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coverage on cspan.org or listen live with the c-span radio app. >> and we are joined by the founder and the executive chair of space trust is here to talk to us about the role of commercial companies in public and private space flight. good morning. >> good morning. >> first of all, tell us what space trust is, and describe what it does. >> it is a nonprofit from the u.k., and i engage governments and world leaders for them to understand that in the era of the new space or the privatization of space which is open to all sectors, and it should also be open to politicians, and government so that think can go up to see the earth that the astronauts have been seeing for 60 years to make the earth a better place, and to where wars are ke result. >> and what effect do you think

that bringing more people up in space is going to have an effect on the ground? >> that is step two. step one, we have an international space station up there, which is creating the atmosphere of the peace on earth, because there are peaceful applications of the space, science, and technology to improve the condition on earth and studies. and then we have the gateway which is the space flights into the orbital or the suborbital, and so it is going to be taking time and as it is evolving, we have to prepare the leaders and governments to understand that they have a platform to make peace and discuss policy in a different light altogether and looking at the world without boundaries. >> in the past, space flight has been considered to be an area that only governments can be

involved in, and frankly in the beginning, because of the costs. >> yes. >> and because the government had the access to the best technolo technology. how do the commercial and the private companies fit into the equation now with space flight? >> fitting very well, and the u.s. is a leader in that and nasa is the space agency that actually decided to stop the space shuttle program back in 2012 i think it was or 2011, and the idea was to actually create opportunities for the commercial sector to be service providers aed on the -- and to contract with them for space flights. that is happening now, and the new day and age, and because of the nasa and the space industries are setting many countries are following in the footsteps to create the same opportunities in their countries to expand the commercial space sector >> now, you were one of the earliest founders and future

astronauts in virgin galactic which is billed as the world's first commercial spaceliner, and what is your role in richard branson's virgin galactic and remind us what it is. >> it is in 2006 that i joined and i am lucky that over 600 future astronauts that he lau h launched me himself into the press and became well known. so this space flight is going to open up space to all sector, and create an opportunity for the commercially viable operation as the first private spacelin line and as result, more people going to space and grasp the em droos -- dreams of going to space, and come to earth to grasp applications for the general good of humanity. >> when were you first interested in space? is that something that you have

always dreamed about? how did you get involved here? >> i was a child growing up in pakistan. i wanted to go to space. i always studied the stars with my father, and since then, no coming back. i told my cousins and friends and a teenager that i would grow up to be in a astronaut, so it is in my dna, i think. >> so how much, and like you said that you have been involved in this for a while, and how much does it cost to be part of a program like what you are part of with virgin galactic and is that something within the reach of a lot of people or basically too expensive for most people to dream to go up to space? >> when i bought my ticket it is $200 u.s. dollars and now it is $250,000 u.s. dollars now, by it is supposed to be a commercial and sustainable price for the commercial value, and the prices

should go down. if you are thinking of the transatlantic flights, it cost a f few thousands of dollars and now it is few hundreds of dollars. >> how close are you? >> i think it is very close, because richard branson is training, and we have had the second test flight which is successful and a test passenger in space very closely, and so we will be fitted with the space suits in two weeks from now. >> two weeks from now? >> yes, in actually a forum called the founders forum and so it is very exciting. the space that was unopened by richard branson and so if he goes, we go. and it is next year. >> and let's let the viewers join in on this conversation. we are going to open up the regional lines today. so if you are in the easterner the central time zones

202-748-8000. if you are in the mountain and the pacific time zones, 202-748-7001, and you can reach us on social media, and you can text us at 202748003 and we are reading at twitter @twittercwj and also on c-span.com. so now, you are planning to go up, and is the commercial flight going to be just as safe as nasa, and you think that they can do just as good of a job as the government program? >> we go to space, but it is not easy. nobody can make predictions, and even the government agencies have had their own calamities. so i don't think that anybody

can guarantee anything, but it is in the evolving space industry, and we have the right technologies, and nasa, and i mean the virgin galactic is very careful of how and when the space flights will take off. it is not a race between the operators, because the whole focus is on the safety. so we only hope that it is a commercially viable and safe operation. >> what kind of training are you going to become a passenger on this space flight? >> it is called a suborbital space flight training. i had it a few years ago in nasstar center in philadelphia, and we go into the world's most high performance centrifuge, and go through the g-profiles of the flight from takeoff to rocket motor emission, and floating to zero gravity and coming back to the atmosphere. >> and now the nasa administrator james van bright gave a --

>> it was this week. >> yes, the assessment of going back to the moon. this is what he had to say. >> the goal is to land on the moon within five years and to sbbe sustainable by the year 2028 and sustainable is where the gateway is coming in, and a reasonable command module and we want reusable landers to go back and forth and to orbit around the moon, and drive down the cost for the sls rocket, and the orion cruise rocket. and so time will come down over time, but we want a sustained operation on the moon where we have people working and living for a long period of time. >> so you were at the conference? >> yes. >> what did you have to say about it? >> there was an announcement less than a month ago that nasa is going to return to the next man and the first woman to the moon in 2024, and it is under the artemus program which is a

program whereby the nasa partners will form an international basis on the south pole of the moon, and this press conference is going to mention that exact same program that nasa is planning to go to the moon, and it is very inspirational. >> is there a need nor man to return to the moon at this point? it is something that we have achieved. is there a need for a man and woman to actually go back there? >> it is very important, because from the international space station, we are now going to build a gateway which is going to be in the lunar orbit with the leadership of nasa and so you will have a base between the orbital earth and moon, and the first stop is the moon, and then take you onward to mars. so it is a way of getting to mars, and of course, to doing better than before on the moon to find, you know, the different

experiments to see how it can benefit us on the earth this day and age and make more discoveries. >> this project to put a woman on the moon is called the artemus project. it also depends upon the commercial space flight companies and not just the government. one of the benefits of the commercial companies working with the government agencies to get this project up and off of the ground? >> well, it is all about the public/private partnerships, and at the moment, no option when it comes to the u.s. space industry and nasa. they have actually as i said, they have stopped their space shuttle program, because they wanted to krcreate the opportuny with the commercial operators and elon musk has been taking cargo there successfully and on the verge of taking the nasa astronauts to space, which is commercial space flights, and so this is the order of the day. this is the only way to evolve

in the industry and open up the opportunities for the entire world to actually move the generations to space. it has to happen only through privatization. >> we are talking with demere, kr celine and if you have questions, please call in. we will start with bill. >> caller: good morning. i certainly admire her desire to go into space. i would say, how would she want us to remember her if something let's just say bad happens. >> oh. >> caller: how would she sort of characterize what she was doing and trying to do. >> i think that is a very good question. you know, i am not afraid to go to space, and i believe that if something has to happen, it

could happen crossing the street, you know, in any town you live in. if anything happened god forbid, i wanted to be remembered and my work is well shown in the industry to promote space as the new frontier for peace on earth. and so this is an opportunity the go up to see the different viewpoint which is the overview effect, and to make the world a better place. so i wanted to be remembered for world peace from space. >> and there have been several commercial spacecraft accidents over the years. are you concerned about safety at all with this situation? >> not at all. you know, when we had the crash in the test flights in 2014, i was interviewed by the top british media from the crash site and these questions were asked in the midst of a crash, and i always said, no, it is about destiny, and whatever

happens, and so i'm going, and whatever happens. >> and let's go to new york and pamina. are you there? >> caller: yes, i'm there. can you hear me? >> yes, we can hear you. go ahead. >> caller: my first question is what is the environmental impact of commercial space exploration, and could it potentially be a waste vanity project for an elite class of people, and my second question is what makes you so confident that this is going to further the objecty of peace when we see that most of the wars are driven over fights such as resources such as oil. >> you may respond. >> and so when it is coming for the illusion that it is for the elite. i wanted to clarify that at this time it is for the elite, because not everybody can afford it, but in the future, the prices will go down, because it is a commercial operation, and

with time the prices will go down, and regarding the environment, it has been, you know, announced many times that the flights are very environmentally quite benign, and they don't cause the same impact on the environment as what maybe, you know, the other flights have caused in the past, and especially the government operation, and even airline taking off for that matter. so, as far as i know, it is not impacting the environment, and there are many flights to space, and it is going to less impact on the environment of what we can achieve from space. we have medical experiments right now going on that benefit the humankind on earth, and i think that is a breakthrough and that is important. all such experiments and applications of the peaceful applications of space from earth need to come down on this planet to make the world a better place, and to benefit humanity.

so can you repeat the second question, again, because you said something about the wars -- >> the environmental impact. >> no, it is the wars. how the wars can be resolved in the midst of the -- >> and the race. >> and the oil. >> resources. >> exactly. you see we are talking at this stage of creating inspiration from space, and it is the inspiration when you go to the orbit, and it has happened to astronauts for the last 60 years, and those who have gone up have said that politicians need to see it from up there that you realize that you are one small world in a big, big universe, and so that is a paradigm shift that happens when people go to space, and it is going to change the mindset of the people on earth. and people not in the space industry are not thinking that way, because they are not

connected to the whole universe that we talk about. it is extremely inspirational, and the first step is to inspire, and to give you the example of war revolving from space, and that is the cold war. the famous handshake of general thomas stanford of nasa and alexi who was the first russian on space, and the docking, and so that ended the cold war. so you can imagine it happened back then and now in the age of the new space, how much better we can handle politics from up there in space. >> how do you go about convincing the americans that commercial private companies should be given more of the lead in space. we have a poll here from ipsos poll that says that 31% of americans think that nasa funding should be increased so it could continue to lead the space exploration where only 14%

of the americans said that nasa funding should be reduced and private companies should be allowed the lead. how do you go about convincing the americans that the private companies should be have more of a lead in the space exploration rather than nasa? >> well, we are living in a new space age and i don't think that we have anymore options left, because this is going to be what is happening. nasa has contracted boeing spacex and other companies, and so we have to evolve. this is the evolution of the era of space, and entering the age of space, and so it is a new era, and just like we were in the cold war era, we are in the new space age. there is no going back. speaking to governments and speaking to some governments from asia, they have given up what they were controlling at the international space agencies to countries in asia, and

companies as far as asia, because the asia pacific even though they are not that far ahead of the commercial operations as the u.s., everybody is following that path at the moment. it is the order of the day. >> let's go to kelvin who is calling from portland, oregon. >> caller: thank you very much. i would first like to acknowledge that it is a great job, and it is nice to see african-american men facilitating various topics, and i would like to commend c-span for putting this out there, and suggesting that the late elijah cummings would often say that we have to shoot for the stars. my question is that on the supply of diversity side, and while the executive director for washington's nasa project has talked about increasing the budget, there's been absolutely no conversation about the minority-owned companies

partnering as it relates to both the private sector and the government on future budgets. does your new firm or your organization have a component the measure the budget for the diversity supply and participation. again, thank you, c-span, you have great fascinating subjects. i'm a doctorate candidate and i appreciate the time. >> my nonprofit is from the u.k. and so i am not privy to the things happening internal with the u.s. government but i can answer globally of how the partnerships are taking place in the different countries and commercial operators, but i am not expert on that question. >> all right. let's try tony who is calling from bridgeton, missouri. tony, good morning. >> caller: yes, sir. thank you for taking my call. i'd like to say that i don't

believe aliens exist, and it is mathematically impossible, and that it is infinite, and if the planets had life it would be infinite and any part of that travel of space would be infinite and we would see infinite spaceships through flight, and so using their own theory to debunk the theory. >> what is your opinion on the alien life? >> i have a different view on that. i believe that there are species out there who don't need oxygen and water to survive, and so we have to change our approach, and we have not found the right approach the find them. i believe they are out there. >> and let's try from philip who is calling from mendon,

michigan. good morning, philip. >> caller: yeah, i was just wondering how you feel about the group policy, and the thing that did in the columbia and the challenger, and both administrators, ignorant administrators that allowed things to happen that halted the whole space shuttle system. how do you feel about that? thank you. >> well, it is a tragedy of course, and that is why you have to rely on the commercial operators and the high cost of the space flight and also other than the tragedies, but you know, i guess that i would only say one thing that we have to evolve with the times, and to have the opportunities that we have, and right now the opportunities in the commercial sector are great. there's a track record in the u.s. of companies who are providing that type of service and facility, and we should try to, and hope and dream, and be positive that such tragedies

would not happen in the future, and the commercial space can deliver the space operations in space. >> once again, when can we expect to see you becoming the astronaut and going on your commercial space flight? >> i hope it is next year, because richard branson is getting ready for his space flight right now, and his is the inaugural flight, and so we will be fitted in the space suits in two weeks and measuring our seats in the spaceship, and so hopefully soon. >> so you have to come back next year and tell us about the flight to space and back. >> sure. >> and we would like to thank the founder and executive chair of space trust for coming in to talk to us about the future of commercial space flight. emira, thank you so much. >> thank you. and coming up, looking at the impact of immigration policies on service members and veterans a. mexican-born u.s. army veteran going to testify before a judiciary subcommittee right here on c-span3.

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