-I don't think any test-pilot school graduate
could have dreamed of anything more awesome
than being a part of the test flight of a brand-new spaceship.
-SpaceX and NASA really have what is
a monumental flight coming up.
It's the first flight of American astronauts
from American soil
since the space shuttle flew its last mission, in 2011.
-2, 1, 0, and liftoff.
The final liftoff of Atlantis,
on the shoulders of the space shuttle.
-The program, Houston.
-After the space shuttle retired,
NASA's astronauts were still going to space,
only they were doing it on Russian rockets
half a world away.
The United States government, which beat the Soviet Union
in the race to the moon,
today does not have the ability to fly astronauts anywhere.
-I think a lot of people did believe
that NASA had closed its doors
and it kind of almost ended its human spaceflight program.
-Our vision was to transition
and have commercial operations here at KSC.
The government subsidized early aviation
and helped develop a commercial market.
What we are doing is very similar.
-When we went to the moon in 1969,
we were driven by a Cold War space race
with the Soviet Union.
-Yes, indeed, they've got the flag up now.
-But now what you see is sort of a growing space race
among American corporations to go farther and faster.
In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX
to build and design spacecraft
that would be capable of flying astronauts.
-We have ignition and liftoff.
-The companies are very different.
Boeing has been around for many, many years.
SpaceX has been around for a little more than a decade.
-I jokingly say, you know,
that it's the ties and the flip-flops.
You know, it's two different mind-sets, you know --
old aerospace, new aerospace.
-Increase task force.
-Early on, a lot of people thought that Boeing,
"They're the big favorite.
They're the big aerospace company that has been a partner
with NASA since the dawn of the space age.
But because Boeing has stumbled so badly,
SpaceX has clearly taken the lead,
and they are gonna be the first company
to attempt to fly astronauts from US soil.
-There's a lot of negativity these days,
and it would be great to have something positive
that perhaps can unite the country or the world,
and advancement in space is one of those things.
And if you think about the Apollo moon landing,
you know, that was, even though it was only a few people
that did it, vicariously, we all went there.
We all went to the moon.
-It's hugely significant to bring that
launch capability back to the United States.
-I don't see any way that launching again in Florida
would not reinvigorate people's interest in the space program.
-Astronauts are once again going to be in the spotlight.
-He talked about his four daughters.
I also have to mention I've got a beautiful wife,
Julie, and two sons.
-They are gonna be carrying the hopes and dreams for the country
and what many hope is sort of a new era in human spaceflight.
These astronauts are really the best of the best.
I mean, they clearly have all the right stuff.
That said, when you go to space, it's a whole new ballgame.
A rocket launch is essentially like a bomb going off,
but you're controlling the direction of the blast.
-So, how do you put that energy in safely
and get people to orbit,
you know, where you're going 25 times the speed of sound?
You're circling the Earth every 19 minutes.
It's like a speed
that's difficult for people to even comprehend.
-So, there's still a lot of training
they need to accomplish.
These astronauts have been training extensively
on these brand-new vehicles.
-We copy, and we see that, and we will assume,
if we lose you in the handover, that we are no-go.
-35 minutes on this timer, I think, is the last -- -33.
27 on this timer.
-They wring out all of the kinks,
all of the things that go wrong,
and so they've been spending a lot of time in the simulators,
working out all kinds of scenarios.
-Okay, TC, I was more concerned
about the essential bus' effect on the RHC.
-We've done everything we can to make sure
that the rocket is safe and the spacecraft is safe.
-You can't help but be a little bit nervous.
And part of that nervousness is like,
"Okay, I just got to get everything done,
and I can't make a mistake."
-The NBL is the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
It's got almost a full-size mockup
of the International Space Station under the water.
-Pressure on the module.
-The reason why the astronauts train in the pool
is that's one of the best ways
they can get to simulate a weightless environment.
One of the things that the astronauts train on is,
when they are on the pad,
preparing to get into the spacecraft,
if there was a fuel leak of the rocket
and they needed to get off the crew tower
as quickly as possible,
they would hop into these baskets
and shoot down to the ground really, really fast.
-Zoom. -As you're going down the line,
I'd like for you to just kind of get a feel for the brake system.
-NASA actually has these up-armored military vehicles
that they hop into,
that would keep them safe in case anything went wrong.
-If we take a bird and if it comes through the canopy,
and I can't talk to you for whatever reason,
I'm gonna actively fly the jet. -Okay.
-Otherwise, I'm gonna let you know how I'm doing up there.
-The T-38 jet is a vehicle that NASA's astronauts
have been training on for decades.
The astronauts need to have their piloting skills up in case
they need to take control of that spacecraft.
In the T-38, they can experience up to 7 G's.
That's 7 times the force of gravity.
And when they're in space, they may have to carry
a heavy G load,
and this helps acclimate them for that.
-By the time we're actually sitting on top of the rocket,
we've gone through it one time after another,
and so you sort of know all the cadence
and exactly what's going to happen,
and you're ready for all of that.
-You've just got to understand that there are
a lot of things you have control over,
but you've also got to trust the team
to take care of the things that you don't have control over.
-This is the most creative space suit I have ever seen.
-Rockets and spacecraft --
the engineering is spectacular, but it's right on the edge.
There's so much that has to go right.
-You know, you come home. That's the best outcome.
Everything else is worse.
-The most amazing thing about being in space,
honestly, is looking back at our planet.
It puts everything into perspective.
All the silly stuff that you worry about,
like traffic and waiting in line for coffee --
who cares? -It just changes you.
You know, you see how thin the atmosphere is.
You see no borders.
You just see this beautiful, blue ball
and these beautiful parts
of the ocean and beautiful mountain ranges.
-I've always said, I wish everybody on this planet
would have an opportunity to take a lap around the Earth,
just one time at least.
I think we would be a lot nicer to each other.
-Our destiny is not to be stuck here on Earth.
Our destiny is to explore and go beyond,
continue to learn and expand.
-Very important to keep that hope alive.