0 these are people with families, and the goal here really has been heartwarming. i think you've probably seen the footage of the interactions that this crew has had with children in the hospital. i mean, it's been a fund-raising campaign for st. jude's, 200 million dollars has been the goal. and there's been all kinds of interaction from them there. it just has been an amazing experience to see regular americans, like you and i, in space. only less than 600 people -- >> jon: hang on a second, alexandria. we're getting our first images. let's listen to mission control. >> as part of the inspiration for mission, the crowd here is very excited to see them after the first time as well. so yeah, couple of minutes left of the blackout period, and we should be getting comms re-established with the crew here shortly. >> jon: the blackout period, clayton, perhaps you're the best to explain that to us. the capsule is coming back, and the friction of it ebb countering the earth's -- encountering the earth's atmosphere heats up the heat shield, and the exterior of the capsule to greater than 3,000 degrees fahrenheit, and that creates this sort of wall of gas around the capsule, does it not, that prevents the radios from actually being able to transmit? >> right. when you come back into the atmosphere, and your vehicle is traveling as fast as these vehicles travel, the friction is very great and creates heat, and it basically envelopes the capsule, and this is a small capsule, so it will be -- most of it will be enveloped. you can't transmit through that ionic plasma. radios don't work well. they have to slow down enough to be able to get out of that situation such that the parachutes can deploy, and of course they will be able to communicate with the control center after that point. >> jon: we understand that they have just regained communication. i guess that's a good sign. it means things are cooling down, is that right, doctor? >> yes, that's a good thing. you've got to remember you're going from 17,000 miles-per-hour back down to zero. that creates a lot of heat there. >> jon: we are looking at this, i don't know if that's an infrared shot. obviously the capsule is there in the -- let's listen in. they are cheering at mission control. let's listen for the moment. >> again, a lot of excitement. waiting -- >> [inaudible]. >> jon: they're going to release the chute. that's the small parachute that first begins to pull the larger parachutes out. >> we heard some words to have them brace for the deploy. they will feel the difference in speed when the chutes do deploy. that was what the core mentioned there. that's just a cool shot of dragon coming back down to earth, but very fast in this camera view here. >> jon: there's the chute. [cheers] >> there it is. [cheers] >> this is a great shot of dragon looking off of the chute. a lot of communication going back and forth between the crew and ground station, but the chute is to slow the vehicle down from about 350 miles-an-hour to 120. we are expecting the main chutes for these to cut off and the main chutes to come shortly after that. [cheers] [inaudible]. [cheers] >> at 4:04 p.m. pacific time, we do have confirmation that the main chutes have deployed. you can see that on your left-hand screen, the camera, looking forward above the dragon capsule, looking at those four main chutes. >> copy 1,000. >> the next event coming up now is a visual confirmation of splashdown. you can see the dragon capsule on your right-hand screen, slowly coming down now. we talked about how fast the vehicle has been traveling, but they will be touching down approximately 15 miles per hour, when they touch the atlantic ocean there. >> copy 800. >> the dragon one program had great success with the water landing with 20 successful splashdowns over the course of that program, nine of which were carried out by flight proven dragon spacecraft. >> this is a great shot. dragon continuing to descend back to earth, targeting a landing -- excuse me, a splashdown off the coast of florida in the atlantic ocean. >> copy 600. >> 400. >> copy 400. >> 200. >> copy 200. [cheers] >> inspiration four, on behalf of space x, welcome home to planet earth. your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us and every day people can make extraordinary impacts in the world around them. thank you for sharing your leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. and congratulations on your -- [inaudible] [cheers] >> jon: wow, so it appears the four member crew of the inspiration is back safely on planet earth, after an incredible four-day voyage. a tech entrepreneur, a childhood cancer survivor, a geo scientist, and an engineer, four crewmembers on board, the first ever all civilian private space flight, and they went farther away from --. >> give elon credit that do some great high technology things that allow people to see more of what's going on. that's a huge benefit to them. never bet against elon musk. >> jon: i guess not. doctor, one of the things they did on this flight was because they weren't going to be docking with the international space station, they took the nose cone of the capsule where the docking hatch normally would go, and they put a big bubble, you know, kind of like a skylight in there that all of the astronauts could use to look out at the earth. that had to be a pretty stunning view. >> i'm sure they were in there as often as they could. i know i would be. it must have been quite a view. just a great day. >> jon: i'm looking again at the mission control, and even the outfits that they wear are very futuristic, maybe even star trek-ish. elon musk, as you were saying earlier, clayton, he knows how to market things, and he knows a good visual when he sees it. >> he sure does. those spacesuits he has are very high-tech. 3d printed helmets and the cooling system that's far beyond anything i ever wore on the space shuttle or in a russian soyuz, so kudos to them. congratulations on this great mission, and if he needs somebody to go along sometime, have him give me a call. [laughter] >> jon: i'm sure there are a couple of people on the list, but i'm sure your number would be very interesting to them. you know, alexandria, we talk about this being private space travel, but it has -- space-x has received actually hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars in funding from nasa. nasa is farming out some of the work that it used to do alone to companies like space x and boeing and so forth, to carry -- carrys a stro naughts -- carry astronauts into space. >> i don't know if that's surprising. this just continues further exploration and education in many ways. i'm going to paraphrase john glenn here because i think this is a cool sentiment that he shared at one point that the best attribute of an astronaut is curiousty. we have curious individuals who were impressive in their own right who were able in just three days to do something that lands them in the history books forever. who would not want to sign up for that? i don't know. >> jon: yeah. they have been an inspiration not only to the children at st. jude hospital, which this flight is raising money for, but really to children all over the world. i mean, probably not since the christa mcauliffe flight have school kids been playing such close attention to a space flight has they are this one. >> absolutely. and think about haley there on the flight, physician's assistant, but also overcame childhood cancer. she is not only the youngest american to go into space, but the first with a prosthesis, so you have children and individual of all different abilities who now say this might be something within my reach. >> jon: we don't have an aircraft carrier out there as we used to when i was a child, and he would watch -- i would watch the spacecrafts land, but the boats are right there. they have obviously gotten better, clayton, at the targeting. i remember some of those old missions with apollo and so forth, where the capsules would land well off target, and it would take a while for the rescue teams to get to them. they've already got the boats up there to the dragon capsule. >> i think one of the advantages that the commercial space flight companies have today is the fact that they can build on everything that nasa did from the 1960s through today, so they have a great head start. it allows them to use better technology and better capabilities and plop it right down where they expect it to be and have those boats ready to pick them up. although, you know, an aircraft carrier and a helicopter still pretty cool, but this is a lot -- [inaudible]. >> jon: yeah, there were some great moments again that i remember from my childhood. what is the process at this point? do we know, clayton, how long will it take to actually get the spacecraft secured, make sure it floats, and we don't have another sinking like happened with one of the mercury missions? i'm sorry -- i guess it was a mercury mission. anyway, they get the capsule secured and get those astronauts back out on to the boats? >> it takes on the order of many minutes. the largest ship has the crane on it that's going to lift the capsule out of the water and on to the back and into the ship. the first two that go out there i understand that they make sure everything's okay. they make sure they can bang on the door or whatever and communicate with the crew and let them know that everything is stable. but that takes -- it's a process that takes a little bit of time to make sure that everything is buttoned up appropriately. there are no leaks, so that the crew can get out safely, once they are lifted up on to the larger ship, so this process takes a little bit of time, but i'm guessing that it's way more efficient than back in the mercury gemini days. >> jon: yeah, jared isaacman is the billionaire who paid for this mission and paid for the others to ride along with him. his quote after they splashed down was that was a heck of a landing for us, and we're just getting started. they will be reusing this space x capsule, will they not, doctor? >> yes, they will be. >> jon: that's one of the advantages that elon musk built into this system, reusable boosters, reusable capsules. it makes the prospect of launching these spacecraft a lot cheaper than it was for nasa. i mean, nasa finally got the shuttles to be reusable, but most of the booster rockets and so forth just splashed down in the ocean and were never seen again. >> that's correct. just to build upon what clayton said, practice makes perfect, and it's the space age started in 1957, and when you look at it, it is not that long ago, but it's enough that we've got a lot of data and able to get a lot of information to be able to do this now at almost a perfect setting, and this just shows today exactly what they built upon, what nasa did in all of the early days, so great stuff. >> jon: clayton, well, it could not have gone more perfectly, or so it would seem. i mean we might hear of some glitch, but to my eyes, everything looks like it went off without a hitch on this pioneering, you know, private space flight, and that's really a testament to the dragon spacecraft technology and what elon musk has built here. >> i agree, absolutely. congratulations to them for pulling this off. even though it's only three days in space and just simply traveling around the earth in an orbit, those are big steps, and, you know, you build on each step successively, so whatever they have planned next, i would imagine that it's pretty incredible, and we'll just have to watch. it's a great time to be watching space flight again because space flight is cool again, and space x and these companies are a big part of that. >> jon: yeah, it is awfully nice not to be having to pay the russian government 70 million dollars for a seat on a soyuz spacecraft, isn't it? >> i agree. [laughter] >> that's another plus. >> jon: so again, the dragon spacecraft has splashed down. you can see the boats that have surrounded it. they are getting the thing secured and getting ready we imagine to open the hatch and let those astronauts breathe some fresh air for the first time in several days. what's that like? are they going to be feeling after three days in zero gravity, clayton, what does it feel like to be back in one g conditions here on earth? >> i'm guessing here, but i think they are going to recover pretty quickly. you know, after my five months in space, on my first mission, it took a while, about 24 hours. these guys have only been up there for three days. i'm going to guess that their bodies will recover much more rapidly. they will feel much better more quickly, which is a good thing. but that adaptation of your body from earth into space and then space back into earth, those can be some pretty disconcerting times, so i hope they recover quickly. i know there are a ton of people that want to talk to them, that want to take their picture, videotape them, want to take them places. their whirlwind is just starting, i'm guessing. >> jon: there's the crew photo on the lower right-hand side of your screen. all a happy bunch. that was before the successful launch and the successful splashdown. let's listen in for just a moment to what mission control is saying to the crew of the inspiration. >> -- in the same simulations and same manuals that, you know, previous dragon crewmembers were trained in, and they got together, threw together this amazing mission, again, you know, providing fund-raising capabilities for st. jude's children's research hospital. they gave us a live on-orbit event yesterday. you know, they spent a couple days in space, did some art, did some photography, did some somersaults. and now they're back on earth, and in a few minutes here, they're going to take a fresh breath of fresh air from fresh breath of earth air for the first time in about three days, which is very very exciting. >> yeah, i cannot wait to hear the stories that they have to tell us. you know, we did get some of those live events, but they were out there for three days. that's quite a bit of time being out in micro gravity, in a spacecraft, so i'm really excited to hear what their experiences are really like, you know, with the nasa crew missions, we typically get to hear, you know, some of their thoughts of the dragon spacecraft, would love to hear more from, you know, just an all civilian crew this time around, not professional astronauts. >> as we see the sun setting on the right-hand side, the boats are equipped with very strong lights to make sure that they can continue the operation, in case the sun goes down, but one thing i do want to reiterate is weather and how great that's been for us. we had a phenomenal day in terms of weather wednesday during ascent, and on return, you can look at the ocean now. it's not choppy. there's no waves essentially. it's basically like pool water, and so the dragon capsule is there. it's floating there now because it's not, you know, choppy, the recovery team can get in there, do their jobs about worrying about any other external factors. >> yeah, that's extremely important. safety is number one at space x. we always want to make sure that we're keeping these events during an environment that is safe and weather plays a very big factor into that. not just for the crew on board dragon, but the recovery team there which you have currently been seeing climbing on dragon, installing the rigging. they are on boats, so it is really important to make sure that the weather conditions are accommodating to these operations. >> so we're expecting the team to finish installing all of the equipment needed to lift dragon out of the water in a few minutes. and we should see another boat approach the dragon capsule, and that will be where we essentially hook it up to a crane on the back of the boat, lift it up out of the water, and on to the recovery vessel. >> jon: clayton, let's talk a little bit about orbital versus sub-orbital flights. when the united states launched alan shepherd into space, that was a huge achievement. we were trying to catch the russians back in 1961. it was a sub-orbital flight. he didn't actually get, you know, into an earth orbit that was sustainable. same thing with the virgin galactic launch not too long ago, when richard branson went into space. that was another sub-orbital flight. this one was way beyond that. this was the highest manned mission to leave the surface of the earth since the days of the moon landings. >> right, for me, to go into space, i would certainly want to do at least one orbit, and they got to do several days worth of orbits at about the tune of 16 a day. and blue origin, virgin, and the guys back in the mercury days, yeah, they were early on just sub-orbital flights. we launched them up. they'd travel partway around the earth, maybe about a third and then turn back. for the inspiration four crew, they got to see the earth, in all its glory, got to relax, sleep, eat, use the toilet. they actually got to experience living in space for a few days, and i think that's an important distinction between a simple jaunt up in and coming back down ten minutes later. >> jon: yeah, it is really again quite an achievement for a private company to have really been this bold, to not just, you know, put them up there sort of in the same space plateau, if you will, as the international space station, but 300 miles up, quite a ways higher than the space station is currently orbiting. it is really an achievement, and obviously elon musk and everybody at space x ought to be incredibly proud. this craft actually launched from the same launch pad at cape canaveral, cape kennedy, kennedy space center at cape canaveral, from the same pad where many of the moon missions launched. did it not, clayton? >> yes, actually launched from the same pad 39-a at the kennedy space center was typically the pad used the most often by the shuttle launches, so they refurbished that pad. they have changed it up tremendously to accommodate the space x launches, so it's a lot different and a lot slicker than the one i remember climbing up on, but that's the whole idea here, the more we can reuse, the more we don't have to do -- build and do something different every time, then that cost theoretically will come down and make this more efficient for everybody, and of course that's a huge goal and a very good target for everybody. >> jon: john, you're the aerospace engineering professor here. let's talk about where we go from here. so we've put these four civilians, for lack of a better word, up into space. we've -- way up into space, and they've flown for several days and then come back to earth safely. what does that do for the united states space program? and where do we go from here? >> well, i think the obvious one is to go back to the moon and eventually go to mars, go high and higher. this flew about 100 miles past the space station, so let's keep going, and hopefully this will inspire kids to get into stem fields. i know when i was growing up, it was apollo for me, had my father's national geographic magazine, and i just went through that magazine every day, just reading, hoping some day i would be an astronaut. i'm sorry, clayton, i know you have been to space before. now it's my turn. i want to go next. [laughter] >> jon: yeah. go ahead. >> yeah. i hope you get a chance. you know, for me, i've said this often, that i think every human on the planet needs to do two things: go to space for a little bit of time and then spend some time in a third world country. i think that that would bring a great perspective change to every human on the planet in the way we work together. >> jon: i watched as a kid the astronaut and late senator john glenn, when he was launched into space, and then i was privileged to cover his launch on board the space shuttle from the kennedy space center