>> right here, right now, we are in that frustrating pain trade. >> it is difficult to quench the thirst for yield given the low level of treasury yields. >> as long as inflation is contained overseas, you will see that bond yields remain low. >> we have not really defined what transitory is, least of which the fed. it could start to impinge on consumer confidence. >> the idea is to get the unemployment rate down before the next pandemic comes. >> this is "bloomberg surveillance" with tom keene, jonathan ferro, and lisa abramowicz. tom: good morning, everyone a

simulcast, bloomberg radio, bloomberg television, and a different hour for us as well. jon ferro, the destruction of blue origin and new shepard later in this hour, but first, distractions of a recovery from that horrific market yesterday. jonathan: i expected more of a bounce on 10 year yields. we are off the lows of the 10 year, down about a basis point to 1.18%. what a difference this makes, when the price starts to change the views of people. last week we were talking about a hot labor market, and larry fink's blackrock raising by 8%. people are talking about a looming growth scare taking things down. tom: with david kostin in our studio's yesterday of goldman sachs, it is a recalibration for the bulls. michael purves lead the way yesterday, 4900 spx. jonathan: this is 3% from all-time highs.

i want to understand where the leadership comes from as we start to make our way out of this. the likes of mike wilson at morgan stanley has talked a lot about it. dave wilson mentioned it about 10 minutes ago. they've boosted the view on staples, and when things get tricky, get boring, and staples fit into that. tom: there's a lot of different correlations going on right now. we heard yesterday of the gold-bitcoin link that is not so tight right now. kailey: i want to know a bunch of people not sitting on a pile of cash, wanting to buy this dip in the equity market and having to sell their bit going to do it. i think it does raise the question of whether we're going to see a dip in the equity market that is in bought. it just seems like over and over again, it is buying of the dip. is that narrative ever going to change? maybe not. tom: key support for bitcoin this morning. we have to set up the rest of the hour before we get to the markets with alisha levine -- with alecia levine -- with

alicia levine. it is four humans into space. we haven't done that in a while. jonathan: are you willing to call them astronauts? you are hesitant. you go past the line, you have done it. tom: i've not done it. jonathan: no, you haven't, but you will have if you have gone past the common line. the amount of criticism of this event, so many people reach out to us about it as well, but i want to make this point. jeff bezos's imagination is far greater than mine. i was the kind of guy that would have thrown mud at the online bookseller with a ridiculous valuation, and on this occasion, i will let others be this guy this time around. when you look back in 10 or 20 years, you were sitting here highly critical of this event, wondering what rick could become. hi -- what it could become. i'm willing to try and be humble about this moment. tom: it is going to be

interesting to see in the early morning sun of west texas, over the border from new mexico, distant from dallas, distant from houston. it is a very tiny rocket. the thing has not been reported enough on is they has scaled this thing for suborbital flight. this is not saturn five, mercury redstone of alan shepard, 1961. it is a 60 foot tall rocket with a little capsule on top of it. jonathan: in 11 minutes we will see the astronauts to be leave the training center for the launchpad, and then they will ascend the tower in about 26 minutes. the launch taking place in 55 minutes. quite an event for this company. tom: we will give you that full coverage beginning in about 25 minutes. right now, we are advantaged by alicia levine of bny mellon. did you go to cash yesterday?

alicia: i did not go to cash. we are 3.5% below the high. that is not something to really write home about. and you all know the average drawdown in any calendar year is 14%, and this year we never got more than 4%. we keep bouncing off the 50 day moving average. so if we do something worse, it would not be something so out of sync with how the market typically behaves. it was pretty ugly, though, and the bond market is really leading this. i thing this morning's actions suggest you look at the bond market and the kind of tepid action we are seeing from equities in the premarket i think there's probably more to go here on the downside. it is not fatal. it is just taking some of the froth out of this market and unwinding some of those trades that were really overworked, all into cyclicals or all into tech, and tech was the last thing to come apart yesterday. jonathan: where do you think the

leadership comes from next, and what are the signs you are looking for as we correct? alicia: i like playing contrarian here. i think that even though we are midcycle, we are not early cycle, and we are definitely in that peak moment as you've had conversations all morning about being in that moment, peak growth, peak fiscal. i will remind all of us that the u.s. really has exhibited kind of an exceptionalism in the amount of fiscal policy, the amount of monetary stimulus, and in the way we vaccinated the population, and because of that i'm actually very bullish. i think cyclicals do work here. i think he's cyclical recovery is here. we are not yet hearing about margin pressure. we are hearing about inflation and hearing about the ability to pass on costs.

down the road we will probably have stickier inflation, but we will learn more this week. i think you have to start heading more towards your defensive sectors. the cyclicals have been destroyed. kailey: on the margin question, we saw the likes of siemens energy and conagra come those pricing pressures showing up in a very real way. when we talk about the ability to pass costs on, the consumer isn't necessarily having more dollars in their pocket to pay for all of these goods and the higher prices they are faced with. do you expect that to become a problem? how do you factor that into allocating within a portfolio? alicia: i think we have to think about the stimulus coming from the government. 39 million households are getting payments of child tax credits, so these are the households that have a propensity to spend. it is not the high income households.

high income households will save. the low income households who are eligible for this will spend. so you do have some fiscal here being able to support the economy. i think margins are near their peak and it is been very impressive how corporate america was able to survive the pandemic and retool companies. i think you are seeing some of the benefit in eps. eps alone has gone up about 10% for the second quarter as earnings season has rolled in. the concern is 2022 because as 2021 has moved higher, 2022 expectations have not. jonathan: can network -- cannot work at 1.18 -- can that work at 1.18%? alicia: first of all, since we are at 1.18%, we are probably going to test 1.12% for retracement. i think that is probably in the ballpark here. i have to believe in the fundamentals. there are market moves, and the

fundamentals, we are still recovering pretty strongly. i don't see us going back to 2% growth next year. therefore, i have to buy what is going to work in the recovering economy. we are going to get triple digits earnings growth and some of these cyclical sectors, and i think you have to go there. what else will work? tech will work as well. when you've got negative yields, your tech is going to work because there's no alternative. so a lot of things work midcycle here. it is long overdue. it is not surprising that covid has resurfaced here, but again, american exceptionalism matters here, and i am not meeting light of the health issue area i don't want covid. we don't want covid however, as a market matter, i think for the most part, the market has moved on, and this will be seen as a hiccup. jonathan: we will talk about

space in a moment. i've been meaning to ask this because so many listeners, viewers, reach out and ask, is that an imperial star destroyer sitting just behind you? [laughter] alicia: it sure is. it is a lego imperial star destroyer, 4780 pieces. one of my sons wants to be an astronaut. tom: did she spend the $28 million? jonathan: was it you? was this the scheduling conflict? alicia: not me. [laughter] jonathan: do you want to do a shout out to your son? i assume he's going to be watching this in about 20 minutes. alicia: yes, he's learning to fly. he once to be an astronaut. i thing this is a wonderful thing for the imagination for our country. our country produces people who imagine these kinds of endeavors and puts capital behind it and allows dreamers to dream, and i think it is great, so shout out to all the dreamers and the

creators out there. i think it is great. jonathan: who built the lego ship? did you do it come or did your son do it? alicia: my youngest did it. jonathan: there ago. good to see you. alicia levine, bny mellon chief investment strategist. that's a big effort. how many people did she that how many pieces did she say -- how many pieces did she say? kailey:kailey: thousands. tom: lego, you step on them all day. jonathan: you've never been to tom's house, have you? there's just guitars lying around on the floor, open bottles and bowties. [laughter] priya misra joining us shortly from td. full coverage of blue origin's launch taking place in about 50 minutes. this is bloomberg. ♪ leigh-ann: with the first word

news, i'm leigh-ann gerrans. senate majority leader chuck schumer has locked up plans for a cliffhanger vote today on whether to begin debate on the $579 billion infrastructure bill. senators in both parties have not agreed on the measure yet. the vote puts pressure on the bipartisan group negotiating the measure, but schumer also runs the risk of an embarrassing defeat. the u.s. government is warning americans to avoid traveling to the u.k. because of a surge in coronavirus cases involving the highly contagious delta variant. the warnings came on the u.k.'s so-called freedom day, when penn the mac related restrictions were lifted -- when pandemic related restrictions were lifted. shares of netflix this wrapped up their worst half in five years. that is after first quarter subscriber growth fell short of expectations.

five years ago, netflix shares recouped a 20% loss with strong subscriber results that helped ease concerns. after the close today, we will get netflix's second quarter numbers and forecast for the third quarter. gearing up for several years of expansion in u.s. and overseas markets, halliburton says sees a multiyear up cycle. the company reported second quarter earnings just short of expectations. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm leigh-ann gerrans. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> they are worried that the world is going to fall back into recession or into a period of subpar growth, with the

unemployment rate elevated and with both fiscal and monetary policy tapped out. that is a nightmare scenario for central banks, and their job is to minimize the chances of the worst possible outcome. jonathan: that was carl weinberg, the high-frequency economics chief economist and managing director. from west texas, right on time, the astronauts to be leaving the astronaut training center and heading for the launchpad. tom: it is a new technology, and electric vehicle taking them out there. i think there is some symbolism to that. we go out 45 minutes for an 11 minute flight. jonathan: and then around 12 minutes from now, we will see the astronauts to be ascend the tower. we will wait for them to get to go. they will ingress, as you say, into the crew capsule. that hatch should close at about

36 minutes past the hour. then the new shepard launches at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. so t minus where are we now, 42? tom: we will see if that adjusts as well. emily chang is in west texas with tim stenovic and ed ludlow. thrilled they are with us. let's listen to some of the cheers. [cheers and applause] so off they go to the gantry. we will have much more on this. we will focus on the markets and keep the images up for tv. for radio which we will describe this as well. priya misra with us, with td securities. in the limited time we have with you today, you commit to steepeners. what is a steepener, and why is that the place to be right now? priya: thanks for having me. the reason i like steepeners is because we are in an uncertain

environment. our view is that the economy is likely to continue to be strong, but we are transitioning to a moderate, still solid level of growth. but the fed takes stock of all of the uncertainty and we heard this from sheryl powell last week, wants to exit really slowly. i thing that keeps the front end anchored. in case the delta variant does start to slow things down, that front end stays anchored. the long end, you really don't buy the 30 year as a hedge to equities. you buy the five year, you buy the 10 year. so anything that keeps that front end anchored, the long end can then start to price inflation risk and better growth. tom: to me, when there's a little but of panic, it is not a yield analysis, but a price analysis. what is the character of the bid

on notes and bonds yesterday? priya: great question. i think it is very different from the dynamic over the last couple of weeks. i think the last couple of weeks was about a positioning squeeze, the unwind of the reflation trade, and genuine confusion about the fed reaction function yet yesterday was very different. yesterday was about growth concerns come of the delta variant. i don't think it was about reflation being priced out. which is why you saw process at correlation start to break down. you saw the timing of the first fed rate hike starting to move out, tips breakevens declined, not real rates. so now i think the treasury market has morphed from being concerned about the fed to the actual economic outlook, and i think that is what is going to drive price action going forward. kailey: so what will change us directionally from the near-term? are we going to be stuck here for a while? priya: the next couple of weeks, i don't see much of a catalyst.

we do expect higher rates. we expect fundamentals to reassert themselves. our view is that the delta variant is not going to delay the recovery in the u.s. but over the next couple of weeks, the data is not going to tell us one way or another. covid infections might continue to rise i'm actually concerned that the market stuck here for a while. it is really september. let's see once school is reopened comedy people come back to the labor force? how is the fed tapering decision? i think all of that is when rates can rise. in the near term, i am more concerned about how much more position capitulation or hedge income which brings more demand for treasuries, so we might be stuck here low rates for a while. kailey: does the dollar have any bearing at all to the moves we are seeing in now? tom: i think it does -- priya: i think it does to some extent. you actually do see that u.s.

crude is potentially bringing demand from the rest of the world into u.s. risk assets, but also in u.s. hans. i think the stronger the dollar, it might sound counterintuitive, but it puts downward pressure on inflation expectation and prevents rates from rising too much. jonathan: one of the main events this morning, the bond market. we've got to get to the other one. it is good to catch up. priya misra of td securities, the head of rates strategy. awesome pictures coming from west texas, about 30, performance of -- 30, 40 minutes away from lunchtime. tom: i think it is worth -- from launch time. i think it is worth mentioning, this suborbital flight telling us to alan shepard and gus grissom with the liberty mercury capsule, and this is so different. not only is it a technological advance of 30 or 40 or 50 years in computers, but what is so

important here is it is just right sized to go up 62 miles out of the tourism that bezos speaks of. jonathan: the astronauts to be arriving, expected to ascend the tower in about seven minutes. then we will wait for them to get to go, and then things get underway. a very fast 30 minutes approaching lunchtime. tom: for those of you on radio, it looks like the young kid is doing a selfie there with the vehicle behind him, the suv. certainly behin them, the rocket as well. i think what is so stunning here is it is not brand spanking new. the images we have seen in the early morning in west texas is of a rocket that has been up to space and come back down to be reused again. i'm still not used to that. everything will be new. jonathan: i agree with you. i'm still stunned by that.

that separation is set to take place at about 76 kilometers altitude, and in booster comes back down. these four little legs come out and it touches back down, and it is reusable. that is what has really changed the game in the last couple of years. for anyone framing this as the billionaire space race, that is the innovation taking place in the last decade. tom: absolutely extraordinary. i know we've got a good graphic on that, maybe with these live images on radio we won't do the graphic, but it is a two-part landing of that rocket coming down. the first stage be3 engine rocket, and afterwards there's the matter of getting four humans back to earth. jonathan: and just exit the vehicle that has taken them to the tower, they will send that tower in the next they will ascend that tower -- ascend that tower in the next few minutes or so.

alongside tom keene, and jonathan ferro, together through much of this morning with kailey leinz. small little town just outside west texas. i'm jonathan ferro. this is bloomberg. ♪

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jonathan: it is 7:30 in the morning in texas. good morning. live on bloomberg tv and radio, and for our audience on quicktake, sean keys, t -30. tom: the astronauts up the tower. i do not know what they are called but i am calling them that. a really exciting job. so important here is the idea of the four returning to space without a pilot come up with a control center that is not so much controlling it. computers on board. jonathan: fully autonomous in the capsule, the mission known as ns 16, like something out of a music script.

the richest man in the world going to space with his brother, a 22-year-old icon, and a teenager. you could not make it up. tom: the difference with branson, bezos, mr. muscat watching -- spacex has many more flights. what i mentioned is unlike mercury and gemini, which were shocking in their lack of testing as we raced the russians 50 years ago, this has been with a fair amount of testing, this actual rocket. this is the fourth flight. jonathan: for our audience, what you can see on the screen -- the four estimates to be, preparing to go into the capsule. they have descended the tower. we are waiting for them to ingress in the crew capsule. that is going to take place in the next couple of minutes. from there, we secure the crew capsule. from there, at about 9:00

eastern time, 8:00 local, what we get is lunch time. t -28. tom: it will be 11 minutes straight up, 62 miles. for those of you on bloomberg radio, this is west texas. i'm going to call it the planes. mr. bezos bought a 600 acre ranch and displace the cattle there. jonathan: so many people have talked about the battle between the billionaires, sir richard branson, billionaire elon musk, jeff bezos. this operation, this mission, has been criticized so much by so many people. how decisive is this moment for you? tom: it is not divisive in that we have been there before. all the way through mercury, gemini, and apollo, on to the space station and space shuttle, there was a rationalization of what we were doing. maybe described this moment

before we go to emily chang. jonathan: the astronauts will cross the bridge to the crew capsule. once they get the go, the hatch will close. and we have to wait a moment, wait about 25 minutes or so to make that trip, before we take off. jeff bezos on the screen, the first across the bridge, alongside his brother. what a moment for the 82-year-old aviation icon. she has waited a long time for this to happen. tom: we will not describe her career as an oklahoma aggie. emily chang has been with the astronauts at the center outside of vanhorn, texas. emily, what have you seen about team bezos as they prepare for this flight? emily: the energy here is palpable. as we prepare to load into that crew capsule, we are told it is going to be a very sensory experience for them. they are going to hear the engine venting, and suddenly it is all going to become real that

they are going up to space in a matter of minutes. as you said, it is a quick 11 minute flight. i think of it like a couple of roller coasters back to back. it is going to be quick. and hopefully for jeff bezos, it will be his dream come true. a dream come true for wally funk . and perhaps once they go and come, they will have an experience of the change astronauts report, of seeing the spectacular view of earth that you can only get from outside the atmosphere. tom: jon ferro mentioned mr. funk, 82 years old. tell us about the ethical care with 3g's going up and five or six geez -- g'going down. emily: the astronauts were medically evaluated for this flight. it is that ultimately anyone can go up and down. you do not have to have special astronaut training. you do not have to be preparing for this all your life. wally funk seems to be in great

shape and certainly has great energy. there are height and weight requirements. there are steps of chair -- there are steps to the crew capsule. they have to be able to zip up a flight suit. that is basically it. they have gone through two days of training, 14 hours altogether . some emergency simulations. but the idea is that anyone ultimately will be able to take this ride. jonathan: i make for crew members on the capsule now, jeff bezos the first to work in. you can just about see wally funk through the window. these are the largest windows that have been into space. let's be clear about this. for any tourists going into space, you want to things. you want the experience of zero gravity, and you want to be able to experience the full view of the curvature of the earth. that is what the design is for. tom: i had the immense privilege of talking to the late michael

collins about windows in orbit and what you could see, the improvements that were made from the six inch porthole that alan shepard had in 1961. they were so angry. gus grissom had a window carved into his liberty capsule as well. tim stenovec is with us. what do you see? tim: good morning from west texas. the sun is just rising in vanhorn. it is about 69, 70 degrees, wind is seven mph. it is a cool morning and i see a lot of people who are excited about what is going on today. locals tell me this is the biggest thing that has happened in the decades of living here. the town has about 2000 people. but also tourists who are totally unaffiliated with blue origin. people are interested to see what is happening. sitting here for the last hour, several people have stopped just ask me, where is the best place to watch this? someone came to my car and said

he flew in from new york city to watch this, the second blue origin lunch he has seen. it is doing the job jeff bezos is hoping it is doing, of inspiring people. tom: what is the significance -- we have seen the fumes off the rocket -- of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen? it is very traditional rocketry. tim: what is interesting is the technology has not changed in terms of propulsion significantly in many years. there are a lot of similarities between this and earlier types of engines that have been developed. at the same time, what we are seeing is a lot of progress in terms of reusability. that is the key innovation. this particular capsule and booster has been flown and tested twice. this is the specific one that is used for space -- that is used for tourists, i should say. in addition to that, but we are also seeing are the final checks they are going through as they

do get prepared for flight. jonathan: a fully autonomous capsule here. any evaluations that take place on board whatsoever? i think we have lost the sound over there. just moments away. in the next couple of minutes -- on my screen, t -24, i think we expect the hatch to close. tom: some of this is intentional. what happens with rocketry, other estimates of said it is a stick of dynamite putting the capsule up 62 miles. the capsule can unhinge from the rocket at any time. this is a decision made on the ground, not by mr. bezos and the other three travelers, but from a safety standpoint you can rip the capsule apart. emily chang, described the festivities last night. i saw a video of ms. chang diving for the food as mr. bezos

prepared it. emily: yes, we got a surprise visitor yesterday afternoon. jeff bezos and his brother showed up wearing the gift of food, which nobody here in the middle of the desert will turn down. he was carrying his mother's favorite recipes -- chicken thighs, black-eyed peas, mac & cheese. even give us the recipe. how generous of him. did not take many questions. but he was still excited. that is the sentiment he has echoed all along. we have not caught a sense of nerves. you notice the change now that he is officially on board. tom: that dinner sounds friendly. jonathan: i want to know if you can get served alcohol on this trip. tom: that will wait until the flight as well. but i hope, like the gemini missions, that there is tang on board. that would be important. jonathan: as we await the hatch to be closed, i wonder if you know the evaluations that need to take place on crewmembers.

are they literally going to sit there and do nothing? we have been told is fully autonomous. what do they have to do from here? emily: they have to strap themselves in. when they are told to unbuckle, they get a 32nd warning from mission control when they are supposed to buckle up and come back down. it is minimal instructions, minimal training. the pressure, as we understand it, as they accelerate into the air and get up to mach three, three times the speed of sound -- they will feel three times the force of gravity. imagine your body weight times three, pressing down on you. you will be pushed down back into the sea. as they continue into the air, the weight will lighten until they get to zero geez. that is three to four minutes of weightlessness that jeff bezos, that wally funk, have been waiting for all their lives. it will be a quik-trip. it will be buckle up just a couple of minutes later, and then they are on their way back

down. it will all depend on parachutes that will carry the crew capsule back down to earth, slow it down. as soon as they get to about 60 miles above ground, the retro thrust systems, as it is called, will kick in. it is basically a cushion of air that will cushion the crew as it lands, hopefully safely, in a cloud of desert dust. jonathan: a final check of the harnesses. that hatch is about to be closed. t -22. tom: again, i am going to go back to all we have experienced, mercury through gemini, apollo, the huge space shuttle tragedy that was so difficult. i'm going to state that within the happy talk is a lot of risk. there is always risk to spaceflight. we will have to watch the launch as it goes through the first steps. there is a key .6 or seven minutes -- excuse me, three minutes into it, where they

reach the physics of the greatest attention. jonathan: doctors checking in with the astronauts. let's listen in. >> we appreciate it. >> it is my honor and my pleasure. all right, astronauts. we are at t -21 minutes and counting. as we proceed, i will keep you updated. sit back and relax. jonathan: the harnesses have been checked. the communication between the astronauts is fully complete. it is t -21. tom: they are going to reuse the capsule. talk to us about the 14 previous flights of blue origin. tim: this is something they have been testing for years, the new shepard. part of the testing included what happens during a disaster. they had three separate tests specifically to show what

happens during a disaster, and they were able to successfully deploy and separate the capsule from the booster three different times at alternate portions of flight. they were able to do it once during lunch, once prior to launch, once from space, and they were able at one point to do it as the rocket was going up. that demonstrated that the crew can safely escape at any point during the flight. i did lose your guys and lose your audio, so i will have to check back in with you in a few minutes. jonathan: technical problems on our end. no technical problems on their end, hopefully. the hatch has been closed. it is t -20 until lunchtime. tom: t -20 with the hatch closed. let's assume a successful flight. and then on we go to further testing before the glenn mission maybe a year and a half, two years out, which is a two-stage rocket into orbit.

it is very much the pattern we saw in mercury to gemini. jonathan: it is the "what's next" that gets your attention. i reflected on this moment an hour ago, and i will do it again. i think people are very quick to throw mud at innovation like this, at an effort like this. i think of amazon and people questioning what it could become. why did it have the valuation it had when it was an online bookseller? the abrasive snark was almost immediate. i wonder if we have to be really humble about this moment when we look back in 10, 20 years, when we look at what this could become. tom: i think everybody is living their lives. i have the clearest memory of being in a nasa family, and literally neighbors down the street dead set against the nasa program. in the early morning of west texas, we await a launch. right now, we are thrilled to

bring you without question this nation's expert on amazon. brad stone has written on jeff bezos. brad stone knows the story better than anyone i know. your thoughts on mr. bezos and space. frame his path and his life to this moment. >> this is a story that started years ago when he spent time with his grandparents at their ranch in south texas. he got the space bug watching the apollo moon landing. he gave a speech at his high school. he was the valedictorian -- about space travel. he has been consistent with division. the speech was about opening the space frontier, having humans living and working in space. today is the first step on the journey. he founded blue origin 2000. the company has not had a lot of success to show for it. they are working on orbital

rockets, moon landers, often in competition with spacex. this is an important step for bezos and for blue origin. jonathan: i am trying to be transparent and balanced about the moment we are in. tom and myself get a lot of criticism for covering an event like this. jeff bezos has taken a lot of criticism about it. how has he confronted this issue as he makes these kinds of steps forward? >> he has ignored it. he is someone who probably has pretty thick skin over the years , being criticized for so many things at amazon, at some points justifiably. as emily mentioned earlier, there is a palpable excitement in west texas. the criticism is kind of distant. i'm sure we will return to it in the press conference later today. but bezos knows that not everyone is going to buy into this mission. but he has been right about these things before, particularly with amazon.

not saying he is right here. it is kind of wacky, this idea of millions of humans living and working in space one day generations from now, but he believes in it. it is his money. he has 200 billion dollars and this is what he wants to spend his money and his time doing. emily: there are two astronauts on staff and there was an understanding among employees that those astronauts would be the first to fly on the new shepard. jeff bezos seemed to surprise many people, saying it would be him. and all your ears reporting on amazon and on bezos, did you ever think he would be the first person to ride on his own rocket? >> definitely not. i do not think a lot of blue origin engineers or executives that he would be going first. ex nasa astronauts are on staff. the idea was that they would go first to test the customer experience, but in some ways, it is consistent. bezos is all about bold moves. he uses the word adventure, and this is the greatest adventure

there is. he is sending a signal to his company and to the world that he believes in the spacecraft. he believes in the mission. he is willing to put himself in a small amount of risk to see it to fruition. emily: bezos is doing this a couple of weeks after stepping down as ceo of amazon. he says he could have done this as ceo of amazon, but do you believe that? do you think this was part of a coordinated timeline? he wanted to do this, but not while he was ceo. >> it does appear orchestrated. that he would have announced his resignation as ceo back in late january, stepping aside in early july, and a few weeks later, going to space. i think if blue origin had readied new shepard two years ago when it was supposed to launch, the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landing, he probably would have gone as ceo, but now it is cleaner. you do not have amazon investors worried as much. i do not think it is an accident. jonathan: we are 15 minutes away

from the first human flight of blue origin's new shepard. you can see a round of applause at headquarters. final checks taking place. they are secured in their harnesses. the hatch is closed. it is t -15. tom: t -15, and you wonder about the sequencing here as well. what is interesting with the modern technology of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen -- it is a shockingly simple system. it is radically simpler, cleaner, and better than what we were used years ago. remember the saturn? it would start flaming up ages before they would take off. this is a piece of cake, with a much less heavy payload as well. right now, as we prepare for this launch, we want to bring in chad anderson, a student of the space industry. we are thrilled mr. anderson could join us. thank you for being so patient as we show the moment as well.

frame this when we look back five years from now. chad: this is incredibly exciting to watch. i mean, space used to be a domain that was reserved for just a few of us, and it is opening up like never before. you can see that in the diversity of this crew. the richest person in the world and brother, but also the oldest and youngest person ever to go into space. no medical checks. a completely autonomous vehicle. clean-burning fuel that the emissions are water vapor. incredibly safe. much safer than any vehicle we have flown before. tom: what is the path to orbital flight? can people say tourism will be like going up and going three times around the earth? chad: that is the plan, and bezos says that landing a rocket is like balancing a broomstick, so a larger broomstick is easier to balance. his argument is that new shepard

is actually much harder to land. by doing this, he is taking the greatest steps forward toward his rocket. jonathan: the countdown has been paused at t -15. that has taken place in the last 60 seconds or so. tom: that can happen. it is not the weather, as tim stenovec said. it is quite good weather out there. we will have to see what that announcement is. safety is the major precaution as we wait for the whole to come off. we are joined by the space executive vice president and a former nasa astronaut. will these be astronauts? >> technically speaking, once you pass that 62 mile mark, you will be in space and therefore have trouble to space, which is the definition of an astronaut. not necessarily a career astronaut, but an astronaut nonetheless.

tom: what is so interesting here is the simplicity of the system. identify this experience versus our stereotype of ron howard, the right stuff, apollo 13, all the back and forth of hundreds and hundreds of people. how do you experience the simplicity mr. bezos has invented? >> i think it is very elegant. the more we learn, the more we learn what we need and what we do not need. i think this is a wonderful achievement for someone who has essentially done this on his own because of his own desire to go into space, to see the world from that viewpoint. and i think he will continue to do bigger and better things, just like nasa did through the generation and evolution of the rockets that came before this one. jonathan: i understand we will have both the oldest and the youngest ever into space.

can you walk us through the degree of training these particular astronauts to be have been experienced, versus what -- what would have been experienced 10, 20 years ago for a similar mission? >> probably not that different. you have your spacesuits. you learn how to operate. if there are emergencies, you have those kinds of equipment you have to learn how to do and egress from. when you go to space, you have to unbuckle and move around without kicking each other in the head. then you have to get back in your seat, which is probably one of the more trying things to do, since he will only be there for a few minutes, and get yourself in position so you can come back and land without hurting anyone. and then probably an emergency egress out of the capsule on landing, once they have landed. those kinds of things are what you practice in case something were to go wrong. you could help yourself get out. jonathan: experiencing a brief

old. how typical are things like this, to have a brief old 15 minutes out? >> very typical. i do not think there was ever a spaceflight i was on the did not have a hold at some point during the countdown. sometimes they are built in. sometimes, they are unexpected. it does raise the tension. you are excited and you want to go, and there is may a delay. but it does not matter. in the end, whenever you fly, it is all worth it. tom: i have to get in a geek question because it is something we have not talked about as we prepared for this launch. your phd at washington is in analytical chemistry and materials science. how original are the materials of this blue origin rocket and capsule versus our stereotypes sitting in the smithsonian air and space museum? janet: i think they are all relatively similar.

every evolution, you try to learn something new -- use better material, better fuel, less toxic fuel, less toxic materials. as you know, all of us keeping the planet healthy, making it a safer place. the longevity of the earth is really paramount in his mind, so he wants to protect the earth. i'm sure he has gone to every extent to try to use the least toxic materials possible. jonathan: for our audience worldwide and joining us on quicktake, we have been on hold now for a little more than six minutes, at t -15, a brief old as we await blue origin's first human flight. six minutes we have been on hold. tom: we will have to see where this goes. as the astronaut tells us, this is not unusual. janet, i have to talk about the fresh air of your misery, coming

out of the university of missouri, and while issac -- wally funk to the south, in oklahoma. what is it about midwestern heritage that puts people like you into space? janet: i have thought about that a lot. there are a lot of midwesterners who like to go to space. for me, it was seeing the night sky. from the midwest, it is very beautiful. you can see the stars. you can see the milky way. it is so majestic when you look at space from that vantage point. i know from a very young age i would tell my dad that i wanted to go up there and see what it would be like to be in space and look back at the earth. maybe it is that. maybe there are not the other constructions you have any more urban life. you have time to dream, time to look up there, time to think about exploring. maybe a combination of those

things is what inspires us midwesterners. tom: greatly appreciated. the sierra space executive and nasa astronaut and former director of a nasa research center. tom: -- jonathan: nothing can pull me away from the bond market for too long. we will have full coverage of the markets in 34 minutes. the bond market is big. 114 handle. speaking of -- t -14 right now. tom: very nice. jonathan: the criticism i am getting. there we go. we are t -14. tom: with one minute to go, we will go to the treasury bill analysis. jonathan: emily chang is still with us at the launch center. a slight delay. what is behind the holdup? emily: delays in space launches happen a lot. we have been told there is a few

hour window this can take of this morning. if it gets beyond a few hours, it is too long for the astronauts to sit in there. it is too long for everyone to sit in mission control. and it will likely be moved to tomorrow. i spoke to the head of design for the new shepard, who has been working at blue origin for years. at this time, it is the unknown unknowns that could cause the issues. as far as known quantities, they have checked everything off their checklist. at this point, it is the unknown things that could come up, some of which is the weather. we were driving through thunderstorms last night. we were sitting here with rain and lightning. i'm told that is typical in the west texas desert in the afternoons. in the mornings, it is clear, and that is why they have scheduled the morning launch. they have been testing the weather with weather balloons. that is typical for a space launch. up until this brief old, it was all systems go, so no clear reason for the delay. i will say it is not unusual.

it should not cause alarm. we will just have to wait it out and see. jonathan: t -13 now. we continue the countdown. an image of our colleagues -- i'm when to say it this way. it may be a little bit of a vision -- of division blue origin over who went up first. the first human flight for blue origin, and jeff bezos take center stage. can you walk us through that dynamic? emily: i would not call it division. blue origin has two astronauts on staff and there was an understanding they would fly the first crude mission. it surprised people even here -- i believe in a good way -- that jeff bezos was going to be the first person on the flight. it is a huge vote of confidence for what they have been working on for 21 years. it is an expression in the faith of his company, of his rocket ship. he said, how can i expect anyone else to go up if i cannot go up

myself? this has been his lifelong dream, but he is also the founder of the company and it is a huge validation and a huge statement that he is putting himself out there as a guinea pig. it is a completely autonomous system. if he was a trained astronaut, he would not necessarily be able to do much more than a regular person. that is the whole idea of this flight, you can get on with little training, go up and down, i have that experience that has so far mostly been limited to government craft and professional astronauts. tom: tim stenovec, your thoughts at the launchpad? tim: i am about 35 miles from the launchpad and the wind has picked up where i am. there is a lot of excitement on the ground. several people have stopped by asking us where the best place to see this is. i was talking to folks from blue origin yesterday, and they did say that when we are here, even though we are miles away from the landing site, in the town of vanhorn, in west