Have live coverage. Heres a portion of todays coverage courtesy of nasa tv. The astronauts. [cheering] they each made this journey twice before, for the Space Shuttle missions. But they have never done this in the spacex space suit, theyve never done it together theyve never done it on their way to head to ay commercially dealt rocket in space. Putting astra down in one time its a new era in space travel. They are writing an tesla model exes. They have been equipped with cooling units. Once they sit inside that umbilical i was referring to earlier will connect to the spacesuit to provide cooling where they are inside the vehicle. You can see them talking and waving with their families now. We sell them to a virtual hug with their sons. Megan and karen and their sons here. They are the dads. The dads yet. So awesome. Bob split his family kiss, doug got to take his n wife and son up to the pad on the tower yesterday they tweeted out a photo that was so cool. I saw that picture it had a prominent worm in the picture . [laughter] [cheering] there coming out the delorean doors of the tesla space in the front a seat thats a flight surgeon. He is climbing in in the suit technicians, there is number 12 he is buckling in. The two suit techs are buckling in and connecting the umbilical. I know lauren you mentioned earlier but foror folks who maybe werent watching benner cant remember, we are in florida, it is superhot, super muggy so how are they single . Their portable cooling units we had one in the im sorry to in the onc buildings two and the tesla two and the elevators and two in the white room when they arrive so we are keeping cool air flowing through the suits theres actually ducting integrated into the suits to keep them cool. You canhe see theyre saying goodbye to their families this is awesome. Thats awesome their families get to come up to the window obviously get a little closer than everybody else. Oh myy gosh. This is s what its all about its about the people in the families, working together as one community to get doug and bob launching off to the cosmos in the space station. Its emotional watching that. It really g is. [applause] there they go. [cheering] not as we see the convoy begin the journey to the pad, 39 a, we are speaking about each and every one of you. Our colleagues and friends it nasa who had a hand at seeing the crew dragon commercial crew program come to life. We wish every single one of you could be here up close to see this. We want you to be a part of this journey regardless of where you are watching today. So the next few minutes while theyre making their way to pad we went to highlight those people whose hands, words and thoughts dealt all that we see here today. We hope all of you watching can feel that pride that each of these nasa team members have for today. We are from the commercial crew we are so excited about this historical data, congratulations on being part of the very First Mission for human space commercial space flight ever we behind your mom and dad. [cheering] i am in spacex congratulations to spacex for hitting another major milestone milestone,. [cheering] bob and doug theres a lot of launch vehicles seen here to wish you a a very wonderful we are so excited for you. Launch america its time to lunch, lets go. [cheering]h hi this is milo from hawthorne headquarters be what it wishess bob and doug a safe trip to the International Space station. Go dragon. [cheering] s basement. [cheering] nine years in the making it such a historic time our team has worked so hard we are very excited to be here. Go bob and doug. [cheering] hi mrs. A. M. 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 im dusty with Nasa Communications and Public Engagement director. We all went wish bob and doug safe travels and godspeed. Youre both an inspiration to us all now lets get out there and watch america, go do it. [cheering] we are following the convoy, leland and laura and i dont know about you guys, i am so glad we had the chance to hear from the teams 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, theyre 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 its a bummer we cant all be here in person. But to have that opportunity is pretty cool you are right, it has been years of extremely hard work. Fortunately weve had little milestones along the way the insulated mission its all leading up to this. I speak for all of my friends and colleagues that are still working on this program today is a career high for all of those people. Its if not the pinnacle of it. Absolutely doug and bob appreciate them so much. As they continue to make their way to the pad, the next astronaut to make this journey are also watching very closely. Nasa asked rod Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and mike hopkins in Japan Exploration Agency astronaut will also be flying. They will be in the crew one mission a little later this year course thats after bob and doug return home. Crew one will be the second spaceflight for walker and hopkins who each flew on the russian its the first spaceflight for glover and the third spaceflight for the gucci the crew one mission will be the first in a series of rotational flights after demo two. Once nasa certifies for regular crew flights right now victor and mike are following along from the Johnson Space center in houston. They are standing by to talk to darrell. Either quest or to act sorry we dont have darrell as we continue to fallor the convoy weve got a little chase car following the convoy. I think were going to be talking to victor and mike from right here. Victor and mike, are you there . We are here. Alright hi guys. Im just going to ask first, you are going to be two of the next people to get aboard what are your thoughts and feelings as your watching bob and doug and the potential right now . As you can imagine, there is a lot of emotions. Course were excited for bob and doug tom excited for nasa, spacex really the whole country. A lot of pride in what it has taken to get to this moment. All the thousands of people that have contributed to get into this moment. Then theres also a sense of duty of business as usual. For us will be w watching, listening, learning and all that to help get us prepared for when it is our turn. Your mission of crew one sorry didnt mean to cut you off go ahead. Is just going to say it was also great to see them walk out just now and say goodbye to their families into the virtual hugs. That was great for theres a lot of emotions, thats probably the best one. Victor and mike, i know recently you had Shannon Walker also side to the crew went mission with you. What can you tell us about them and your relationship with them, your training safar them customer. Im very excited about crew one shannon shes been with nasa for around 30 years she is not the Astronaut Office for more than 15 years. She is seen a lot around here. In 1996 it was when he first became an astronaut, shuttled short duration, longduration spacewalk to name it. So we are kind of late in the game header full crew complement its really helped to really h streamline the process for becoming more cohesive as a crew. They really hit the ground running we showed up to our first felt like we done it several times before its great because we do have a lot to get dunford we not only have tot learn to fly and operate the crew dragon space craft that bob and doug will do later today, god willing we have to be able to be willing to do all the things out of crew they do this space workbook research the upkeep of the a space station we have all that training going on as well so we havew been doing that over the past several months together prayed. Specific question for mike i know youve flown on the russian not specifically on Space Shuttle but can you talk about the tradition of the right at were seeing now . Yes, the ride out is very symbolic. Symbolic of the transition, the transitionn of months and years of preparation to the actual execution of the mission itself. So for the astronauts, for bob and doug right now, it gives them an opportunity to reflect on all of the work it took to get to this moment. It also gives them time to focus on the job. Too mentally prepare for game day. Then you think about this particular mission, that is symbolic of this transition from almost nine years where we have not had human launch capability in the u. S. To a new age of government and private partnerships that will be launching humans into orbit and beyond. That is happening right hear from the United States of america. Victor, iion for know if all goes well when you fly on crew one a little later it will be your first trip to space. Can you put yourself in the seat right now . In the car with bob and doug . Walk me through itte that will feel like for you knowing youre headed to theou launchpad, youre going to be launching intohe space for the very first time. It will be tough, it is tough to imagine with those feelings are going to be like. We were able to simulate that and go through a launch exercise and write out up the elevator out the crew armed with the vehicle would be. Just that day was amazing to me. We were able to do it with the full convoy and to see what that would be like. That was overwhelming after being a kid watching something similar to that on television. I cant imagine what its gonna happen on the actual david all tell you what im looking forward to it and against go back to the mall or bob and doug got to say bye to their boys and karen and megan, i cant wait to see my kids standing there at something i look forward to its going to be great. Victor glover and mike hopkins thank you so much we cant wait to wish you well ensure you along on that journey. M lauren . That was so cool. Now come as you are watching this live from wherever you are, you can send a shout out to the crew with a like or comment on twitter or instagram with the launch american be a part of this moment. Looks like the convoy is headed past the Vehicle Assembly building relook at the pad now theyve got probably three more miles to go atca this point. What you think is going through their minds right now . I was l watching some video of bob and doug kind of the lighter side. I would imagine the two of them, theyve trained so hard theyre meticulousad it but they do they might be telling jokes like we did but we were in the astro van heading to pad 39a. Weve been togetherno for so long, you know the systems you know exactly what your doing. We had a moment of levity will be would tell jokes. We wouldnt even tell the whole joke but just say the number because wed said it so many times. We are highfiving, we are chest bumping, we were getting ready mentally. It was that moment of that we hadev made all the preparation and now his gamee they were ready to get up in that vehicle and go to space. Now were going to go out to hawthorne for the last leg of the convoys trek to the launchpad. Dan . Thanks it this point the convoys getting really close to pad 39a pretty soon they will be enteringo was known as the bda orr the blast danger area before any pad technicians, engineersok of a cr astronauts enter this area on the launchpad, space at an launching dude no go so you make sure everything is clear is some people on the arms and crewss moving and so everything is clear prayed. P this launchpad which has enbeen the beginning point for so many firsts is the perfect back drop for todays Historic Lodge that has a new first in a new era in human spaceflight. T. But with new vehicles being designed and launch this one has required some major upgrades. So thatr. Sri is right and dale skinner shows a couple upgrades pad 39a where they had a 21st century makeover to launch us into next chapter of human spaceflight. We are go, we are go. [background noises] why some say the moon, why choose this is our goal . They may well ask why climb the highest mountain . Engine stopped [background noises] [background noises] ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five all three engines up and burning, two, one, zero and lift off the final lift off the Space Shuttle america will continue to dream. And you can see on your screen, bob and doug are getting very, very close to pad 39a. The distance of these launchpad upgrades, spacex also made changes to both falcon nine and dragon to enable flying crew. A key update to the latest version of dragon is a highly reliable launch escape system thats capable of carrying crew to safety at any point during ascent of the rocket. Im sorry im just waiting for that pullback moment on the camera we are going to see their cars roll white up to the pad. Another keyes v upgrade though s dragons newha lifesupport system as you can imagine, im sorry there we go, crew arriving at the pad. As you can imagine, flying humans requires keeping environment and dragons out the flight thats providing breathing air,up keeping the castle entering cab it is a pressure free of contaminants, regulating temperature and humidity, and implementing a Waste Collection system, also known as the toilets. So the changes the falcon nine were small bit extremely meaningful to meet nasas requirements first human spaceflight specifically they had to have a high degree of fault tolerance meaning small failures in the system would not lead to mission failure. Falcon nine was already able to head engine failure but new emphasis was put on making sure a failure throughout any phase of launch would not mean mission failure. Thats a really cool view on your screen, with bob and doug getting out of their teslas. That is amazing. This goes down all the way to latches, controls, valves wiring and so much more to keep them safe. With the astronauts now on location at pad 39a, maria, lauren, leland take us to the crew making their final steps towards that dragon spacecraft. Alright, thanks dan that was cool to see. We can see teslas on the screen then theyre going to stop for bob and doug to take a Little Nature break before they make their way up to the pad. We are expecting it should be about t minus two hours 55 minutes of just under three minutes from now we should hear formal announcement that the crew was on the pad. We will quiet down to listen for that woman get a little closer. Lauren you did not get a chance to mention will they were driving out there, they have a really cool playlists they have on the way out right customer two bob is tweeting which i listen to on the way out so heres what they chose the first is ac dc back in black, think he tweeted that winter someone recommended it which was super cool. The reason being they are back than that also listen to elevator music from the Blues Brothers that song girl from nema. Got another career. That and meatball,. [laughter] sort of symbolizing the fact they are waiting. The third song was the starspangled banner, the army french horns version for very obvious reasons eerie. You got to set the mood, set the tone. Leland you know all about that. A little meatball. [laughter] its all good. Dont make me come over there lauren. [laughter] so we are looking now at the crew dragon capsule on top of the falcon nine rocket the impressive crew access arm that is that blackl. And white kind of hallway you see there. That is how the crew makes her way over to crew dragon to climb inside. That is falcon nine rocket stands about 230 feet tall. The crew dragon trunk from the bottom of the trunk to the top of the nosecone is another 27 feet on y top of that. So here in just a couple of minutes, bob and doug will be making their way c up in an elevator they dont have to climb the hallway its aboutn 10 feet upstairs at the last leg of that trip. And lots of people are weighing in on social media. This person says its happening i cant read the rest of it right now, lots of people really getting pumped with the launch America Online there watching live now and wishing us a fantastic launch. We certainly hope so. Last we heard was a 50 50 chance with the weather. Its going to be exciting. And it looks like, i am not sure if that is bob doug and this one here, cannot tell from this view. It looks like a one of them is getting ready to get out of the tesla just a minute. Lauren, are pumped in suits had different colors for what position what Mission Position you had to do these suits have colors to designate the two astronauts you know . Not that im aware but the name is on the suit. So we had those too. But if youre trying to find out which suits you have, guess theres only two of them so the dragon isde capable of carrying seven but for Nasa Missions its for. There goes the doors were gonna calm the delorean doors, call matt . So sure thing thats fair game. Acknowledged inspiration. [laughter] so yeah for sure were looking at the base level there it leland, know we talked about this you were out here last week we are talking about how the pad look so different from the shuttle days. Can you talk about what you remember and how its different now . The form and function this a black pad with white ticking, its really beautiful you talk about Stem Education this is totally Science Technology entering arts and mathematics. Think spacex is at an incredible job of making things look really beautiful teand functional. Everything just fits perfectly. I think when we were having our launchpad, there were hoses and things hanging off. This is a very sleek and elegant and kind of futuristic look at the next era of space travel. You know, i just love seeing these teslas versus the astra van. Who did these . Looks like theyre trying to see the top of the crew dragon taking in the site is pretty high. At all if you caught this one, we can sit briefly on the shots. The license plates is iss a bnd iss abound if followed . [laughter] hopefully they will be today. We just needo the weather to stay i mean it looks pretty nice right now . Obviously its not just what the weather conditions are here theyve got to think downrange in case of an abort and make sure its okay for recovery if we get into a situation like that which is unlikely. This elevator will take them up to level 255. Not to a 55 floors but 255 feet. From there they will take, once they get up there in the elevators prettyy zippy though get up there quickly, they will get out the walk up another flight of stairs to level 265 and that is where they will greet the crew. So i dont know, obviously leland has been and that elevator lord youve been out there but the first time i wrote in the elevator and woe were really moving in this. It was a little bit of a jolt when it first goes. Yet you get used to it. [laughter] and a then the jolt is a little bit more extreme when you get in the rocket intake off. [laughter] the doors arere opening, and here they come. Its a beautiful view up there too. You can see all of the surroundings in florida, this National Wildlife retreat we have here. Getting ready for the business of hand getting ready for the rocket and heading to the cosmos. Those are the stairs as the 255foot level there headed to this stairs to the 265foot level that will take them to where the crew access arm is in the white room. That is the view right there they are looking at. Lauren,d what are the chevrons . E the white chevrons on the floor . Where did theyy lead to customer. Those are basically highlighting the exit pad seven event that anyone up there needs to get away asap, they follow those areas to where escape ask us await them there are seven baskets its kind of like a zip line they will slide all the way down from that Service Structure down to the ground facing away from the rocket. At the top right of your screen where you see them, theres actually a felon right there its next to the worm, theres the worm again. There is a phone. Im okay with that now. It pops there like it belongs there or something. [laughter] leland tells about the phone was the significance of the phone up there . So you can call family members who maybe werent able to come to the lots in there quite a few of them. Its a lastminute to say goodbye and say youre going to talk to them when you get to space. Absolutely. Again theyre taking in the t white room in the pad team is there you can see them they are in with white numbers on their back. They will be helping them when they get into ingress we are t minus two hours and 15 minutes right now. At about t minus 35 and is just under 15 minutes from now is when the astronauts will ingress, thats the term used for climbing into dragon. Of course that will have the assistance of the suit texan get buckled in. And so we want to head over to hawthorne now for a preview of what is in storend for not just bob and doug, but future space travelers. Shortly after we begin to regularly fly nasa astronauts to and from the space station they will p start flying private passengers to that and beyond using dragon. Nasa will be enabling to ask her not missions to visit the space station each year. This is part of our support for broader economy its one of the many ways theyre opening access to manufacture products inrs microgravity have modules in space and have more people explore the stars for stampers. The more people exploring the stars the closer we get to be a multi planetary species. Earlier we showed you where you would train if you flew on dragon but now a sick a peek inside the spacecraft itself. We wanted to take dragon and make it human rated. I think we took a different approach to spaceship design than previously done because we wanted to feel like a 21st century spaceship. Id we wanted to inspire another generation of astronauts. Really everything when you look at dragon was driven by function. We took into account everything from the placement of all the cargo supplies, to the light rail on the top double is a handheld. Probably one of the eggs features is a touch screen on the inside. We designed them to be very functional, but with User Experience in mind it is very intuitive to know what we need to do it any given moment in time. When i think about comfort for the astronauts its really every aspect of how you could interact with the spaceship that comes to mind. We have three different seat sizes we go as far as molding the foam around the astronauts and body so theres no pressure points. As is generally a pleasurable experience to space. Dragon is a spaceship its all about safety and reliability. We designed it to be to fault tolerance of any two things could fail i could lose her flight computer and thruster and i could still bring the crew back him safety. We also added a launch system if it goes wrong in a sense the crew can get awayou from falcon and get picked up safely. Ive worked on dragon since 2012 pretty when ihr see dragon lift off i think im going to feel buildup of emotion of eight years of working with some of the best engineers, technicians across the country to put their heart and mind and making moments happen for everybody. We see them signing it looks like theyre signing something right now so we give them a black sharpie to sign the white rivet starting a new tradition. We did not do that thats nice. Good tradition. We saw bob and doug walked down the crew access arm its that futuristic look you talked about, what did you think seeing that how that compare and contrast with that was like during shuttle customer. Its really beautiful back when i was flying on shuttle, i look at the thumbs up from bobbys getting excited. Few little photos at the end there. Its a totally different era. The spacex team is really looking to make something futuristic. Its looking like the georgia jetsons oroa some other movies you see on television. I think it is something that inspires our country and our children especially since they want to be these astronauts they were to study hard to be that next generation of explorers launching from Cape Canaveral and a spacex rocket. While working for nasa, spacex or any of the other companies that are trying to get off planet. I think this change in the way we are doing business is going to be a really great way of getting more people to the table to flyan in space. That is really important to us, dragon we see it as a 21st century spaceship anisa look like a 21st century spaceship and it flies like a 2t century spaceship. Some course the brown support equipment should look like the same error and the suits do. All of that future facing technology and aesthetic is super important to us. Right now you can see the duct in the hands of member number five s there. That is an Environmental Control system duct. Who just wouldnt . Was that doug or bob . I think that was doug. It was doug. That is awesome. He is ahead of schedule opens on the climb back out. Hes ready hes like leland is a reactant buckle leland into his seat to keep him from running out there. If we stayed outside as good a swim across the moat and get in the vehicle bob and doug. The suit technicians are helping the crew climb inside bird theyre holding back the hatch field to protect the seals on the hatch. Also making sure the crew doesnt hit their head or anything on the way and even though they have helmets we dont that too happen. When you know, they climbed in a couple minutes earlier than we expected them to, you dont, spacex has rehearsed this over and over again with bob and doug. Ive heard them say well we might be a little ahead of schedule for read it just gives them more time to check things out. Right now the suit technicians are doing is they are strapping the crews feet into these restraints that the a boots fit inside of. Then they will close the fivepoint harnesseses around them. E note leland you talked about some of the hardest thing you had in the past with the shuttle. This is such a more sleek design where theres one point to plugin with cooling communications and everything. We hadad a fivepoint harness, we had these hoses and things all over the place. I think this is much more streamlined look into the future of space s travel. Similar to what was going in the onc building during the suit check out that seat umbilical will connect to the right side of the spacesuit. There is a fluid module bits connected to the spacesuit and that provides fresh cooling air and also night trucks for the checks that come up later. The audio system is also going through that umbilical. So while the crew the suit tax or getting them buckled in they will perform a calm check. Thats again similar to what was done at the building but this time integrated twoway communication between the astronauts and the ground crew. And were going to head back to hawthorne now as we just saw bob and doug dressed in crew dragon. Dan . Thanks it is incredible to see them inside the capsule. If you are just now tuning in its a great time youre watching our coverage of the mission known as demo two, two days spacex and nasa will be sending people into orbit on a mission to the international o space station for the first time from u. S. Soil to 2011, bob and doug are flying inside dragon doug hurley really close to your screen and bob on the further seat away from us. They are getting ready to lift off from pad 39 a theyre looking at lift off at 4 33 p. M. Eastern time prayed they already ascended the tall structure next to the rocket which is the fixed Service Structure and walked down the core door known as the crew arm. Now they are boarded inside of the dragon. Right before they got in we saw them pause for a moment and actually sign the wall they were in the white room. It is literally that room t at the end of the crew arm that has an opening in the dragon suit. These last place on planet earth were bob and doug are standing before they get into dragon. Tthe term the white room was first used during nasa gemini was the room right before entering into the spaceship was painted white bread so we have continued the tradition of painting hours white as well as started a new tradition as you just saw they tidid sign the white room wall which is really, really awesome. Its a fairly small area that has room for the crew and a few Ground Support members with the complete cargo load and ingress iss how we refer to the crew boarding dragon. Inside the white room theres a platform that gets extended out to bridge that gap between the crew arm and the dragon side hatch to allow easy entry into dragon. As you might expect, the entire area is environmentally controlled to the dragon site has to be kept open what we are keeping all the dust, dirt, florida humidity outside of the castle making sure its pristine for the crew. Theres also a big field thats inflated and compressed against the castle right now to help to maintain that clean environment. The white room also has tools to open the side hatch, complete crew ingress that they are doing now and prepare for any contingency or emergency that may be encountered. So as we just heard from the team they are getting into this capsule now, theyre getting their seats connected to their suits the other that umbilical thats going to give them a hard Line Connection into audio for the comp checks was truly coming up shortly and again breathing gas and pressurized for the suit leak checks. The second time since her getting suited up is to get those leaked checks were all ioabout continuing to recheck the systems. There they are right now we are watching bob and doug getting into dragon getting strapped in. Before they connected their suits to the actual seats, they did something called a foreign object debris check that means they actually get inspected for any substantive debris on their suit that could interfere with the systems on dragon. To help protect against the breathing crew has covers on their boots and umbilical cord on the suit that needs to be removed before they could ingress. Theyve already removed those and as you can see they are getting strapped in. Once the check is complete our commander, doug hurley entered first and then bob followed after him. They are getting up buckled in right now as you can see on your screen and attaching their umbilicals to their suits. The umbilical allow the crew to have, through their suit and heir to help keep them cool and delivers night trucks were suit pressurization. As we mentioned early in the broadcast, the suit primary function is to protect the crew and chance of a cabin depressurization walking through there are four seats configured inside dragon right now they are numbered one to four from right to left when you are looking at the seats. Weve had a couple camera views from the hatch in the white room if youre looking at that angle you go from one to four right to left doug as in situ or the commander seat bob is in seat three which is crew dragon its a pilot roseat. Obviously nobody a are in seats one and four today. The crew dragon is designed to carry four astronauts there are three touchscreen displays being used throughout the flight giving them insight into the systems see if theres any issues with the vehicle and if required, taking control and manually flying dragon. We can see doug manipulating those displays rightht now. Coming up the crew will do a calm check to make sure they can hear Mission Control and their seats will be rotated into position for a launch so they can see those display panels right in front of them. So now lets check in with john for the latest on the health of both vehicles over to you john. We rted minus two hours 36 minutes and 30 seconds with the countdown for the launch of falcon nine with dragon to the space station. The dragon launch have completed their major activities to prepare the spacecraft or the astronauts. Checkouts are complete of major systems including the escape system. As you can see, ingress of the astronauts well under way is there hooking their suits up to the various cabin systems. Right now on dragon there are no issues, checks will be coming up shortly on the dragon spacecraft with the crew we might be able to hear some of that and we will bring it to you as it happens. Now currently falcon nine team is preparing for their final checkup and for pallet load. Checkouts are do it g minus two hours as with the mantra of the will get on consol officially at Kennedy Space center. Currently on falcon nine all systems are go. There continue to report no issues with errands see clearance. The Weather Forecast continues to be acceptable, but something we are going to watch all the way through. We are not only looking at whether at the launch site but lookingnu around the world. Need to make sure conditions are acceptable if dragon has to splashdown in thero atlantic in case of an escape. We are also monitoring contingency splash on locations if the crew had to come back to work before docking with the space station. Now, those conditions are Getting Better as we go through the day at the launchpad things continue to be a 60 probability of violating the conditions or 40 chance if youre an optimist of good weather. Right now the clock is continuing to countdown. All a systems are go. Were just inside team on it two hours 35 minutes. Is bob and doug finish their ingress procedures we are going to continue to listen for the comp checks they should be coming up in just a little bit part right now im joined by Spacex Jessica Jensen and lawrence to discuss more about what Dragon Falcon nine iss a 21st century launch vehicle for first off thank you so much for joining me today, just a guy with you. Walk me through dragons life history and how we got to where we today. Dragon was designed from scratch 12 years ago by space six it was designed to carry cargo to ands from the International Space station qwith that means 12 years ago is not that long ago we got to use stateoftheart materials state of the art processors to really dragon to start off with is a moderate advance spacecraft. Two parts led to commercial crew one part was we were able to make cargo dragon and attached to the space is not the huge learning curve, we human rated a space craft for a portion of the mission and for cree you for the whole mission. The last part was the dragon has been commercial crew with that means is we were able to test out materials and parachute material on cargo dragon before they ever flew on crew dragon. Very cool thats just a part of it walk us to the flight history the Humble Beginnings and where we are today. Falcon 91st flew almost ten years ago today. Even of the first version of that rocket could not carry humans, the supplemental design was made with that in mind. Over the course of 87 launches, we steadily improve the rockets so now it has twicee the payloads that we started with. We can land in reuse the first station and most important for today we have the reliability we need for humans. Whatsch interesting is that reliability is come from study upgrades after almost a decade of flight experience. Its actually quite hard to prove reliability. And something the commercial Airline Industry has been grappling with for decades. Just like them we depend on lots and lots of testing so we take the engine comment that has to fly for about six minutes continuously to get to orbit. We took one of those and ran it for more than 250 minutes to get the statistical proof of reliability we need. Its the testing and lots and lots of analysis gives us an nasa that falcons were ready to fly humans. A lot of additional upgrades and testing had to 2 go. Just to make sure both of these vehicles were human rated. Walk us through some of the specific upgrades to dragon to meet that criteria. The first one is pretty obvious we had a cargo dragon had lots of cargo cubbies we took all this out, replace with astronaut seats, crew displays and crew control. One thing people may not know is on part of dragon weve actually been flying mice to and from the International Space station for years. What that meant was we had to have an Environmental Control years ago. It had oxygen, Carbon Dioxide temperature and relative humidity. Even though that was done on a smaller scale for mice it helped with the learning curve on having man rated spacecraft or humans. The same questions what specific upgrades had to go into certified falcon nine for the stay . I already mention the reliability of grade. One upgradeg and think is particularly interesting is the launch abort trigger. People probably know dragon has the ability in mid flight to separate from falcon and boost the astronauts away to safety in the case that some kind of emergency. That could be triggered by the astronauts are ground crew. What people may not know is that falcon itself has the ability to cause that trigger. It will do that entirely or autonomously using Algorithms Software and sensors. Thats critical for folks that it can happen quickly and safely. They can do this quicker than three tenths of a second much faster. Lets pause right there were getting some calm from crew. So coming up shortly we will hear these communication checks, bob and dougal be talking to several positions down on the ground. Well be using communication speakers inside of dragon inside of their suit in a series of communication checks. Theyll be doing these checks over different satellite. Check on a physical engine biblical. Loud and clear. Deal t loud and clear. Com check complete sound by foreground check. You will hear them refer to cdr as A Doug Hurley that is the pilot. That first when we hear is the umbilical that communication went directly into their suit now they will do communication check over the ground stations we will also here went on t dress that is a tracking and relay satellite, same satellite we used to talk to the International Space station thats what we will used to talk contract dragon throughout its entire flight. There again just waiting for a moment for the teams to configure everything theyre going to do ground checkouts now youre going to hear them talk directly to the core, the crew operations responsible engineer thats if you followed Nasa Missions in the past the position right here in hawthorne, spacex Mission Control a few feet away from us for the team is going to be watching over bob and doug entire flight. That is where the main personw whose job it is to talk to them is going to be sitting. So will also hear them decent checkouts with the launch director down there at the cape inside room for. And you will be hearing those very characteristic beeps. Dragon readable. Copy were still configuring for. [inaudible] and just to further explain some of those voice protocols youre going to hear, you might be using hearing houston station houston shuttle or houston endeavor but we were flying the specific instructions you will hear spacex dragon, thats the team calling dragon on orbit and bob and dougal be able to respond. H so theyre going to continue to configure we will get ground shipping checkouts momentarily, hell hear the very unique beeping sound thats called the quinn darr and that is something that is been used their air to ground throughout space flight history. Thats really justt for teams who are in Mission Control or supporting a launch know when you hear that sound its time to listen. Ue dragon spacex com check ground station. So loud and clear much better. Core loud and clear com check complete. E. Standby. Dragon spacex com check. Spacex dragon loud and clear. Com check complete standby for checks with lots configuration. Dragon md, check one, come check. Weve got too loud and clear how you doing . Doing great how are you guys doing in there . Standby for com check. Standby for com check over the ground. So dragon md. Nasa and spaceships have decided to cancel todays launch to the International Space station from the space center in florida because of weather concerns for this would have been the first space launch with astronauts from u. S. Soil since 2011. Its rescheduled for this saturday, may 30 and we will have live coverage. programming on television, online or visit our free radio app. And be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily washington journal program. Or through our social media feed. Cspan, created by americans Cable Television company, it is a Public Service and brought to you today Television Provider did. Host welcome to this virtual event. And this is Heather Cox Richardson about her new book, how the south won the civil war. Democracy and continuing fight for the soul of america. My name is joanne and a professor of history and american studies at yale university. And i have the pleasure of being in conversation with heather about her book and other matters political. This program is being introduced by the Historical Society which has been a cultural of for Community Outreach for over 150 years. Joanne now i read heather spoke. It is gotten a lot of
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.