neil: today could be the day. i'm neil cavuto, 22 minutes away from history, for the first time in nearly a decade americans are prepared to send americans into space and this comes at a time when a private enterprise is going to be leading the way. the first sign we have seen that ever. the astronauts by the way got in there about little 2 and a half hours ago, doug curly and doug bakin. each married to astronauts themselves, well experienced in

cancellations and weather and technical issues that could bump flights but so far nasa said and things can change, everything is a go for this launch right now. the weather is clear but more importantly it has cleared all along the eastern coast of the united states. remember, it's not just what the weather is around cape canaveral and the cocoa beach area, 1100 miles the eastern coast, we will be following that and talks with the charlie duke, 12 men who walked the surface of the moon and the nasa administrator and says why this particular mission is crucial and tracee, really crucial space history, if you will, her dad last man who walked in the moon initials in lunar surface, there was a rock dedicate today her on that surface by an astronaut some time earlier. we are all going to be all over that but first to phil keating

and what could be coming in about 21 minutes, phil. phil: yeah, we are exactly 21 minutes and 55 seconds away from liftoff. the astronauts bob dagen and doug hurling. and the weather gods are, well, playing along, everything is a go at this point. technically as well as weather, the skies have totally cleared up and blue skies here after couple of rounds of rain and last cloud nasa was worried about is long gone. capsule are out there stacked fueling up on launch pad 39a, officially the historic launch is a go and has to be perfect and right now it looks like as if it is. astronauts walked out of the same door the apollo astronauts

flew to the moon and have been sitting inside the capsule for 2 and a half hours now checking all the systems, state of the art touch screens. air force 45th weather squadron provides meteorology analysis, cloud issues and range issues and says it can wait 30 seconds until launch time to rule a no go. here is nasa administrator jim britensine. >> we look back at vietnam and we see the -- the injustice, we see the protests and here we are today, we are -- we are on the cusp of launching american astronauts on american rockets from american soil for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles back in 2011. this i think has not just an opportunity to give everybody out moment to unit but also to

give people hope. phil: just like for wednesday's scrub launch, tens and tens of thousand of people have flocked to the coast from florida in nearly a decade. aiming for a twofer, enjoy the sun and surf and rocket launch and a bunch of people across the water and there's a big bridge there that's just jam-packed with people right now. president trump and vice president pence as well as their wives are on the ground here at kennedy space center, air force and the vice president's plane landed little while ago. this is the first time, they want to see. first time we are launching americans from florida in nearly a decade and this is really space history, first time a private space history is launching human beings into orbit and that's why the mission is being called launch american, no more reliance on the russians

if everything goes well on this test flight. again, launch time 3:22 p.m. eastern time and that is just less than 20 minutes from now. it's exciting. neil: you might hear reference that this is crew dragon, crew dragon versus when you hear talk about cargo dragon, all the other spacex rockets that have launched back and forth in the international space station, carries supplies 20 times that was considering cargo, cargo dragon. you will hear crew dragon because the big differentiator there are human beings on board, two of them. can hold as many as 7. this is the same vehicle that is planned later onto get us to the moon, big contribution to that in just a few years from now. but obviously this is a first crucial test, weather will play a role as we have been reporting, adam klotz with the latest on that. adam, how is it looking?

adam: neil, it's still not guaranty, no big weather system that is we are concerned, it's florida, it's hot and steamy and you can see thunderstorms pop up in 5 or 10 minutes, something to pay attention in the next 15 minutes until eventually the launch happens. i do want to tell you there's been pop-up thunderstorms for the last several hours. take a look at forecast and you'll see even though most of those moving further south of cape canaveral, storms will be an issue in the particular area. currently 87-degrees. the heat index of 94-degrees, so it's hot, humid, that's what it takes to pop up those thunderstorms really quick. winds south, southeast at 10 miles an hour. way below the threshold you would need to scrub anything in this particular situation, so the launch forecast, this is what we looked at over the course of today, obviously we've seen those thunderstorms pop up off and on. we are getting break here and that's good news. another concern any time you

talk about this is going to be lighting, lighting strike within half an hour of the launch time, within 10 miles of the launch site, that's enough to scrub one of these and right now you're seeing a whole bunch of lighting strikes south of melbourne. the good news is that particularly cell, that's drifting to the south. that's not a concern. there's still a couple of cells moving, any one can strengthen in the next couple of minutes. it's something that we will have to watch. in general this looks like a pretty forecast if we are talking ten minutes out but heaven forbid if they were to get scrubbed in the next few minutes, this is the forecast for tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. it's better, smaller chance of rain but it's florida, it's summer, neil, as we get ready to toss it back to you, it's hot and steamy, always a possibility to get the pop-up thunderstorms, so no big system to pay attention to, but thunderstorms are still something we will have to watch in the next few

minutes. neil: i like the way you describe, it is florida, it's summer, it's hot and muggy and brings all types of weather but it is what it is. we will see if they find the window and as adam is touching on that's important when you look at storms in melbourne area, you want to have north ward trajectory, they are to the south and can go along that. 1100-mile radius all the way to east coast, that looks okay. that's all they need to hear. by the way, we talk about these two astronauts, their experience in mission delays, share of them. when we talk about hurley and what he's been through, it's amazing. i was reading that in the shuttle endeavor, that was scrubbed 5 times. he was on that mission and it was delayed over a month between technical and weather difficulties, let's just say that he knows a thing or two about launches that are postponed, more than 6 out of 10 usually are. sometimes only despair and hopefully that will be avoided another fellow that knows it

well, american hero, only 11 human beings to walk the surface of the moon charlie duke, honor to have had you this day especially. what do you think of the fact that we are back in this and if all goes well for the first time in close to a decade we are launching folks in air space and not hitching rides with the russians? >> i'm really excited, neil, tremendous opportunity for us and everybody is excited about it and i think we are going to go today and so i am just ecstatic. neil: now what about the role of private enterprise, you talk about elon musk, spacex and even for the two astronauts, you know, military test pilots like training, they know how to work with joystick, whatever you have it. big screen that is look like elaborate decked town tesla. they've had time to work on that

but it's an adjustment, right? >> well, it must be, of course, they've had hours and hours in the simulator i'm sure and used to touch screens. we didn't have any of that in apollo, but -- so we had to get use today what we had and they are used to what they have. they are focused and they know how to operate the spacecraft and i'm very excited about this private government sponsorship and partnership and i think it's going to be a great future for us. i'm really excited about today. neil: you know, i had the pleasure of talking to pilot of apollo 7, i'm happy we are back, i like what's going on here, he kind of -- businesses are running this and watching the cost and doing all of that, that -- i always thought that was the

case and nasa itself is private companies and it is what it is. >> that's true. i talked to walt yesterday and i was not for private enterprise at first but then i changed my mind quickly and i'm very excited about it. it's a great partnership. nasa has never built anything, we've always hired private companies to do it. the difference been -- now they have their designs and they came to nasa and said this is what we've got. you want to buy it and everybody said, nasa said, yeah, we would like to buy that and so here we are and it's exciting to me.

neil: now this will pave the way, this will pave the way eventually to getting back to the moon where you were, establishing, you know, a base there and from there we launch to the stars and mars and what have you, are you confident of that layout and that plan? >> i'm a little skeptical about mars but i think moon is the next objective and we can build a space station on the moon it would be very valuable scientifically and for learning in beach space and for gravity for a long time. i'm all for the moon flights. i think we will have to those get there on schedule, but it can be done. we built lunar module from almost from scratch on apollo in 5 or 6 years, we can do it.

neil: you know, the chinese are already there. if you look at countries send into space, china sends more than russians, what do you make of that, tense relations between the chinese today, what do you think of their space mission? >> well, i was in china with charlie bolden right after the first came home and got to meet him and i'm impressed. i think that they're using a lot of technology that they didn't build at home -- it was our technology, so that's given them a good head start on us and apparently their economy can afford it, so we will see. yeah, go ahead.

neil: no, i just jumped in. charlie, i wanted to thank you more than interrupt you. it's a real honor to have you on, you're a real hero. i didn't know if you knew this, charlie, honorary astronaut by giving me a pin so i feel like we are on the same league talking about this. charlie duke, thank you for great space memories and heroic at that. >> thank you very much, neil. neil: all right, be well. you could tell he was impressed with the fellow astronaut thing. he's a real mccoy here. we are looking at this as we take a look at what's in store for nasa now assuming that goes off and everything is really ready here. this would be an attempt not only for private enterprise to do, what public institutions have den, the fact of the matter is it starts right now. we are going to pause for one moment to let our fox stations join us.

this is fox news coverage of spacex, launching the first man u.s. space flight in nearly 10 years. i'm neil cavuto and what's getting the attention now we are more than 7 and a half minutes away from something that we have not done for better part of a decade, launch our own men and women, in this case two men, veterans who have done this many times before between of them four times if you include astronaut spouses, 8 times, they know a thing or two about being up there. nasa astronaut, international space station twice, holds among the records for time in space, kind enough to join us right now, doug, you're looking at those clouds, you've been in this same position, what do you make mother nature, so far so good there, what do you think of all of this? >> great to be with you, neil, of course, we have been waiting

9 years to get back to flying humans to space from the space coast and we have to remember we had a lot of rain delays and things like that, and so weather is always an issue there in the. neil: you're looking at president trump right now, he's with the vice president in operations, support building 2, 3 miles away from launch pad 39a and, doug, viewing site as well, about 39a and the significance of that, what do you think? >> well, 39a is the same pad that we launched apollo 11 from so the mission that went to the moon. the first giant leap back to the moon or on to the moon, launched from 39a, also our shuttle

missions went from there. when i got a chance to launch in space shuttle discovery i went from launch pad and has a lot of history and we are very excited. neil: now, the president's vantage point here and what he wants to see from here, aggressively been promoting space travel, he thinks we can get that back again. i don't know necessarily if the heavy days of john f. kennedy and letting out goal, man landing on the moon, different kind of incentives today, where do you this all of this goes? >> well, i remember president kennedy saying we chose to the moon. right now we are seeing the other things. this is what we believe down exciting vision for nasa, where we can go as nation and all the

specifications and requirements to our commercial enterprise and then we are getting out of the way and let -- letting the imagination and the curiosity of the human mind, to the imagination of human heights carry to places never gone before. neil: i find that stunning. what do you think of that system in place, you know, god forbid? >> it's absolutely, it's been put through paces. we tested it. they can eject off the launch pad as well, neil, so they are protected. the astronaut crews are protected all the way to orbit, they have a way to get off the rocket and abort if they need to, so that's a real advance in technology for us. neil: all right.

we already know now stage 1, loading is complete, ready to go. at this point 3 and a half minutes before launch, what are you thinking? you have been there, done that, what are you thinking? >> up until this time doug and bob got strapped in about 2 and a half hours ago and there's probably light joking, maybe trivial pursuit going on but now it's go time and so they are completely focused on test flight and ice water is running through their veins right now and i sent a note to them late last night and i know that they will be focused, they are alert and ready for the ride of their lives. neil: again, you talk about the feature, just to be familiar with it, who activates that? who has control of that if it should be necessary? >> well, there's a launch control group that's controlling

the launch and so they can fire that, the escape system, there's also automated system that if vehicles needs to get off, that could light it within certain parameters and the crew can do that as well. neil: doug, thank you very much. thank you for memorable and heroic service to the world and those who dream of leaving this planet and you did so calmly. i always remember the stories behind you. took a lot to rattle you. in fact, i never could. doug, thank you very much. we are following a couple of things here. this is all about timing, assuming this goes off okay in less than 2 minutes. it's all about catching up with the international space station that's traveling north at 17,000 miles an hour, about 249 miles over planet earth. so that's the idea, 19-hour

catch-up to hook up with that. let's go to nasa at cape canaveral and hear the countdown and the readiness as we are now about a minute away. >> closed out and complete. dragon is in auto idle. >> 1 minutes, 30 seconds to go before launch. >> close out is starting.

>> falcon 9 is in start-up. >> dragon is in countdown. >> armed for launch. >> under a minute now the ftf, flight termination system has been armed. >> dragon spacex go for launch. >> spacex dragon, we are go for launch. >> 30 seconds. >> stage 1 tanks pressing for plate. >> 15 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,

0, ignition, lift off. god speed. >> america has launched. rises the new era of american space flight, ignitions of a new generation continuing the dream. 20 seconds into flight safety is nominal. >> 30 seconds in historic mission. flying crew on board dragon at falcon 9 and look at them go. >> falcon. >> get ready for period of maximum dynamic pressure.

we are in the throttle. all systems are go. >> vehicle super sonic. >> we've exceeded on falcon 9. >> throttling back up to full power. >> copy 1, bravo. >> we heard the bravo callout, second, will be on this and then switch over to the second. at this point bob and doug, 3.3 times the earth's gravity. 1500 miles per hour. >> we've heard the call-out, that's getting the mvac engine ready to light. that's 244 in the flight.

right now everything continuing to look good. next mayor event. [cheers and applause] >> coming up is the triple, we will have main engine cutoff of 9 first engine, stage separation and then ignition of the second stage engine continue to carry astronauts into orbit. >> come coming up in 20 seconds. >> throttle down. >> throttling down the engines on the first stage. >> falcon separation confirmed. [cheers and applause]

>> recognition. >> all right, we have confirmed, the first stage beginning first flight back, the second stage being covered and has ignited and now carrying bob and doug into orbit. they will continue into the power of the second stage. >> nominal. >> which will cut off at second engine cutoff in 8 minutes and 44 seconds in today's flight, still 5 minutes to go on the second stage. you hear the callout, longest abort cell and carries them all the way to north carolina up the eastern sea board almost at canada. things looking good, though, good call-outs, nominal proportion on the second stage. bob and doug continuing to make their way into orbit.

>> nominal trajectory. >> dragon nominal trajectory. >> all right, hearing nominal trajectory dragon pointing in right direction continuing to make flight uphill, acquisition of bermuda that they are using. >> still nominal. >> little over 4 minutes, 40 seconds into the flight. bob and doug flies at more than 5600 miles an hour.

>> nominal trajectory. >> already almost 200 miles down range from the kennedy space center, nominal trajectory continuing. while they continue uphill looks like we are getting a view of the first stage as well. >> it's on the right screen, you can see the first with the grid since deployed, making its way back to attempt to land on drone ship, of course i still love you today and we are just a minute -- a couple of minutes away from the entry burn and that's where 3 of the 9 merlin engines do ignite to help slow the vehicle down as it reenters back into the earth's atmosphere and after the entry burn is landing burn which is a single engine.

>> nominal trajectory. >> you heard -- >> nominal -- >> callout, they are still on nominal trajectory on dragon. still on second stage and that's the mvac engine on the second screen. again, on your right screen is the first stage booster coming back towards our drone ship, of course i still love you, we are about a minute away from entry burn. >> meanwhile the second stage continuing to power dragon into orbit and if you're keeping an eye on the timer, that's going to continue to burn until 8 minutes and 44 seconds into flight so little over 2 minutes from now we will hear the callout sico and it'll be over 3 minutes until dragon physically separates from the second stage of falcon 9.

>> nominal trajectory. >> dragon copy, nominal trajectory. >> continuing to check in with bob and doug as they are on a nominal trajectory. just about 10 seconds away from the first stage starting the entry burn on the right screen, you should be able to see the view live. >> stage 1 entry burn start-up. >> and there is the entry burn beginning. the burn lasts about 36 seconds long. >> space 2 fts is safe. >> well, -- while the entry burns continue we are minutes away from sico, a number of events happening in succession.

second engine cutoff. stage one landing burn shortly after. >> yeah, actually just within a few seconds of each other. just a cool view on your left screen seeing bob and doug on dragon, you can see displays that they are seeing themselves. >> internal guidance. >> throttle step. >> we are coming up 25 seconds or so away from seco, second engine cutoff. >> also the point where they are experiencing force, tick up 1.8 -- >> copy shannon. >> you heard shannon, final abort zones, if they were to abort or land off coast of ireland standing by for

confirmation. >> back shut down. >> visual 11. >> confirmation of seco, second engine cutoff. >> now we are waiting for first stage to make its way to i still love you. >> confirmation nominal. >> copy, nominal. >> what you're seeing on your screen is a live view of droneship. neil: something that you're hearing, of course i still love you, the drone ship that will be responsible for retrieving the first stage that will destined to the atlantic. these are reusable. these are reusable, two different drone ships will be picking them up so when you hear that it's not a country love song, it's really a way, means by which they reuse the devices when they come back down to earth before they go to ocean

and start from scratch. elon musk and spacex have found ways to keep using them dramatically cutting the costs of space travel as well as the cost of this travel. let's go back. >> good orbital insertion. falcon 9 and dragon exactly where they are supposed to be. 12 minutes when dragon will separate. looks like we saw zero g indicater floating around. bob and doug owe us a little bit about what exactly they brought up with them. >> before separation, before dragon efficients -- initiates and make sure it's not spinning and in good condition before we separate. >> that's right. small attitude maneuver using gas, built into the rocket body

itself. >> exactly. we do expect that separation to occur in about a minute from now, but they do wait until they have full confirmation that it is ready to separate. such cool views. i cannot get over this view that we are seeing right now. bob and doug on the right screen inside of crew dragon out in space. >> yeah, already 200 kilometers over planet earth or a little over 124 miles traveling in excess of 2700 meters -- 27,000 meters per second, about 15,000 miles per hour. we are just standing by the separation event should be coming up shortly and then a series of checks on the draco thrusters to maneuver and power

dragon on its flight to the international space station. standing by for separation. >> loss of signal. >> sounds like we had loss of signal with ground stations. waiting for confirmation. >> dragon separation confirmed. >> dragon separation confirmed. >> there's a great view right in front of you. dragon separating. [cheers and applause] >> there's the call-out, dragon is now officially making its way to the international space station. neil: great breathe of relief. it's not dragon, 16,000 miles and the final separation has been separated and it will be on nearly 19-hour journey to hook

up with the international space station itself traveling at about 17,000 miles an hour. to mathematically get the hookup right you have to get one tenth thousand of a decimal in speed and timing and visuals. it is so overwhelmingly complicated and makes me beg for having them better or trying to do better in calculus but that doesn't even matter here. tom jones, the astronaut with us right now. tom, there was a collective sigh of relief with the final separation. how do you feel? tom: i am just amazed. i think this is a fabulous development for the united states space program and we have two people in orbit on their way to the space station. the system worked perfectly. i had my heart pounding and tears in my eyes. this is a momentous event and happy for bob and doug and amazed that the system has pulled off flawlessly and good

sign of things to come. neil: you know, tom, i'm glad the camera was not on me, my friend, it was film that was provided after the fact, you can forget when john glenn was launch intoed the space. swore to see sparks and fire flies, you barely made out the image and now it's crystal clear, 8k, i don't know what it was. the astronauts in the capsule and the views of the space, something that we would never see in the past, later shuttle missions probably got to show some of that but not nearly as crisply or sweepingly as this. >> it's very important to share the experience as widely as we can and intimately and as split second as we can, so i i want to appreciate what the astronauts are going through during this

heroine journey to orbit. it looked pretty calm on the screen but the adrenaline was going through their veins. to share the experience and project you're in crew dragon to space station, get people excited to experience this on other occasions, going to cape personally or taking a ride as tourist or being an astronaut one day. it's a great way to share dynamic experience. neil: you know, it's one thing to go through the pressure, 4g on the body but then to know billions of people are watching you on live tv as you do so. are you confident on that when you're on that position, i'm fine, i'm fine, wait, the whole world is watching. >> it's great they can watch me on tv, oh, oh, they can watch me on tv. you can get help but you can get

embarrassed. [laughter] neil: there's nothing embarrassing about you, young man. you know, 19-hour journey, doug, to get to the international space station, you know a thing or two about that, timing will be everything, it's a race at a very incredible speed, everything has to be precise, could you play out these next 19 hours? >> absolutely. it's actually great to hear from tom jones as well as charlie duke, both of my heros coming on to the astronaut program, so hello to them. yes, so now we begin the real sort of like finely choreographed dance between the spacex dragon and the international space station. they each have each other's state vector and now try to catch up to it and -- and traveling at 5 miles per second around the earth and we are

going to dock just like with a kiss of the two spaceships in space and amazing and there's a series of burns, correction burns to raise our orbit, circularize orbit and over the next 19 hours we will be doing facing burns, correction burns to try to match precisely up with the international space station. neil: now this will also be the same capsule that would return, we just don't know how and when that will be and which one of the astronauts is up at international space station will come back but will be coming back in this, right? >> that's correct. that's correct. in fact, you know, a successful mission for us is to have bob and doug home safely and we would like to get a 30-day mission. if all things are going well, we will stay till 30 days and at that point if everything is still going well, we hope to extend it out even as long as

120 days. neil: wow, that's a long time. you get that relief but once you're in space, out in atmosphere, no longer dealing with the 4g thing, you have to feel a lot better because that's a pressure cooker? >> you do feel a lot better and when you've -- millions of people are watching us on tv. i'm sure that that did not go through their mind until the second engine cutoff and they can breathe a sigh of relief, wow, that was amazing because they were completely focused. i remember on my accent both space shuttle and use i was completely focused and you forget to smell the roses along the way but now they are going to have an experience,

physically and things that change in emotional state and your spiritual purpose driven state, you know, it rounds out those parts of the human existence and so it really -- space changes you not only physically but emotionally as well. neil: that was a footage from earlier today. that was women and men wearing suits. i didn't want you to think that aliens had taken over the capsule. astronaut tom jones that doug

was alluding to, you have to be relieved because the initial hard part is over, what are some of the bumps now, what are some of the things that they have to prepare for ahead of what's going to be a very precise, has to be exact hookup with the international space station. >> right, you know, you experience the launch almost as an observer. you are almost attached to your body as you go through accelerations and vibrations. you are part of the world's greatest physics experiment in the first seconds here and when you get weightless the starter gun goes off. ignition is really starting and you to perform to everybody's expectations and now you're getting ready to transition to blastoff mode to orbital mode, switching software modes or getting the solar cells online to charge batteries on board to convert the cabin to orbit mode, get out of space suits and

prepare the life-support systems. all of the systems check out and that's where the test pilots will be at their best. neil: you guys -- you and doug are the heros, that's my experience here and i got plenty sick on that. i can imagine what the pressure has got to be. tom, when you look at this now and what it showed private enterprise can do, working in conjunction with nasa and this is one of the toughest thing that men can pull off. this is a very good sign i would imagine. >> it's going to be fantastic to have nasa engage with the two suppliers of transportation to the space station. it's very healthy commercial sector that's being demonstrated here today. we can go onto tourism and can go onto private modules and space station and independent labs and orbit. nobody has that capability. we are now extending this innovation to lower orbit and beyond that i can see companies

like blue origin, spacex, boeing, sierra nevada being part of return to the moon and be supplying the landers to get astronauts back to the surface? just a few years. neil: that's a good point. multiple private players, jeff bezos, knee deep in this stuff and richard brunson and want few part to play into this. kristin fisher, besides being a reporter, anchor, she's the daughter of astronaut, you might have heard that once or twice, i'm fascinated by that because you might remember quite there so much older than kristin, she was called our first astro, landed in journalism, the world is grateful for that, kristin, i'm reading about the fact that this is going to lead to space tourism, you and i might get a second shot at this, i don't know how you feel about that but what do you think?

kristin: neil, we could be the first journalists in space. think about it. boy, what a launch after all those concerns about weather, all the concerns, scrub on wednesday, today they ended up getting beautiful blue skies and now what a day for both nasa, spacex and elon musk, what he has been able to accomplish in just a few short years. there were a lot of people who didn't think he would be able to do. now his company has become the first to put astronauts from any country into orbit. they've also been able to prove that they can land the rocket, the falcon 9 rocket on that drone ship and reuse it in the future and that is critical for human space life because it makes it more affordable, financially feasible to have more frequent rocket launches and, of course, this has also been a huge day for president trump. he went down on wednesday, he went back again, he wanted to be there. he has made space such a huge priority in his administration and right after the launch he

was asked why did you want to be there, why was this so important to you, here was his response. >> i still can't breathe! i still can't breathe! kristin: do we have the sound bite? neil: kristin, we do not. right. go ahead. kristin: not a problem, i can paraphrase, he was basically saying that he wanted to be there for this moment because it was such a historic moment in for nasa, for spacex and for the entire country and, you know, as you hear the protests behind me becoming a little bit louder, you know, it's striking to contrast between watching the moment of american ingenuity and you contrast of protests outside

of the white house and i've been told that we do have the sound bite from president trump and i would like to go ahead and play it. neil: kristin, i'm very sorry about that. we do not have it here. as kristin said and we will go back to her little bit later. she's competing with protestors there. they were there last night, got pretty harry last night but as kristin pointed out the backdrop is interesting. in case you're getting a case of dejavu, it's happening before, the daughter gene, tracee, when your dad was up there hopping around in the moon trying to sing, i might stress, trying to sing, we were in the middle of the vietnam war. a few years out of the 60's, assassinations, protests and

riots and yet there was this magic, this moment that showed the better part of -- of the -- the human species and i remember he pondered that and said this is all good and looking back at the earth he would say, it is a beautiful place, but the backdrop was startling and the time was startling and even now some of the same stuff alive and well protests in hong kong, protests in this country and -- and men conquering the stars. same sense of dejavu. >> he always felt bad because he was in his space program and space race and they were headed there and his colleagues, navy pilots, buddies were fighting vietnam war and he had turmoil feeling he should be with crew members but he was there doing something that was important and the space race was what was

important at the time and once again i find really feel good about that today was successful and today went well and looks like we are making our next big step to go back to the moon and -- and create some excitement again once again on the space program. neil: you know, i was thinking too, talk about timing, joking with kristin fisher, the daughter of astronauts, but even kristin came prepared and i think you have a lunar rock named after you, i feel feel compelled to kristin to top that. >> i don't know, i guess he was up there thinking about me in the middle of doing all of his work and being -- doing what he was supposed to do and so i guess that's pretty special and having the name -- rock named after me that was pretty neat.

thanks to mr. bean, we all picture that. neil: you know, namely the fact that your initials are carved in there. they are not moving anywhere any time soon. do you ever hey, in a way i'm up there. >> yeah, i do. part of daddy is up there and look that up there every time i see the moon thinking about him and the initials i hope someone can go back up there and take a picture and create the memories again, but, it's really -- it is very special and i guess i am only unique one that has it up there. neil: well, you should be honored and i know we felt the world of view and tracee, never forget your kindness at your dad's funeral, me and my son bradley to be there with you family, it was a very, very special moment, your dad was a

very special hero, thank you very much and thank you for what you contributed to get people excited about says. >> oh, i hope so. i hope this is the beginning again. i really do. thank you, neil, always being there for dad. neil: i like the way you said that, it's the beginning again. tracee, the daughter to have last man to walk on the moon and remember what's possible, i don't care who picks up the tab as long as we get back up there. he was not loathe to private enterprise making money but somehow some way getting there. when i asked what john kennedy would think of that of private company doing that he would say kennedy would probably just say whoever can sign the damn checks. hewas probably right. i want you to stay tune to fox news channel for the continuing coverage of the historic mission. it has just started. it's nowhere near done. i'm neil cavuto.

all right. we are back here and taking a look at all of the developments here with the launch of the united states back into space, the difference this time, my friends, we are doing the launching, we are bringing our own astronauts up there. up until now, better part of decade we have been hitching rides with the russians and we have been paying for it. 85 million per seat astronaut in each and every flight. with each year the russians charged us a little more. it was a buyer's market or was it a seller's market, bottom line it's a very different market now and we are the ones that might be picking up, well, interesting partners who would want to fly with us. phil keating on where that is going and what he makes on all of this, phil? phil: i hope that tracee is still watching because me and my crews had two days with dean when they were showing film,

last man on earth and the man was such a gem, absolutely lovely man. as for today, whoa, what a launch. very exciting. whether it was going to launch or not and whether the weather cooperate as it did not cooperate on wednesday when it was scrubbed, man, skies opened up and got all blue right around 3:00 o'clock, all the way to the 3:22 eastern launch time and it was 3, 2, 1 ignition and it shot up there and so loud. if you're not within 3 miles like we are are, it's hard to really describe but it's like a bunch of base drums just -- it's loud. you can kind of feel it it's so powerful and shot up there, everything we went well. 2 and a half minutes later the first stage rocket dropped off and we believe successfully landed on the drone ship because i heard a bunch of cheers out of mission control in hawthorne at the spacex headquarters right around the time that it would

have landed, the signal was lost at the last second from the drone ship out there in the atlantic, hundreds of miles away. you can understand why the signal potentially will get lost in the as well. it dropped off and now the crew capsule, the dragon, is now all on its own power heading to in orbit, probably is in orbit by now on the way to international space station and make a few orbits around the earth as it makes its way higher and higher and higher to altitude of roughly 250 miles above the planet and then around 10:23 in the morning eastern time tomorrow that will end the 19-hour trip from the launch pad and then bob and doug hurley, astronauts on board, mostly be computer driven, the actual docking with the hatch as one astronaut earlier today mentioned this, like two space capsules, spaceships kissing out

there in space. it's very slow, it's very precise and lined up and spacex has done it quite successfully 20 times with cargo ships, so the concern is really minimal that anything could go wrong with the docking tomorrow. once it does dock, there are resident astronauts and european space agency people up there on board working and doing research as we speak. they will be welcome to board after they open the hatch and hurley and bankin will move in and date to return on planet earth depends on the first official crew launch that spacex and nasa are targeting for august 30th, so last year, mt capsule with mannequin test flight number 1, today is test flight number 2 with astronauts just to make sure everything performs as expected and as needed on that capsule, you know, things are different when

you have humans on board especially very experienced astronauts, they can know immediately whether something is not working right or wrong. then, we begin the next phase for nasa as well as the commercial space flight industry, boeing has campus right over there and they're building 3 of their capsules right now to, again, take astronauts as well up to the space station. they haven't set a target date for the first crew launch but they've had already had successful, for the most part successful test flight with their capsule. didn't quite make it all the way to space station but they did get a lot of learning out of it, so big day here, bankin and hurley, appeared to be cool, calm, collected, relaxed sitting in bucket seats and, you know, unlike the space shuttle, the capsule is all touch screens like somebody said earlier, i think it was bridestine, back to

you, neil. phil keating on all of that. i want to go to terry birks. terry, do you know why it is that we don't know the timeline, how long the astronauts will be there, who comes back from the space station right now, is that by design and who decides ultimately who sorts out? >> well, nasa makes the decision. this is a test flight. this isn't part of a normally scheduled flight. once that happens it's unknown pending date and want to make sure the capsule is working and propellent and oxygen systems can last long enough and also really complicated time because america has been buying the missions a couple of times a year and that program is phasing out and there's a lot of moving pieces between how many

additional flights we could have and how well is this capsule working and also waiting on the boeing capsule which is going to be used to bring astronauts up. i think 3 years from now everything will be going smoothly and scheduled, but this year -- like a year or two of a lot of things changing. and by the way, we will still be sending astronauts and it'll be just we are not paying for theirs anymore. it'll be a swap. [laughter] neil: that's a big distinction. terry birks, thank you very much. we have done it, folks, americans are the once who did it with backdrop of protests and everything going on in the world and appeal to better angels and the things we can do when we think and act together. the sprays program has routinely played that out through 60's, through assassinations, violence, riots time and again

we look in the heavens to be heavenly. heavenly. this is why they say we are back. that will do it. fox news continues. >> the death of george floyd and arrest of the police officer involved causing tensions to rise across the nation and chaos in some of our biggest cities. demonstrators clashing with police, setting fires and also looting some businesses, more protests are underway today as more cities plan to boost police and military presence and enforce cu curfews. hello, i'm dana perino. minneapolis continues to be on edge after disturbing video showed floyd pinned down by a white police officer who knelt on his neck while he cried out repeatedly he could not breathe. that officer is charged with