply for human space flight, we will always be limited by budget. many

go, nasa. go, bob and doug, and go, america. thank you. >> c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up sunday morning, author kate anderson brower discusses her new book, "team of five: the presidents club in the age of trump." john malcolm talks about senate republicans' efforts to investigate the origins of the russia probe. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. after taking off from the kennedy space center, the first manned mission to launch from u.s. soil since 2011, the spacex crew dragon scheduled to dock at the u.s. space station. the docking is scheduled for sunday at 10:20 a.m. eastern time. we will have live coverage of online ats c-span.org, or listen live on the free c-span radio app. >> minnesota governor tim walz along with the mayors of minneapolis and st. paul held a briefing on protests and rioting following the death of george floyd while in police custody. the situationsaid in minneapolis is no lon

assume local time local to nasa not local to g.m.t. and not local to where they are right now and then there's going to be a welcome ceremony as well we'll stick with these pictures and we'll talk to our correspondent who's been following the story for us. so andy must have been doing more than well if they've just decided what the heck we'll just do it showing up. i mean it is an incredible feat of engineering of course that capsule launched yesterday from here in florida from cape canaveral pretty much perfect launch the astronauts and spent the last 19 hours making their way towards the international space station and it's important to bear in mind that as the crew dragon capsule approaches the international space station these astronauts on board won't be piloting it is automated as it docks with the international space station they will then stay inside for about 2 hours before they join the rest of the crew on board that orbiting laboratory and then there will be that ceremony but this is a crucial test for space x. and the crew

. [♪] dana: president trump finishing up his speech at nasa for the nasa employees and spacex employees. we covered a lot of speeches over many years in administrations. i think that speech right there will be considered a signature moment for him. historical. beautiful in the writing and the delivery. and very aspirational for the future of american space travel. very exciting. he also reported there that the two astronauts, doug hurley and behnken are up there. they are up there and we might be hearing from them soon. no doubt a wonderful, beautiful day there for nasa and spacex. and exciting as america is back in space and we have a lot more to come on that. president trump also giving the longest remarks he has to date about george floyd. he addressed the injustice. he talked about what the federal government is willing to do to expedite the investigation on the federal government side. but he also talked about the protests. we are going to play a little bit of that for you. it was at the top of the speech you may not have seen it. i want to bring back lawrence jones, a fox news con

he was a big part of the nasa transition authorization act. here is the representative from texas. >> great to be with you guys. i was at the launch yesterday. i want to say a huge congratulations. there was a thunderstorm that blew in about 45 minutes or so before liftoff. it was in doubt there for a minute, but it was an enormous achievement. i want to say thank you for you guys. really appreciate what you're doing for america. the crew that has already been up there, chris and your fellow russians, i want to give you a great big thank you as well. i have a son who is a navy seal and i want you to be thanked for your service there too, chris. i know you have said that the craft, the dragon handled very well, but i want to see how it compares with the space shuttle. if one of you would address that, i would appreciate it. >> thank you, sir. it certainly has been a long endeavor for us and our namesake spacecraft. we are proud to have her on board the international space station after all the teams around the country and across america have do

in 1959 nasa was created in 1958, nasa introduced the world to its first class of astronauts the class mercury seven astron's they became celebrities overnight the way pilots were slivers in the 30s. these were seven men -- they were all military test pilots, they had jet test experience were test pilots, and certain number of hours in the air, height and weight requirements because again if they were over 180 pounds at rocket is not getting off the ground and it's a bad day for everyone. 110 men in the country because only men athe the time could qualify as test pilot sprayed 100 men met the base requirements they went their extensive personality test, psychological test, basic do we like he was a human test, and the last group, the last 34 went their extensive medical testing on the mexico everyone is seeing the right stuff? that sina came over the actor's name, al sheppard is running down the hall with his gerry shirt open, that, that was very real. i have met they said that was real, fun times good times. all this medical testing this happened at the clinic brandy was one of jackie

from greater texas,re go bob and doug, go nasa, go spacex. [cheering] from the space center bob and doug we wish you a great flight we just want to tell you good luck. [cheering] hi i'm dusty with nasa communications and public engagement director. we all went wish bob and doug safe travels and godspeed. you're both an inspiration to us all now let's get out there and watch america, go do it. [cheering] we are following the convoy, leland and laura and i don't know about you guys, i am so glad we had the chance to hear from the team's been working behind the scene. lord you know this all too well, these people have been working not only for the last since 2014 when spacex when this contract, working long hours, long reviews, coronavirus happens, they're homeschooling their kids, still trying to get through all of the final check outs and close out to today and h we made it. and now are just waiting on the weather, it was just great they got a chance to wish bob and doug good luck. >> absolutely it's a bummer we can't all be here in person. bu

my experience at nasa was pretty phenomenal. i remember the first time i realized that people didn't appreciate the education i had from uva. it was when a technician -- i was going to get some stuff made by this one technician, and he said to me, where did you go to school? i said university of virginia. he said, no, you went to virginia state, right? i said no. he said, you went to the black school in petersburg virginia state, as though i could not go to that school. i'm like, what's up with this guy? that's why i sensed this former racism a little bit, someone not expecting you to have achieved certain things. i befriended katherine johnson when i was there, from hidden figures. katherine was always positive, and no matter what the situation, she would talk about how there is always a solution, you just have to work hard, you will figure it out. it was just this work ethic she had. she retired when i got there. she retired in 86. that was a turning point for me, because i joined this group of african-american scientists and

the nasa and the spacex teams knew what the parameters were. were exceeded in that put us in a position to delay the launch. i think this is certain though. we are going to launch american from american rockets on american soil and we will do priorityhe absolute being the safety of our astronauts and i will tell you, i am very proud of the nasa team, the space x team. a lot of the comments i had in the interviews ahead of time were, "are you going to feel because of all of the attention on this? not just the attention in the united states, but attention globally? are you going to feel undue pressure at the launch?" we have all been in agreement. there will be no pressure. we will launch when we are ready. the president and the vice president were proud of the nasa team and the spacex team for making the right call for the right reason. and again, when we do this saturday, if we do this again on sunday, we will feel no pressure. we will go when we are ready. safety is the highest priority. that is what we are focused on. with that, we will open

a will take viewers over to briefing by nasa administrator jim bridenstine one day before nasa attempts that spacex launch. c-span's coverage begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. here on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] jim: kennedy space center for this historic mission as we prepare to launch bob and doug from pad 39 a on the falcon 9 and crew dragon. truly, an exciting time, but where was this weather wednesday afternoon? obviously, it is a challenge to compete with the weather in florida in the summer, but we will do what is right. we are moving ahead and it sounds like we have a 50-50 chance with the weather again tomorrow and we will see how it works out. it is my privilege to introduce jim bridenstine. jim? thank you, -- jim: thank you bob, our highest priority is and has been bob and doug, and a couple of days ago we had too much electricity in the atmosphere, and the challenge there is not that we were in a lightning s

. >> obviously we weren't there, but i would certainly say the nasa of the '60s was not drastically unlike space x of now. learning as they go, learning about flying in space, learning the hard lessons and being successful. >> start and lift off. >> reporter: hard lessons like this one in 2015. a falcon 9 rocket lifting cargo to the space station disintegrated minutes after lift off. >> and we appear to have had a launch vehicle failure. >> reporter: and last year another setback when a crew dragon capsule exploded during a ground test. >> while it's disappointing, it also can be a real gift to the final design. >> reporter: the company embraced its failures. >> to be totally frank, if it hasn't been some hardware on the test end, i don't think you tested it hard enough. that's the reality. >> i think sometimes the aerospace industry shies away from failure in the development phase. >> reporter: gwen shot well is space x's president, musk's right hand. >> it looks bad politically, it's tough and the media certainly makes a lot out of failures. but candidly, that's the best way to learn, is

the nasa astronauts. [applause] nasa astronauts bob behnken and , waving to the crowd cheer them on. there are their families right in front of them. leland: a very special moment. marie: you can hear them. let's light this candle. america! [applause] >> now they are getting into the tesla model x that will take them to their launchpad. attaching the are umbilical's. integrated into the tesla. these are not just any tesla. attached toen cooling units that umbilical is being connected to the suits to provide cooling air while they are on the way to the pat. this falcon wing doors were closing. super sleek. >> a rapid departure from the astro van. and their flight surgeon is in the front seat, taking the journey along with them. we are always thinking about the technology of the rockets, but this is what it is about, supporting the families to make sure they get back home safely. >> i couldn't hear everything i was saying, that i did catch bob telling his son to be good to mom and make her life easy. as a p

>> well, nasa makes the decision. this is a test flight. this isn't part of a normally scheduled flight. once that happens it's unknown pending date and want to make sure the capsule is working and propellent and oxygen systems can last long enough and also really complicated time because america has been buying the missions a couple of times a year and that program is phasing out and there's a lot of moving pieces between how many additional flights we could have and how well is this capsule working and also waiting on the boeing capsule which is going to be used to bring astronauts up. i think 3 years from now everything will be going smoothly and scheduled, but this year -- like a year or two of a lot of things changing. and by the way, we will still be sending astronauts and it'll be just we are not paying for theirs anymore. it'll be a swap. [laughter] neil: that's a big distinction. terry birks, thank you very much. we have done it, folks, americans are the once who did it with backdrop of protests and everything going on in the world

nasa tweeted that a the launch is a go. despite her tornado warning in that county about 30 minutes ago. we are keeping our fingers crossed. doug wheelock is riding shotgun with me for the next hour and you have been in space before. several hundred days, and you're getting ready for some rather anxious moments. i thought what jim bridenstine said from nasa was telling. he said "we are building a commercial market in space." if all goes well, doug, this is the first big step to getting private citizens into orbit at some point very soon. >> absolutely. this is a giant leap for us, bill. it's really, like i said earlier, it's like a renaissance for our commercial industry. any desire to live, work, operate in space, we can do it together as a team now. nasa teamed up and partnered with commercial enterprise and it's very, very exciting for our young students and our kids out there the dream of a future building rockets are flying on rockets. the time is now. this is our moment. >> bill: imagination runs wild. you remember th

on wednesday, nasa launched to u.s. astronauts into space for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011. the astronauts will join the current team on board the international space station. for the next 90 minutes we will look at the history of space exploration. manhat's one small step for , one giant leap for mankind. >> we will tour the country to hear the stories of the people and places key to its development. first up is lynchburg, virginia to visit with leland melvin who went on to become a astronaut. he flew two missions to the international space station on board the space shuttle atlantis. i was like what's going on here. floated, the external tank falling back. and in doing my task and in doing my task in this is falling and we are trying to see if there anything had come off of it. if something in hit our vehicle. thing and i'm like ok and i see the caribbean. in the colors of the ocean were so dramatic. we're going around the planet every night. , we are in space. in darkness a

and nasa locking out with the weather today but that did not happen in the end did it. well it's a nature of how they do these launches now this rocket has what's called a new cities launch window which means when it's your time to go you go if you're not ready for any reason you don't go to the flip side is that they can just turn around within the version or period of time and try again so you get flexibility that goes with the fact that it's either now or never what if this had been a space shuttle launch for example would we have that flexibility if they had said the weather is too bad today we have to delay. i have been to more space shuttle launch attempts than i have been to launches so that's the major difference is that space x. now has a set up that they sometimes have actually had an abort in the pad they went fixed a couple things and fix it a matter of minutes but today you do to the nature of where the space station is and where florida is they had to go the weather didn't cooperate they couldn't go ok we're less than let's focus on this coming saturday an

nasa has done a fantastic job. the whole group, we're working, as you know, with lockheed martin and many other companies. marilyn from lockheed martin is a great executive, one of the greats of our country. what they've done is incredible. >> president trump speaking just moments ago at kennedy space center in florida. we're on standby for the first launch of astronauts from u.s. soil in a decade. cnn's rachel crane is there. rachel, the last time we spoke, we didn't know if it was a go, there were tornado warnings. tell me what you know. do we have here? arghh! okay. we lost her. but i can tell you that is the rocket there on the launch pad where within the hour we'll see these two astronauts, doug hurley and bob bebehnken, will taking off. we'll be right back. for all of us. woi felt completely helpless.hed online. my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your

nasa's scheduled wednesday lunch of u.s. astronauts into space for the first time since 2011, we are looking back at the history of space exploration. >> firing chain is armed. >> on-screen is the atlantis, the last of 135 lodges of the shuttle program that span from 1981 until 2011. next, the story of christa mcauliffe, one of the crewmember's on board of the ill-fated space shuttle challenger. >> 15 seconds. 10. >> we were in the grandstands and we were located directly behind christa's parents. >> lift off. >> after the launch, everyone was yelling and very thrilled that we were seeing our colleague fly in space. the sequencing of it was such that after a proximally two minutes we are supposed to see , the separation of the solid rocket boosters, two minutes and 10 seconds. and i knew the sequencing and after about a minute and 30 seconds, we started to see some plumes that were not correct. and the vast majority of the people in the grandstand there, who were not familiar with the sequencing, they were cheering. and i sa

once you compare those costs to the cost of nasa's previous efforts or nasa's current effort with the rocket and ca psules current effort with the rocket and capsules you'll see the costs are significantly less. even the rocket science is very expensive because are coming out. you might‘ve seen earlier in the footage that space seconds managed to land one of its boosters onto its platform to reuse it. so that is one of the reason why space x is able delete not able to offer launches not only do they build it differently, they build it to be reusable. the idea is that reusable rocketry you don't throw away the hardware after the mission. just like aircraft you refurbish and you reuse it. that will bring down costs significantly. who knew that there was even sustainability in science. what happens though to nasa using the vehicles which have been getting to the international space station all these years? they have, it's a partnership but for the last few years since they shuttle retired nasa has been buying seats. they will still see and launch in the coming years because of the, all