Of new space, the privatization of space, is now open to politicians and government so that they can go up and see the earth that astronauts have been seeing for the last 60 years, to make the world a better place and an earth that dissolves boundaries and space. The what do you think result of bringing more people up into space will be . Especially bringing more politicians and government officials . What effect do you think that will have . Guest that is the first step. We have the International Space station up there which is creating an atmosphere of peace on earth. That is the gateway. Then we have the commercialization of space, which is going to take up different flights into space. I think it is our process. It will take some time. As all of this happens and evolves, i think we need to prepare leaders of the world and governments and politicians to understand that they have a and need to discuss policy and look at the World Without boundaries. Host in the past, spaceflight has been considered to be an area that only government can be involved in. Beginning, the because the government had the access to the best technology. How do commercial and private companies fit into the equation with spaceflight . Guest they fit in very well. I think the u. S. Is a leader in that. Decided to stop the Space Shuttle program back in 2012, i think it was. Or 2011. The idea was to create the opportunity for the commercial sector to provide and to contract with them. That is happening right now. This is a new day and age. Nasase of the example the that nasa is setting, many countries are following in those footsteps to expand the commercial space sector. Host you were one of the future astronauts in version collected. Galactic. What is your role in Virgin Galactic . Remind us what that is. Guest it was in 2006 that i joined. I was quite well known. Is going toight open space to all sectors. It will create an opportunity for the first private space line. More and more people will go to. Pace and they will have access it will korea opportunities on earth for the General Group of humanity create opportunities on earth for the General Group of humanity. Host is this something you have always dreamed about . How did you get involved . Guest i was a child growing up in pakistan, i loved the stars. My father was the first to introduce me to the constellations of the night sky. Becomei would grow up to an astronaut. It is just in my dna, i think. [laughter] been involved in this a lot. How much does it cost to be part of a program like what you are part of with Virgin Galactic . Is that something within the reach of a lot of people or is it too expensive for most people to dream to go into space right now . Guest it was 200,000 u. S. Dollars. It has gone up to 250,000 u. S. Dollars at the moment. The prices are expected to go down a lot more. Example of the transatlantic for as, you can go across few hundred dollars. It is the same model. Host when do you think this is going to happen . That is the milliondollar question. All i can say is it is getting really close. We have had a test passenger in space. We will be fitted with our space suits two weeks from now, as far as i know. Host two weeks from now . Guest yes. It is very exciting. It is next year. Host ok. Lets let our viewers join in on this conversation. We will open up regional lines today. If youre in the eastern or central time zones, your phone. Umber will be 202 7488000 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your number will be 202 7488001. You can always reach us on social media. You can text us at 202 7488003. Facebook atng on facebook. Com cspan. You are planning to go into space on the commercial space liner. The commercial industry going to be as safe as nasa, as government space life . Do you think they will be able to do just as good of a job as the Government Space Program . Guest going into space is hard. It is not easy. I dont think anyone can make predictions. Even Government Agencies have had their own calamities. I dont think anyone can guarantee anything. We have the right technologies. Virgin galactic is careful about how and when flights will take off. It has never been a race because the focus is on safety. We can only hope that it will be a commercially viable and safe operation. Host what kind of training are you doing to become a passenger on this spaceflight . Guest is called suborbital training. I had a few years ago in the masters center. Undergo all of the profiles and different profiles of our flight. Host masses administrator gave a press Conference Last Week, masses administrator gave a press Conference Last Week this week. Take a listen. Goal is to land on the moon within five years and be sustainable by 2028. There will be a reusable command module. We want to go back and forth from the surfaces of the moon to the reusable command module. Costsd to drive down the as time goes on. Cost will go down. What we are trying to achieve is a sustainable return to the moon, where we have People Living and working on another world for long periods of time. Host you were at this press conference, were you not . Guest yes. Host what was your reaction . Guest there was an announcement made less than a month ago that we are going to return. The next man and first woman to the moon in 24. In 2024. It will be a program where this particular press conference mentions that same exact program. Everyone is excited. It is inspirational. Host is there a need for man to return to the moon at this point . That is something we have already achieved. Is there a need for man and woman to go back there . Guest it is important because we are now going to build a gateway. That is under the leadership of nasa. The whole point is that you have a base between the orbits of earth and the moon. The first stop from there will be the moon. That will take you onward to mars. It is just a way of getting to mars and doing better than before, on the moon to find different experiments to see if it can benefit us on the earth in this day and age. This project is called the artemis project. Commercialends on spaceflight companies. What is the difference of the commercial Companies Working with Government Agencies to get up and off the ground . Guest at the moment, there is no option when it comes to the u. S. Space industry and nasa. Want to create opportunity with the commercial operators. Beenx, elon musk has taking cargo up there quite successfully. He is on the verge of taking astronauts to space which would be commercial spaceflights. This is the order of the day. It is an opportunity for the entire world to move generations to space. Host we are talking with namira salim. If you have questions for her, go to the polls right now and start with bill, who was calling from illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. Desire toy admire her go into space. But, i would say how would she want us to remember her if something bad happens . Guest [laughter] caller how would she characterize what she was doing and was trying to do . Guest i think that is a very good question. I am not afraid to go to space. Something was if to happen, it could happen crossing the street or any town you live in. If anything happens, god for bid, i would say i would want to in mbered this is a day and age for leaders to go into space and see the world from a different viewpoint. Bettermake the world a place. Ould want to be remembered host there have been several spacecraft accidents over the years. Are you concerned about safety at all in that situation . Guest not at all. When we had our creche crash in 2014, i was interviewed from the crash site and these questions were asked. In the midst of a crash. Happens and ins am going and i am not afraid. Lets talk to the caller from buffalo, new york. Good morning. Are you there . Caller yes. Can you hear me . Host we can hear you. Go ahead. Caller my first question is what is the environmental intellect impact of commercial Space Exploration . Could it just before an elite class of people . Second question is what makes you so confident it will further the objective of peace when we see that most of our wars are driven by resources such as oil . Host go ahead and respond. To thewhen it comes illusion that this is for the elite, i want to clarify that not everybody can afford it. In the future, the prices will go down as i mentioned with commercial operation. Regarding the environment, it has been announced many times that these flights are very environmentally benign. They dont cost the same on the environment as maybe what other flights have cost in the past. Airline taking off. As far as i know, it is not very impacting on the environment. That the less impact on the environment with what we can achieve from space, we have experiments happening at the moment at the space station which benefit the humankind on earth. I think that is a breakthrough and that is important. And also, experiments and applications, peaceful applications of space from earth need to come down on this planet to make the world a better place and to benefit humanity. The second repeat question again . Impact. E environmental caller guest the wars, how the wars can be resolved. We are talking at this stage about creating inspiration from space. It is inspiration that happens when you actually report it. It is happened to astronauts. Has comeas gone up back with a thought that politicians need to see the world from there. You realize that you are a small world in a big universe. That is a paradigm shift that happens. It will continue to happen. It will change the mindset of people on earth. People think that way because they are not connected to this whole universe that we are part of every single day. It is extremely inspirational for the first step is to inspire. To give you an example, a war was resolved from space. That was the cold war. It was the famous apollo docking that ended the cold war. Back then, it happened. In this day and age, when we are in the age of new faith, how much better we can handle politics of their from space. Host how do you go about convincing americans that commercial, private companies should be given more of a lead in space . We have a poll from earlier this says 31 ofit americans think that nasa funding should be increased so you can continue Space Exploration, where only 13 people 13 said nasa funding should be released reduced. How do you go about convincing americans that private companies should have more of a lead then nasa . Guest we are living in a new space age and we dont have any options anymore. This is what is happening. Has contracted boeing and space x. We have to evolve. The age of space. We are in a new space age. It is a new era. Just like we were in the cold in thea, we are space age air. I dont think there is any going back. Have given up a lot of the stuff they were controlling at the International Space station to commercial operators. Countries as far as asia. Ahead innot that far their commercial operations as the u. S. Everybody is following the at the moment. That is the order of the day. That at the moment. That is the order of the day. Who isets go to kelvin, calling from portland, oregon. Caller thank you. You are doing a great job. It is great to see africanamerican men having great discussions. Cspan has been a favorite show of mine. I would like to commend your vision to put this out there and suggest that you have to shoot for the stars. My question is while the executive director for washingtons nasa project has talked about increasing the budget, there has been absolutely no conversation about minority owned companies partnering as it relates to both privatesector and future budgets. Does your new firm or your organization have a component where it can measure the budget for diversity supply or purchase patient . Thank you, cspan. You always have great subjects. I appreciate the time. Guest my nonprofit is from the not sure of the internal things happening with the u. S. Government. I can only answer questions related to the global space industry and how the partnerships have taken place. I am really sorry. I am not an expert on that question. Tony froms try missouri. Tony, good morning. Caller yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I would just like to say that i dont believe that aliens exist. Epic its mathematically impossible. They say the universe is infinite, which means there would be an infinite amount of plans, which means if those planets have life, it would be infinite. Any percentage of that life that could travel through space is infinite. We would see infinite amounts of spaceships flying through the sky. We always use science to debunk their theories, thank you. Host what is your opinion on alien life . Guest i have a different view on that. I feel that there are species out there that we cannot see. They probably do not need water and oxygen to survive. We need to change our viewpoints and our approach toward finding aliens. I think they are out there. We havent found the right approach to find them. I believe they are out there. Host lets try philip, who was calling from michigan. Good morning. I was just wondering, how do you feel about group policy . Challenger, there were ignorant administrators that allowed things to happen that halted the Space Shuttle system. How do you feel about that . Thank you. Guest well, it is a tragedy, of course. That is why i think in todays day and age, we have to rely on commercial. It was the high cost of spaceflight that ended the tragedies. We have evolved with the times. The opportunities are great. Providing that kind of service and facility and we should try to we should hope and dream and be positive that such tragedies will not happen in the future. And that the space industry can deliver safe operations into space. Host when can we expect to see you go on your commercial space flight . Guest i hope it is next year. He is getting ready for his spaceflight. We will be fitted with our spacesuit in two weeks. So, hopefully soon. Host you will have to come back next year and tell us about your flight. We would like to think namira salim, founder of space trust for coming in with us and talking about the future