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
oh, i love it! i love it! o donnell: funk s can-do attitude has been her north star. once told she would never walk again after a skiing accident, she went n to get ore pilot s license at 17. in the 1960s, she was the youngest member of the mercury 13, a group of 13 women who proved they had the right stuff. not only did they endure the same grueling exams that tested the mettle of men like john glenn and alan shepherd, but in some cases surpassed them. x-raying all your body, every bone every tooth. i had to drink radioactive water. o donnell: today, funk beat glenn s record by five years, becoming the oldest space traveler at 82. the oldest person in space, you! est person in spa thank you! o donnell: she s now a newly- minted astronaut. we had a great time. it was wonderful. i want to go again, fast! o donnell: her souvenir from the mission, a tail from one of
cosmic date with destiny on his own rocket, later this month. and do be sure to tune into cnn s live coverage of the flight at 9:00 a.m., eastern time. cnn s rachel crane talked to the soon-to-be space traveler about his out-of-this-world event and the risks involved. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001, richard branson. reporter: a launch, nearly-two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? um, well, i managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years, since we ve started building spaceships and mother ships and space ports and all these things. and i finally got the call from chief engineer saying that every single box had been ticked on the safety aspect.
his team a safe and successful flight. branson s mission starts in a bit more than five hours from now. the billionaire will take off in a space plane built by his company, virgin galactic. if he is successful, branson will beat bezos, who plans to soar into space in his blue origin rocket by nine days. cnn s rachel crane talked to the soon to be space traveler about his out-of-this-world event and the risk involved. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001 richard branson. reporter: a launch nearly two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? well, i ve managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years since we started building spaceships and mother ships and motherboards and all these
spaceship. the spacex ceo spac placing a cr besides the spaceship to show how massive it is. expect to test the rocket. ainsley: like a matchbox car. brian: could be like godzilla. taking people to live on the red planet. that would be good because we are out of room. vacation to outer space is one step closer to becoming a reality. it s going to cost you orion span announcing the first space hotel set to launch in 2022 for just $10 million. spend 12 nights floating through space on board the aurora station. ainsley: there is a lot of vacancy there. brian: by the way, will you survive? ainsley: no thanks. i have no desire to do it. doesn t that look scary to you. steve: i m not a space traveler but did i stay at holiday inn express last night. just saying.