thauj for joining us live from west texas. so far a nominal flight for the second human crew so exciting. two have sent captain kirk himself william shatner to space. i can t wait to hear his commentary upon return the others. a big shoutout to those tuning in from down under. they are coming back home. the booster, of course, is going to beat the capsule back home. it is more aero dynamically spaced. what we re going to see coming up shortly is at the top of the rocket we have the ring fin, the there s some what we call the pie fins that extend from the ring fin as well as the drag brakes, the pie fins, the wedge fins helps stabilize the vehicle
technology and innovation, so i think it s great. anytime we can get private industry to invest a dollar in space exploration, it s a dollar less that the u.s. taxpayer, that you and i have to pay. i think that s great, as well. we now have just under 26 minutes to go. there was that temporary hold, but now jeff bezos is shaking hands with the astronauts. it looks like he s giving a final hug to audrey powers right now. tom costello, speak to that. besides william shatner, captain kirk, talk about who s onboard. because audrey power, she s been with blue origin since 2013. she played a lead role in this multi-year process of getting approval for the first human flight for new shepard. is that to tom costello? i couldn t hear who you were asking? you, tom costello.
more broader audience. did you think you would see it in your lifetime, scott? i think so. i hope to have a couple of decades at least ahead of me. so if you think back about when we flew the first airplane in 1903. and 1969, we re landing people on the moon, that s an impressive feat. who knows what the next 20 or 30 years will bring us. morgan chesky, what are you excited see today? reporter: well, jose, we were back here in late july and we saw this inaugural flight take off with jeff bezos onboard. and i would have to tell you, having witnessed one of these, that it would be lessened somewhat. but to stand here just a few miles away from this launch pad and see captain kirk hop onboard that capsule, this is a nervous, exciting energy starting to build here, especially as we see that countdown clock hit 15 minutes after that hold of about half an hour here.
and 14 minutes away, we have that crew of four onboard, including 90-year-old william shatner, captain kirk, about to become the oldest space traveler in history. three to four minutes of weightlessness before coming back down for a soft landing. cannot wait to hear the reactions on the other side of this. jose? may, when morgan mentioned watching the last launch, i was there. and as one standing on the ground, watching it, smelling it, experiencing it is something that i will never forget. as someone who has actually been in space, when you watch this and think back to your experiences in outer space, what was your most memorable moment? let me just underscore how exciting a launch is. the first time i ever saw a shuttle launch, i had worked that launch the night before, as one of the support astronauts for kennedy space center. so launches give you this visceral feeling, where you feel
shatner, captain kirk was going to be aboard this mission? i haven t talked to him about it yet. ly probably today, when i talk to him. he s been a little busy lately. so but i m sure he s paying attention and is excited about captain kirk or the guy who played him getting ready to launch. and morgan, you re so close. just a mile or more from the location of this launch. it is a beautiful day. almost cloudless skies. we re going to see a lot, but also, in your case, feel a lot. yeah, jose, that could certainly be the case. even in van horn, about 20 miles away where we were for the first launch. you could feel that initial boom when the rocket went skyward. and as we approach this final countdown, there s been a lot of discussion about the autonomous nature of the controlling of this rocket. however, built into this, blue