crew dragon, which is there a seven person vehicle, which was the one that these two astronauts were in, the first time people have been in them as opposed to dummies are cargo, they argue that they could do it, they could repeat doing it and they could provide a successful process. we have certainly see that. let's rejoin libby jackson process. we have certainly see that. let's rejoin libbyjackson and our science correspondence. how significant is this in terms of the craft they're using and the potential? just explaining first of all what's going on at the moment, the pictures we can see. so they are making the vehicle safe. this craft, like a lot of space craft, use some quite nasty chemicals to position and move itself around space. so the need to make sure that the environment around the craft is safe before they can move in. they'll need to pick those parachutes up,

which have become detached because they don't want to litter the gulf of mexico with those. and once they are happy with everything, then the big recovery vessel will move in with this big arm on the back and lift the capsule onto the deck. and it is at that point that doug and bob it will be able to get out, and they'll be met by an army of medical staff who will check them over. how significant is this? i think it is really big because we looking at a future now — a bit like when the first airlines went commercial all those years ago. when we fly across the world, and i know were not doing that at the moment, but when we do fly across the world, we don't go via government air. we go with british airways or american airways, oi’ british airways or american airways, or whatever. and this is kind of like the start of that. nasa says it no longer wants to own and operate vehicles in the low earth orbit. it wa nts to vehicles in the low earth orbit. it wants to contract out — much like a

company might buy in its 80 —— i8 —— it or payroll, it is buying in its... from spacex or boeing, but it is possible that other companies will come in as well. and we will see, just like there are many airlines today, there will be in the future at many companies that provide space flight services too. what is the role of the uk space agency and all this, libby? what is your organisation hoping will be achieved, or potentially will be opened up by the success of this? well, we'll be looking forward to seeing a european space agents astronauts in the years to come. the french asked has already been confirmed to fly on the second fully operational flight next year —— french astronaut. in years to come, we hope temp equal fly on one these.

the wider... as we see businesses here in the uk take advantage of —— tim pique. space is something that underpins our everyday lives, and there's a lot of technology that uses there's a lot of technology that uses things like global navigation systems, telecommunications, the weather, earth observation looking at data that tells us all about the things that are going on down here on earth — all of that has become commercial and, to do things in space, to develop new materials or new pharmaceuticals, these kinds of things — this is what the commercial chapter will enable uk companies to do. could be conceivably see at some point vehicles of this kind, perhaps this one or the boeing one, or others launching from uk soil? we are looking at things launching from the uk, the uk government is

enabling the legislation for spaceports to happen. the focus at them and it is very much on small satellites, and i don't think we will see launchers that are big enough to take humans into space — all the way into space on uk soil. but we may one day see in the near future suborbital launches from the uk. that is taking humans up not all the way to the space station is, but into space on effectively a giant parabola where you get a few minutes of weightlessness. and we might see that one day, but the focus right fiow that one day, but the focus right now is on supporting those spaceports and on getting small satellites into orbit from uk soil in the coming years. jonathan, we are seeing even better pictures now, much clearer pictures of the crew dragon craft. can you tell us more about it and, perhaps that we know now that the estimates are safely

back on planet earth, how dangerous a moment this is when we are talking about reentry, with the heat? because all the pressures that are on the crew, given the first time it's been done? well, if you look at the vehicle now, you can see it is quite vehicle dark around its base. and that is because it has been singed by reentry. you're going around the earth that something like seven km per second, then you come down to the atmosphere, so at 25 times the speed of sound. you're trying to push the atmosphere out of the way, and you can't, therefore you heat up and you got on the underside of the vehicle something like up to 2000 celsius, so you need a special material on the capsule in order to come through that. classically you also get that loss of signalfor classically you also get that loss of signal for about 4—5 minutes when this enormous plasma of superheated

gas develops around the capsule. that blocks... jonathan, can i interrupt you, sorry, what we are trying to do now is show viewers again the landing that will carry on. we've got the live shots available, but this is the landing. the parachutes have already been launched, so carry on with your explanation just as it hits the water there, we can see it. yes, so you have this classic loss of signal where the gases build up around the vehicle. and unfortunately i'm old enough now to remember the end of the apollo programme and the anxiety that there was when you had this loss of signal and, indeed, the first shuttle flights, as well. but they were picked up very quickly when they came through today. you're still going pretty fast, it's about 4-500 still going pretty fast, it's about 4—500 mph, and you release these parachutes that give you a bit of stability and salute you down a bit

more, and these four big new main shoots that open up and bring you down to the surface of the water. still at about 25 fps, just think about that, eight metres per second. that's still a bit of a bump. if you don't like the fairground and roller coaster, you probably won't enjoy that too much. but these are hardened chaps in this vehicle, so i'm sure they took it absolutely and no stride. it will be lovely to see them when we first get the chance after they've had their medical checkups — i think at the —— before they go to thejohnson space centre in houston. libby, jonathan was talking there briefly about the apollo programme and, of course, we ended up not doing these. as the first one done by commercial aircraft. i'm not quite old enough to remember some of that, but i'm old enough to remember sitting in front of the television that

terrible day injanuary 1986 where the challenger terrible day injanuary1986 where the challenger exploded as it left — it was trying to leave earth, it was a terrible moment for us, and it brought home the real fears and anxieties that people had about manned space flights. do you think we've yet got to the stage of confidence about this as something that could become routine? because we are talking about space tourism, we are talking about space tourism, we hear about the elaborate promises and descriptions of men and women living on mars or the moon, or whatever. some of it still feels like science fiction? there are many chances to see humans getting to mars. 0ne chances to see humans getting to mars. one of the reasons we need people tojoin the mars. one of the reasons we need people to join the industry and help us people to join the industry and help us solve those challenges, there is risk in space flight, of course this was. these astronauts knew what they we re was. these astronauts knew what they were doing, and everyone works as ha rd were doing, and everyone works as hard as they can to make sure that,

asjonathan was hard as they can to make sure that, as jonathan was saying, the hard as they can to make sure that, asjonathan was saying, the safety checks are there. they are rigorous and very careful. but when you are heading up into space where there is fio heading up into space where there is no air, where it is it 200 degrees in the sunshine, —200 degrees in the state, it is something that people who are doing it need to be aware of. but the industry works to address those, it is wonderful that we've seen spacex come back today, and it looks - all has - well.