crew to be the first mission in it. >> dana: it's a great opportunity indeed. walter, i'm going to have to jump off to the next show. walter cunningham, former astronaut, thank you so much. thank you for joining us. see you on "the five." i have a zuckerberg interview tomorrow. >> bill: nice to see you. we are getting ready. good afternoon, everyone. i am bill hemmer. we are t-90 minutes from a new era in space flight and the dawn of a new day for the country leading the way. with some luck from mother nature, will watch this history together. let's set the stage. for the first time in nearly a decade, americans are set to launch an orbit from u.s. soil. for the first time ever, a rocket built by a private company will carry that crew into orbit. you are looking live at the launch pad 39a, kennedy space center, cape canaveral florida. the same pad used is on the first american to the moon some 50 years ago.

throughout the hour, veteran astrastronauts will prepare. presidentpresident trump arrive. he's getting a few tours and briefing. we want to start with nasa astronaut doug wheelock. he spent 200 days in space. welcome. understand that you are in cleveland, ohio. welcome to our broadcast. how would you frame this moment? what do you think this means? >> it is so amazing. i feel like a little kid again. it is all coming back to me, how i first was inspired to explore the stars. we are all just ordinary kids with ordinary dreams. it's our chance come our moment today to really intersect our lives with the extraordinary opportunity. we are very excited at nasa. >> bill: that's an amazing answer. thank you for giving us that.

both of these men, hurley and behnken, tell us about them. >> great friends of mine and part of our astronaut family. close-knit family. we go through a lot of training together. they are both very seasoned astronauts. both have flown twice on the space shuttle. this is a much different ride, of course. i got a chance to fly on the space shuttle discovery and also on the russian rocket. this ride will be similar in feel to a ride on the soyuz. but the ride home will be different, in a capsule rather than a shuttle. >> bill: hurley is unique to this. he landed the last shuttle in florida. now he gives birth to this dawn of a new era. >> i know. i feel so excited for both of

these gentlemen. of course, all of our hopes and dreams ride with them as well to space. both season test pilots, both flown astronauts and they are ready for this moment. i have to say is a test pilot myself, i am a little envious. but they are carrying my dreams as well to explore the stars. we're really excited. it's only the fifth time in our history that we have launched people on a brand-new rocket. mercury, gemini, apollo, the space shuttle and now this very first commercial launch. >> bill: it is a big day for elon musk, i think we can all agree on that. think about the companies that have tried. the governments are given billions of dollars for the past 14 years i believe to get us to this point. private industry has helped build the technology that leads us to today. i am sure you see things, from your observation in ohio, that you've never seen before. the rocket with a way that suits

are designed or the tesla cars that drove them out. i saw something earlier where musk said we almost went out of business. they tried three times and they failed three times. he said i have mor money for one more shot and they made it work. >> bill: what we are seeing is really a renaissance in commercial space flight. this is the reemergence of our commercial businesses. big companies like spacex and boeing come all the way to start up companies. our universities and researchers as well. it is time for all of us now to have access to space and explore space. very exciting time for us. >> bill: one more thing. they have a touchscreen flight system. think about that time when you were in the shuttle. you had probably 2000s which switches and circuit breakers inside that cockpit. now it's a touchscreen. >> it's amazing. everything i've ever flown in

the military or at nasa, including my spaceship, is in a museum somewhere. i flew in the space shuttle discovery and it's in the museum of the smithsonian. i remember the very first day, 20 years ago when i step inside a shuttle and i thought how uninspiring it was. it smelled like an old airplane and kind of had that feel like an old airplane. >> bill: you've got to start somewhere. looking at the first arrivals in florida. there is rain down there. i know that you're looking at that. for my understanding, you can't have wings that exceed 30 miles an hour and you can't have lightning within a 10-mile area. that's what they are watching. >> that's right. in fact, this is actually the first time, we have a new event on this mission. we are fueling the rocket with the crew members on board. we used to fuel the space shuttle before the crew arrived but now the crew gets on board and then we fueled a rocket.

when you are pouring liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene, which is the fuel, an oxidizer in this rocket, you don't want to do it with lightning nearby. you can probably understand that lightning anywhere in the area is a real danger for us. we have to take the good, the bad, with launching from florida. you probably remember those days with the shuttle, we had a lot of launch slips and a lot of abortive takeoffs because of the weather. so we will take the good with the bad but we are excited. >> bill: i had the fortune of seeing one, the penultimate launch, when mark galli was the commander. the shuttle disappeared into the clouds after about 35 seconds after lift off. it was a short one. one more question. these astronauts are training on a whole different type of equipment. they had to do it for two months when the country was in lockdo lockdown. they are training virtually. what do you think about that, doug? >> they have really been in quarantine all this time.

we have been very careful with their health stabilization. they were tested earlier this morning again just before they went to the pad. they are ready to go. this will be sort of -- i look at it as sort of an inoculation for the human spirit today. it's been a rough time for all of us globally. this is a bit of good news and a bit of inspiration and a very difficult time for all of us. >> bill: well stated. doug wheelock, good to have you on. nice to meet you virtually. let's do it together and do it well. thank you for your time. >> absolutely. nice to talk to you. >> bill: thank you, sir. down to florida. phil keating is standing by. how does it look? >> looks raining right now, currently raining. the skies are not as dark as they've been many times throughout the day. at 2:00 this afternoon, we stood here talking with dana perino while a tornado warning was in effect. nasa employees were rounding up

all the media, telling them to take shelter. we persevered and the tornado warning past about 15 minutes later. air force one moments ago just flew right over there. getting a great view of the falcon nine rocket and the capsule on launch pad 3980. the first lady and president were able to look out the window and get an unprecedented view of a rocket ship in a spacecraft ready to blast off into space before circling around and landing. they are going to be watching this along with vice president pence and i believe his wife as well. down here in kennedy space center, watching it. a blast off happening in person. i have seen these falcon 9 spacex rockets blastoff. they are loud and they rumble and they are bright as they shoot up in the sky. on the beaches, there are crow crowds. a lot of people super excited

for the returning of launching american astronauts into space from right here in florida. there's a lot of excitement in the air. it's reminiscent of the old shuttle missions. >> bill: good deal. standby, fell. thank you, phil keating. if the launch is a go and a success, spacex next history, first private company launch astronauts into orbit. it could lead to space travel for many down the road. want to bring in charles payne. how are you doing? i thought what doug wheelock just described as an inoculation for the country after two and a half months of this covid-19 matter. charles, how symbolic is it? >> it is symbolic. it's really amazing. in part also because the american spirit of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. this is a commercial company. this is elon musk, who at times

has been minimized for his personal, you know, whatever he does on the side. he's such an amazing entrepreneur. you've got to give the government credit for bringing in the private sector, for saying we probably need help. there might be smart ways of doing this. government tends to overspend. so here we are on the cusp of history, and really i am talking about opening up. they say the sky is the limit. actually orbit is the limit in this case. commercial flights are going to happen. people will be going on vacation in outer space. let's be honest. everything is in space right now. our personal secrets are floating around in orbit right now. so there is a commercial part of this. there is a national pride part of it, and also part of this that is smart because we're going to need to police the orbits in the future as well. >> bill: do you think government could have done this without private industry, without the billionaires race they talk about.

branson and jeff bezos and musk? >> i don't think so. i don't think so. let's put it this way. they couldn't have done it in this time period. think about the apollo program. you were talking about that. that cost america $25 billion, adjusted for inflation. russia spent 20 billion on their program. from the ' 60s in '70s. the moving interstellar cost 165 million. india sent a mission to the moon for 140 million. that is the difference when you get private enterprise. you can make a movie about the moon that cost more than going to the moon, and that's why private enterprise works. >> bill: interstellar is more than just the moon. i liked that film. nice to see you, charles. well done. charles payne. see you in person someday soon. president trump arriving at a moment ago in florida, and the

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several hundred days, and you're getting ready for some rather anxious moments. i thought what jim bridenstine said from nasa was telling. he said "we are building a commercial market in space." if all goes well, doug, this is the first big step to getting private citizens into orbit at some point very soon. >> absolutely. this is a giant leap for us, bill. it's really, like i said earlier, it's like a renaissance for our commercial industry. any desire to live, work, operate in space, we can do it together as a team now. nasa teamed up and partnered with commercial enterprise and it's very, very exciting for our young students and our kids out there the dream of a future building rockets are flying on rockets. the time is now. this is our moment. >> bill: imagination runs wild. you remember this is a little

kid, as an adult. there is a certain level of anxiety that is clear and present here, in part because we don't know how this is going to go, doug. therein lies some drama to make this work. >> it's a very human experience. i remember sitting on the launchpad, ready to go. you are strapped into hours or two and half hours before launch so you have a lot of time to think. the preparation is so intense and so detailed that you are ready to go. it's almost a moment where you can sit and sort of quiet reflection about what a profound moment is coming up fairly soon. these folks are very well-trained, as are all of our astronauts. there is a level of fear. i won't kid around about that. but we like to define it as a healthy respect for what's going on and what we understand and what we don't understand.

it's a -- >> bill: you consider the other nations trying to do the same thing, how important do you believe it is to be there first? >> as a spacefaring nation, we look back at the apollo when we walked on the moon and then all of a sudden it was gone and it was almost like sort of as a national spirit we sort of stopped dreaming a little bit. nasa has become its own worst enemy, it does its job so well. we begin to make it look routine. it's never routine in this line of work. so i think this is like a reemergence of the human imagination and the boundless curiosity of the human mind. we are very excited. >> bill: one more question with regard to nasa, you probably heard my question to charles payne a moment ago.

could nasa have done this without people like elon musk? >> no, not at all. it took us a wild but we figured out that those sparks of innovation, those sparks of ingenuity begin in places and in mines that are maybe not even connected with the space environment. the magic of nasa is taking an innovative spark of an idea and turning it into a revolutionary breakthrough in science. history is replete with those examples. so elon musk has been, if anything, nasa is trying to hold on to the reins of elon musk. he is quite a visionary. the course, an entrepreneur and an innovator, and the ingenuity. he has helped us all the kind of open up our minds what's possible. >> bill: you have helped us a lot over the last 20 minutes. don't go far. we are going to come back to you. we will lean on you and your observations.

doug wheelock, astronaut there in cleveland, ohio. president trump on the first lady are in florida now, currently en route to the neil armstrong operations center ahead of the historic lodge at cape canaveral florida. we are at about t-1 hour and 13 minutes from now. as the u.s. gets ready for a new era of space expiration, ari fleischer will reflect on what it means for america next. can save you $2000 a year. y newday lets you refi at today's near rock bottom rates by shortcutting the loan process. there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. it's the quickest and easiest refi newday's ever offered. one call can lower your mortgage payment by this time next month.

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no strings attached. just say "peacock" into your voice remote to start watching today. >> bill: 3:24 in new york, watching the launchpad 39:00 a.m. florida. could be the dawn of a new erica in american space flight about a decade after america ended its space shuttle program. president george bush revealing his decision to retire that program. the final mission was in 2011.

each launch cost more than a billion dollars, and the u.s. turned to russia for travel into space. ari fleischer, former white house press secretary, fox news contributor. nice to see you. you are with president bush in early 2003 when one of these things didn't go well, and that was columbia. that led to a decision to take the american space program into a new era, and this is a part of that today, in a significant way, i would suggest. ari. >> that's right, bill. i guess you could say during the bush years we saw the lowest moment when the columbia exploded and seven crew members were killed, to the jubilation moment when president bush that we belong back in space. we can recover. we will recover. we are americans. let's do this. we are seeing the fruits of it. it was put on hold for little while but now it's coming roaring back. that's why it's so exciting today. i think americans have missed

this moment, haven't we? >> bill: yeah, clearly. it is the era of youtube and instagram and all that. i don't know what your thoughts are but you're watching tesla role these astronauts to the launchpad. it sure does not look like anything we have seen before connected with nasa. >> no. we got used to not watching the launches out of kazakhstan. now it seems as if americans are gravitated toward it. we've missed it. it's almost like chicken noodle soup for the soul, bill. it's a feel-good moment. it's comfort food. this is american. we are launching an american rocket back into space where we do our exploring, and that is the marvel of all of it. it feels good to see it back on american shores. >> bill: is there some iranian the fact that elon musk was banging on the governor of california to get them to allow him to make cars in northern california, i made covid-19?

he was one of the loudest voices in that state to try and get things going again. and then we are here today. >> what i love about this is america's private sector. people can deride billionaires and make fun of capitalism if they see fit with the fact of the matter, it's a wonderful engine that makes things happen and it lifts all boats. that's what we are watching today, the lifting of a rocket, not a boat and we have missed it in this country. back with kennedy when the moon shot was anticipated and we launched the apollos. i am young enough to remember when they wheeled tvs into schoolrooms to watch the apollo launch. it was such a big moment. then we got used to it and we didn't all tune in. i hope we are tuning back in today. >> bill: ari, we have a new shot here as we wait for the first couple to get their own tour, there was pretty heavy itinerary there was going to be packed into their arrival. they were going to get a tour of

various facilities at cape canaveral. and then get ready for the launch. that is the cruel room we are looking at, screen right -- the cruel room. back to the point about the entrepreneurial spirit, boeing has not had the success that musk has had. virgin galactic, richard branson's group, they are looking at space exploration. blue origin, jeff bezos' project mostly focused on rocket and rocket engines. at the moment, elon musk, richard branson, jeff bezos, billionaires. where else in the world can you take the ingenuity of the mind and focus it like a laser on a rocket for a new era? >> to torture a metaphor, the old adage that the sky's the limit in america. isn't that what this is proving?

the sky is not the limit. we can go above the skies. that's what competition, capitalism, entrepreneurialism, that's what it's all about. competing who can do it bigger, better, best most reasonable cost. these are the innovations that make us great. i was listening to a lecture about how brave it was when columbus came across in 1492 and the perils that his crew went through on the ocean. that's the marvel of exploration. you don't know what's on the other side. you don't know how risky it is but there are brave souls saying i'm doing it anyway, and that is the american spirit. it's a wonderful thing particularly here in corona to keep that in mind. >> bill: one president obama made the decision to retire the shuttle program, i think republicans were critical. with that decision did is opened the door for the inventive spirit to come rushing in to

help develop what we are about to see today, ari. >> it also shows the government doesn't have to do everything. it's a partnership. the government and nasa is involved. but even big things the government doesn't have to do it. the private sector can i think that's going to increasingly be the future of space. >> bill: likely. ari, thank you. ari fleischer with us. about t-in one hour and 3 minutes. waiting on the president and first lady. we will see them materially. martha maccallum is on standby, where the u.s. might have something to celebrate during what's been a difficult time for so many. we could use a win today. back in a moment. and once you refinance, the savings are automatic. thanks to your va streamline refi benefit,

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they are getting a tour of cape canaveral. they were expected to get a nasa crew quarters tour. touring the oran capsules. then they will get a demonstration of the spacex for the launch briefing and that will then take them away from the neil armstrong operation center where they will head in route to the operational support building a human right around that time we should see what is it, 4:30 three east coast time we will see the launch of spacex. republican congress men michael waltz is with me from cape canaveral, part of his district touches the northern part of that district. we are watching. we may get interrupted but you flew down on air force one and you are back home literally. how does it feel to you today? >> well, this is an exciting, amazing day. the last time we had the president here was for the

daytona 500. i have to say in this part of florida, is nascar and nasa. it's in our dna. the entire state and particularly the space coast's fired up for this historic day and to have the president and vice president here. >> bill: we are not alone on this. many of the governments and countries are trying to do it. india wants to literally put a man back on the moon. the chinese are getting quite inventive in the ways they have sought to pursue space as well. how important it is today in setting that tone, setting that pace, do you believe? >> so it's critical in two places. one, we should realize and appreciate our entire modern economy. agriculture, finance, global logistics, of course telecommunication all depends on what we have in our infrastructure up in space. so it's critical that we maintain our leadership and our dominance in space. your point, we are no longer alone up there.

the chinese in particular have gone from about a dozen satellites to several hundred in the last couple years. bill, they have a satellite circling the moon right now with a chinese unmanned rover in the backside of the moon. they intend to put their own space station up, separate from ours, their own manned station on the moon manned by the chinese military separate from us. so this has national security implications. the president's leadership, the vice president's leadership has been absolutely critical. just a few years ago, they space shuttle program was completely moribund and dead. now we have this launched today on the civilian side. we have the space force on the military side. this is true commander, leadership from our commander in chief. we are thrilled to have them here today with us. >> bill: you are on the committee in the house that oversees space force. how will it change america? >> well, to my point, in terms of our dependency economically,

the chinese and the russians know that. they have developed the capabilities, the antisatellite capabilities, cyber capabilities and others, to take that infrastructure out. number one, the space force has to defendant on the number two we have to be able to put, a type of detente in space. in all of the word games, the first shots are actually fired in space and we have to have the ability to protect ourselves, to protect our economy and way of life. what is so critical, i know a number of your commentators have said, after today we will no longer be dependent on the russians that we have been in the last decade to put our astronauts and space. when i talked to the president about it, he said never again. never again will america be dependent on russians or anybody else to be number one in space. >> bill: if you can defend your satellites, you can win, ultimately. if it comes to that. have you seen spacex launch? is it your first time for this falcon 9?

>> they have been launching for years now but it's been cargo missions. >> bill: have you seen it? the rocket comes up and drifts back down to earth and it lands a new use it again. >> that's the other thing about today. it's a real celebration of entrepreneurship. this is just an idea in elon musk's had 15 years ago on the engineers and the government and the others laughed him out of the room. not only doing this is a private-sector company but to be able to launch orlando rocket not just on earth but on mars. that's how we are making it cheaper. we are going to get the amount of launches we need to not only manned stations on the moon but to get to mars. we have to have that efficiency that only the private sector can bring. it is the public-private partnership that is so critical. nasa has a lot of oversight. all of the safety checks have been done. it's really the invasion of entrepreneurship in the private

sector that's also to be celebrated today. >> bill: thank you, michael. michael walz, congressman from florida. back home in florida with us. thank you, sir. ricrick reichmuth is watching te weather. nasa says it's a go. what do you see? >> it's looking a little bit better. it's been a rough couple hours. there was a tornado warning just to the north of cape canaveral about an hour and a half ago. rough weather. take a look at the maps and i'll show you what's going on. there is a lot of moisture in the air. some of it is being pulled up into what became tropical storm bertha early this morning. get an idea. there is a lot of moisture across the eastern part of florida, but the bulk of it is just moving offshore. that said, there's a couple storms behind it. see the storms just around the orlando area? and to the south of orlando. those that once the potentially could be in the area of cape canaveral and just about an hour. you see the incredible amount of lightning. that's obviously problematic. we will see what happens, if the

storms off just to the southwest get up to the area. officially the forecast is calling for some scattered showers and some sundr thunderss in the area. at this point we are doing kind of a minute-by-minute forecasting we had a tropical storm that formed and made landfall this morning, bill, and that was bertha. that's pulling off towards the north of that rotation is what continues to pull some of that moisture way off to the south here right across the eastern side of florida. i think we are looking better than we were about an hour ago, but they are still storms in the area. i am hopeful because the worst of it is gone but we can't complete lycee we are good. >> bill: as are we, thank you, rick reichmuth. i want to bring in martha maccallum. good afternoon. we watch the first couple here. making their tour. we are within the one-hour window. i guess you could say florida is important for 2020. i think ultimately today is

important for america. to put a win on the board after what we have been going through with covid-19. >> boy, isn't that the truth, bill? just thinking about the potential for this, the future of life, travel in space as we've been talking about all day. we've been watching them get ready and get into this vehicle throughout the morning. it's so inspiring and i do believe that everybody in america needs -- i forget who you were speaking with earlier we said it's like a inoculation for america and that was a great point. we are all looking for an inoculation. look at what's going on in the vaccine search in the battle between countries around the world. everybody wants a vaccine that can be used by everyone around the world. this is a similar feeling, when you listen to congressman walt's talk about the importance of what india and china are doing in space right now. this is a competitive sport and today is a hugely momentous

moment in that competition. i also want to point out after watching rick reichmuth. it made my heart sink a little bit, little while ago and phil keating talked about tornadoes in the area. years ago, 2006, i was down there covering a space shuttle. sts 121. it was delayed and delayed. in the last moments, the final moments when they could scrub the mission for the day. that's heartbreaking for everyone. it's the most important element. they will if they need to postpone it. >> bill: that was doug wheelock who made that line, the inoculation, the shot in the arm metaphorically he was speaking for the country. florida is a very interesting place right now. it's going to get a lot of attention over the next five and a half months is that rightly does every four years. you can make a case that this is part of it but now you've got this conversation with the governor who says you want to

move your convention here, we will take you. come on down. >> obviously florida is very important. i also think this is something. president trump told his children, if you're going to think, you might as well think big. he likes to think big. i remember a moment with jim bridenstine, the head of nasa, in the oval office. talking about the potential of where we could go with us space exploration. what about the moon? what about mars? bridenstine said let's go to the space station. there's always this dream to sort of pushed further through thinking big. i think that is reflective of his presidency. today is a huge day for that dream. more space exploration for the space force, real signature moments for him. clearly florida is the home of all that. when i was covering the space shuttle launches and i know that you are doing it around the same time, bill, those nasa buildings looked pretty run down.

i look at this beautiful launch pad 39 a and this vehicle that is so futuristic, it's really inspiring for the space program. >> bill: let's drop into the president's comments. >> president trump: what they have done is incredible. a short period of time. we came here three and a half years ago and it was almost a ghost town. now it's the number-one place in the world for what we're doing. doing. >> reporter: [indistinct question] >> president trump: good luck. god be with you. it's a dangerous business but they are the best there is. we want them to be safe. >> reporter: what does an event like this mean? >> president trump: is very important militarily. we have the space force. a military offensive and defensive standpoint, we are learning a lot. we have the most powerful rockets by far. we have the best of the world. the most brilliant people in the world, they are all right here. it is an honor to be associated.

i want to thank vice president and karen, thank you very much. they have worked long and hard. she was by his side all the way. would you say that's correct, mike? i want to think the vice president and karen. fantastic. >> reporter: a comment about the events in minnesota. >> president trump: very, very sad. sad event. >> reporter: [indistinct question] >> president trump: we are going to look at it and get a report tomorrow and we get back and we're going to get a very full report. very sad day. thank you very much. >> bill: with regard to spacex, he said what they have done is incredible. talked a little bit about the history for the east coast of florida. and then he said good luck. god be with you. that's when he was saying to the astronauts on board. doug hurley and bob behnken have a lot of experience in space.

they are strapped aboard the falcon 9 rocket in cape canaveral florida. they are less than an hour from liftoff and we will be here to watch and wish them well. in a moment, final preparations on board this spacex crew dragon. the coverage of the countdown to lift off continues in. owner, here's a smart way to save money. use your va benefit to refinance your home loan at today's near record low rates. one call to newday can save you $2000 a year. newday's va streamline refi requires no income verification, no home appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. it's the quickest and easiest refi newday's ever offered. your va home loan benefits never expire. so call newday now. gsñú8é vfhiqqx? ásm@ dad, i'm scared. ♪ it's only human to care for those we love.

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>> bill: final preparations underway. the rocket is set for lift off 40 minutes from now we will see live. jennifer, space history curator, your specialty is the shuttle era. you are perfect for this on space flights.

jennifer, welcome to our program. i was looking at your comments into things stuck out. here's the first one, you said "we are going back to do what we used to do." what does that mean? >> watching capsules. for the generation who watch the apollo missions, the mercury and gemini missions, it might look awfully familiar. my generation got used to the space shuttle. this is not going to look like a space shuttle launch. >> bill: the other thing you say, there will be ways it looks similar and ways it looks different. i think we can see that already. if your explanation for that distinction. >> absolutely, i think science fiction is a great model for how we want things to look. certainly it's been taken into account in the spacex launch today and how the dragon looks, how the falcon 9 rocket operates and in the way the space suits look. there is a look and feel to this that will feel classic science fiction to many. it's not going to function like we have seen space shuttles function.

will function if you're a space observer and a fan of space flight like i am come it will look a lot like some of the launch is going on for quite a few years going out of russia but this time obviously we will be doing it here in the united states. >> bill: another thing you said, the big changes, what's happening with nasa and spacex. what about that relationship that is so critical? >> going forward, nasa will really be using different vehicles for different parts of its mission. there is still a mission to fulfill with servicing the international space station including crew on board to continue the long-term human space flight that we've had in the united states going for now 20 years, keeping people in orbit, a permanent human presence. nasa can also do another thing that's due exploration. that means a different vehicle. this won't be the vehicle to texas to the moon and mars. that will be the artemis program anand the override admission tht will take us there. different vehicles, different jobs, different missions.

>> bill: jennifer, standby. f3:40, a couple minutes, the spacex launch director verifies the go for the propellant load. that's happening. then he saw the crew access arm started to pull away. that is scheduled right now. 3:51 east coast time. chris stirewalt is watching, politics editor. good afternoon. wax poetic a moment about what the event means in terms of the red, white, and blue as we get ready for this. >> thank you, brother bill. i've been thinking a lot about where we were the last time we were this excited talking about space this way while the country was having so many problems. 50 years ago when the last time the united states was in trouble the way it feels and is now, two generations ago. there was unrest in cities, energy crises, problems. what was it that we had and what was it that the world, even as

we went through these convulsions and we went through problems, what was it that we have at the world book to and admired us for? it was the space program. making good on john f. kennedy's pledge to send a man to the moon and return him safely home. it was what we could do. we let that slip. after the shuttle era, we let it slip. after the cold war era, it looked like an unnecessary cost. it isn't. what it is is the cry of the human heart to explore and see and do and go. it's not enough to send probes and not enough to send robot buggies. americans, human beings want to go. they want to go to the next place. the idea of human beings living on mars is the next date by out of the solar system is a heady thought, a remarkable thought and a really cool thing and it's something this country needs very much right now. >> bill: a shot in the arm, as we have been saying. the flight director, you can hear it a little bit. the audio goes in and out. these are the instructions given

to the astronauts doug hurley and bob behnken on board. these guys sound interesting. hurley is from endicott, new york. age 53. he has been in space a lot. bob behnken, age 49, from saint and missouri, just on the outskirts of st. louis, missouri. think about the next chapter and where this goes and think about the public-private partnership, chris. that has come together to make this what it is today. and i know they are watching in beijing. i am certain they are watching in new delhi. this is the game in town to watch now. >> they don't have elon musk. and they can't, they didn't have thomas edison and they didn't have the american spirit of innovation. because we do it differently because we have a system that tries to maximize personal freedom and individual liberties to go and see and explore. this sort of relationship is

something new for us. certainly in regard to the space program but it's not new for us to be a country where innovators get a wild hair and they say you know what, i'm going for it and i'm going to try it. we still, thank god, live in a country where people can try. you can try. if you live in china, if you want to be an entrepreneur in china, be an inventor, you face a whole different set of restrictions and restraints and everything has to be approved through a very political very bureaucratic process in the central power. that's not been true in the united states and that's why innovation still lives here. >> bill: i want to bring in jennifer. i can see now, i want to check the rundown. around 3:56, and about 90 seconds, the dragon launch escape system is armed. this has a touchscreen cockpit. it is not 2,000 buttons that the

astronauts are looking at in front of them, jennifer. >> that's right. both of these astronauts were at one point in their careers may be jealous by comparison to what you can do with this spacecraft. they are always with the comparison about much computing technology and how that compared to a watch calculator. this is mild what this photo was capable of in terms of being updated and modern. >> bill: it's a touchscreen cockpit. it's an ipad, it's an iphone world. >> that's right. it's interesting to think about in terms of who could operate his vehicle and may be someday expanding capabilities of the crew going up to the station. could this be real passengers instead of astronauts? could it be participants in space flight not going out to their work. this is potentially the dawn of

a new path forward in space flight for those who want to just participate and not make a career of it. >> bill: i want to pause for a moment. we might get stuff i directory. as it goes to the seconds, that will be the moment the dragon launch escape system is armed. and if we can pick it up, we will listen for it together. jennifer, this is a different system than the shuttle. many would argue, it's safer. for the men and women on board. >> the shuttle didn't have a launch escape system like this. they had those launch escape towers that would jettison after the flight. but having an escape system is really a crucial part of moving forward in our human space flight program in case there are problems on launch. here we go. we caught a little bit of it. after that, we'll get to the loading that will start around

three: 58, which is about a minute and 15 from now. jennifer, are you dubious in the transition and that america was making in a space program? we haven't done this for sometime. how did you think it was gonna work out? >> i was always optimistic. we've been asked that question for years. we can't predict the future. i grew up watching the space shuttle. i was a child of the space shuttle, i like to say. i had missed the large crew in that vehicle coming back like an airplane. i think there is something so iconic about that. this is savory. this is definitely something that is more economical. although their vehicles are reusable. you can land that rocket and land that spacecraft and reuse all of it. this is really just taking the lessons learned of apollo, the lessons learned from the space shuttle program and taking it up in knots. making it better for our

industry and for the government in terms of the way this operates. it opens up a lot of new paths for us. >> bill: the rocket about to begin loading there. you mentioned elon musk. he was competing head-to-head with boeing. and musk won in the race. i mean, let's be honest. when it comes to innovation, there is too small, and there's too big. we know where innovations get to a point that it's so big that it's hard to innovate and hard to be nimble whereas spacex and musk have been too nimble sometimes. but they are not afraid to take risks. they're not afraid to take chances and go out with an idea that maybe wouldn't want to put in front of a board of directors that would say this is too ris risky. there are times that you want big, dependable, and reliable and all of that stuff as opposed

to the hard-core innovator. i've got to say, musk's successes speak for themselves. >> bill: the first time he saw tesla. i won't forget that image. it's very much like what we are about to see today. we expect to see the president and the first lady have gone to florida for this historic launch. how do you feel? >> i'm really excited. i can hear my children's footsteps downstairs waiting for me. for me, it's kind of a really exciting moment to have something i can share with my kids as i got to shares so many space shuttle launches with my friends and my colleagues. as the very beginning from my parents generation. i think they will be incredibly inspired. >> bill: nice to meet you. thank you for coming on today. my colleagues, thank you sir, waxing poetic about the red,

white, and blue again. you get the liquid oxygen loading begins. in that process is well underw underway. thank you, sir. 34 minutes away. neil cavuto has a special program beginning now. >> neil: 33 minutes until history. america returns to space. of course our astronauts go back and forth to the international space station for the better part of a decade. unfortunately for the better part of a decade, we been hitching rides largely with the russians. today, it's our own ride in a private right at that. in conjunction with nasa, launching u.s. astronauts back into space. it all happens about half an hour from now. welcome everybody. i am in neil cavuto and this is "your world," or should i say out of this world? a lot of people i wondered whether we would ever see. and now, private enterprise is combined with the united states