i'm astronaut mike massimino and i am
going to attempt to explain to you what
jeff bezos's flight will be like in just
about the same amount of time that it
will take him to take that flight
t-minus 50 seconds until takeoff the
blue origin flight is only going to be
11 minutes you get inside there's no
pilots it's totally automated everything
should work perfectly if it doesn't
there are backup systems but there's
really no human intervention
with that spacecraft and it'll come back
to earth so it's like again in the ride
go up
weightless look at the planet look
around a little bit and then come back
down jeffrey bezos is set to leave july
20th with his brother
a space tourist who paid 28 million
dollars and wally funk who is 82 years
old this is nine days after richard
branson took his virgin space flight oh
my god so let's start off with a
countdown for mission control t-minus
ten
nine
eight
seven
six
five
four command engine start two
one
[Music]
liftoff
the crew will strap in and prepare for
their launch
the engines will light
and take them off the launch pad i think
the most important thing during liftoff
is to pay attention be alert
and don't touch anything you're not
supposed to that's what i would say you
know don't say hey i wonder what this
button does don't do anything i went to
space
on the space shuttle uh the main engine
started up first we were on our backs
waiting there on the launch pad for a
couple hours making sure everything was
okay and the main engine started and he
ran for about six seconds nozzle check
of the
srv he's firing his arm but after those
six seconds the solid rocket boosters
would light
and they're like giant sticks of
dynamite
you could not turn those off so once
they light you're on your way my first
launch seemed like a blink i didn't even
i didn't even it went by so quickly
everything was so new but the second
time i i felt like i was a little more
uh engaged because i knew what was going
to happen and i just wanted to enjoy it
as best i could
and i think that's the that's the
important thing this is a very rare
experience
getting a chance to be under powered
flight with a big rocket motor
underneath you taking you away from the
planet t plus two minutes
light hits mach 3.
after a couple minutes the g-forces
build up the maximum g's that we took
were three g's now what that means is
that's three times the force of gravity
that's hitting you in the chest you're
on your back because that's the best way
to take that g-force is right in the
chest
it feels like a pile of bricks is on
your chest like you have three big dudes
sitting on you that's kind of what i
felt like three times my body weight hit
me in the chest and that lasted for
about two and a half minutes
when you experience zero gravity is
dependent on
when your engines stop
running i was under those g-forces and
then the engines cut
and it got really quiet
and all the violence all the shaking
stopped
and everything started to float i was
still strapped in my seat but my arms
just rose up like this t plus three
minutes capsule separates from booster
zero g begins
next the crew will enter zero gravity
they will experience weightlessness for
a few minutes one of the first things i
noticed when i got to space was i didn't
feel so well i just felt nauseous and i
knew this could happen it happens to
most astronauts because your inner ear
is not working it works on gravity so
the vestibular system inner ear zero
gravity nothing's happened it's telling
the brain you are perfectly still
but as you're moving around your eyes
are saying oh no you're not you're
moving around so you can get that
conflict and it can lead to
disorientation and nausea my advice to
anyone going on one of these trips is
medicaid take the nausea medicine that's
available to you they're pretty good
pretty good nausea medicine these days
ask
the medical officer there's got to be
someone that knows about that stuff
working at these companies what do you
suggest take that stuff
and i think that'll help you enjoy the
experience because why take the chance
you might unstrap and feel really awful
and it's only a couple minutes so that's
what i would do
t plus four minutes light reaches apogee
and the flight will reach its apogee
which means its highest point away from
the planet they'll be able to unstrap
float around a little bit and take a
look out the window so we would want to
be really careful when you first get to
space you're kind of out of control when
i first got to space i went to look out
the window and i felt kind of out of
control i was just it's like and a walk
again you're just moving around and i
grabbed something and i grabbed a
circuit breaker which i wasn't supposed
to grab and pulled it out and it wasn't
supposed to happen like it's like oh my
goodness the first thing i've done in
space was something wrong but of course
i reported it you know to my commander
in the ground and said don't worry about
it it was just a switch that really
wasn't needed at that time so i just put
it back in but it made me realize you
got to be careful around here watch what
you're holding on to so if you get out
of control you're liable to do something
you might regret so you want to be
really careful about that you usually
want to go slowly and be under control
so you can enjoy the experience you can
move around more actually more
efficiently and quickly when you when
you do that so
go slow to speed up and that's what i
wanted to do on my first space flight of
course was unstrap and take a look at
the planet and that's what i did i got a
chance to to see the planet from space
for the first time and that's the moment
that you're looking forward to the
overview effect is the term that is used
for the experience that people have
gone above the karman line astronauts
when they view the planet you're seeing
it from a from a different perspective
and it can change the way that you feel
about the earth or or role in the
universe or the
beauty of our planet and i that all
those different emotions and feelings
that people have tried to describe
over the years since we first started
sending people to space
has been uh kind of put in this category
of the overview effect and i think most
people feel that as well where you see
the thinness of the atmosphere and you
see the beauty of our planet i think
mainly it's it's an emotional experience
of what it's like to look back on our
home
uh from space
t plus six minutes time for re-entry
astronauts rebuckle
then the crews will start their descent
back toward earth as they get closer to
the planet the g-forces will build up
again and they'll start to feel heavy
they have to be in weight let's going
from zero
to something
feels a lot more than it than it would
be your your whole your body's
is getting used to that again and that
we were but i was in space for a couple
weeks i don't know what it's going to be
like for them it'll be an interesting
question what was it like after just
being there for a few minutes did your
body have to go through another
orientation to readjust the gravity so
we'll see what happens but it's more a
function of
of
slowing down and and having the earth
pull you back in than it is of any
particular altitude or speed tomorrow's
a big day for you and i mean you've had
all kinds of big days but it's tomorrow
kind of the biggest day for you
very special and that's because
so on my flights uh on the space shuttle
when we were coming back to earth you
know we were orbiting at 17 500 miles an
hour
and so what we did is we pointed our
rocket ship the the rocket itself the
back end of the space shuttle where the
engines were not the main engines but
these two big engine bells on the side
you know and we would
burn those engines we'd
we'd light them up what that did is that
propelled us in the opposite direction
and kind of acted like putting on the
brakes
and so as you as you slow down you'll
get lower and lower and then eventually
you'll pick up the earth's atmosphere as
your as your altitude lowers that builds
up friction a lot of heat in the case of
the shuttles about four to five thousand
degrees outside of the space shuttle was
got really hot we felt fine inside but i
could see the tail like i held up i was
on the flight deck and i could see uh by
holding up a mirror i was able to look
out the window and see the tail of the
space shuttle and i was filming it for a
while i was like oh that's kind of cool
looks like the tail is almost on fire
and i was like that's kind of scary
enough of that and then we got below
that and we picked up the horizon of the
earth again what's different about the
jeff bezos and richard branson's space
flights compared to what we've done up
till now
is that this truly i think marks the
entry point of commercial space flight
unlike spaceships that carry astronauts
to the international space station
they're typically flying for their
governments
this is a new way that people can get to
space
with a commercial company and a private
enterprise
t-plus nine minutes parachutes deploy
and then they will land with a parachute
very close to where they took off you
know kind of like almost an amusement
park ride we got lower and lower
and at one point we picked up
like as we're picking up the atmosphere
it almost seemed like we were in a cloud
we were just exciting the particles
around us so it's almost like we're in a
soup and we're like you know what we
would say like when you're flying an
airplane you're in the soup you're just
in a cloud you can't see anything and i
i had no sensation of motion you know we
still didn't have g's really building up
at that point but i had no visual
indication out the window that we were
moving at all and i felt like i was
perfectly still no indication of motion
at all until i looked at our velocity
indicator we're still going about 12 000
miles an hour at that point that's only
to tell me we're still moving t plus 10
minutes capsule lands
finally
touchdown the crew will have completed
their journey to space and back i think
they're pretty much going to be able to
get off and walk away just like they're
getting off an airplane um in both the
in both the blue origin and the virgin
galactic
examples their body hasn't had any
deterioration it hasn't been much of an
adaptation because it wasn't very long
to zero gravity so i think they'll come
back and be in
in
in one gravity without without any
issues we had been in space in my case
on the shuttle usually typically it was
about a two week journey that's what it
was for me because you're adjusting to
gravity but that was a goal you wanted
to do that and look up and point to the
spaceship and not fall over you know
like i was a zombie or herman munster or
somebody walking her frankenstein moving
around so i wouldn't fall over very
slowly on my flights once we landed you
know you're you're back on the runway
now you're grateful to be home
and safe i don't think you're going to
need the same physical conditioning that
we need
that i needed when i was an astronaut to
fly to space i think it's going to be
more like the amusement park
restrictions
mission accomplished
i would love to go on one of these
flights with richard branson or with
jeff bezos or with anyone else i was
interested in going but i don't want to
pay that much money for it so i'm not
paying for that experience
but i would be happy to go if they want
an interested observer or maybe some
help you know i could be the flight
attendant i'm happy to do whatever they
would want me to do on one of these
flights i would love to do it but that
the ticket price is a little much for me
right now uh i i think i'll wait till
the price comes down if i have to pay
for it even though only it's a couple
minutes they will get a chance to look
around to look at our planet to
experience weightlessness
and especially that view of our planet
and what it looks like from space
they'll be able to get a pretty good
look at it even though for a couple
minutes we understand a lot about how
our planet works by being here on the
planet but there's still a lot of big
questions like
where did we come from how did we get
here and how to best take care of our
planet that i think we can only answer
by traveling to space because it gives
you that different perspective so i'm
interested to see
what these two guys in particular who
are
very interesting people very successful
entrepreneurs have experienced a lot of
things in their lives
i want to
find out how this experience of flying
to space will have changed them