♪♪ ♪♪ good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" with three big stories today in washington. first, battle lines over the coronavirus booster with whether a third shot is advisable and for whom. ahead of pfizer's emergency use application tomorrow before an fda outside advisory panel. researchers at pfizer, moderna and biden health officials including dr. anthony fauci are advocating for boosters as efficacy of the initial doses wanes, but two fda officials disagree and resigned over the issue. on capitol hill, the fences surrounding the capitol after the january 6th insurrection went back up overnight. another rally planned for this sally from a group calling itself justice for j6.

the group says it supports the rioters who have been prosecuted for their participation on the assault on the capitol last winter. joe biden is supporting mark milley as former president and supporters demand that milley be fired or tried for treason. >> did general milley do the right thing, sir? >> i have great confidence in general milley. >> milley and his backers say the conversations with his chinese military counterpart were routine cause of reassurance to 20 or more allies and adversaries alike following the insurrection. the controversy erupting, of course, over those stunning revelations in bob woodward and robert costas' new book. joining me is pentagon correspondent courtney kube and

michael mcfall, former u.s. ambassador to russia. thanks, all. jonathan lemire jen psaki are standing behind general milley. how much angst is there about this book? >> i pressed the white house press secretary yesterday in her daily press briefing and certainly, they are supportive of general milley. they sidestepped how president biden if it went out of the chain of command and they said that he was acting out of a sense of patriotism and jen psaki reminded everyone watching what just happened there january 6th that the insurrection and how tumultuous the time was in our nation and why general milley was compelled to act. there is a sense here that general milley, of course, was going to be called up before hearings on capitol hill in the coming weeks and he'll testify

on afghanistan and this will certainly be added to the docket and we heard calls for the president to fire him or for milley to resign. there is no sign that he will, and that he is expected to continue in the day, weeks, month ahead. >> courtney, you followed this so closely at the pentagon. what are military leaders and the rank and file inside the pentagon saying and we know that general milley spokesmen made is very clear in conversations with you that he feels this was overdramatized and these were routine conversations. that he has normal conversations with his chinese counterparta well as the russians and the channel is open precisely to try to avoid any kind of misunderstanding. >> that's right and this wasn't the first conversation that general milley had with his

chinese counterpart and there were four since being chairman of the joint chiefs. on that call also defense officials are making it clear that general milley was not the only person in the room and there were numerous other people there and that the call, the notes from it were shared with the white house and the state department and there was an inner agency process. so they are pointing this call specifically as something that is very common that general milley does. they are also not disputing the overall tone and the tenor of the call in that general milley was trying to reinforce to his chinese counterpart that everything was stable and that the u.s. was not planning an attack. on this meeting where general milley discussed the nuclear process with the national military command center with the basement of the pentagon, they're also saying, defense officials are saying that in fact that was a standard, common meeting where they discussed the process that general milley was not trying to circumvent the

process. overall, andrea, defense officials are not disputing the defense and they are questioning the way they are being characterized and in some cases being overly dramatized and how they are being recounted in the book. >> michael mcfall, you worked both as an ambassador and at the nsc, obviously in russia and more broadly. so you could very well that interagency process in the obama team and you saw the way now president biden reacted in 2009 when he was the odd man out in the whole debate in 2009 over the surge in afghanistan and was criticized very much by former defense secretary bob gates and in gates' book for how he did not want to add those and it was very clear to those longtime advisors, and blinken particularly that he was not going to budge, but this book also says that they did argue with him, that there was a real risk. they knew the down side.

there was a lot of intelligence about what can happen if they had a complete withdrawal rather than leaving a residual force. >> yeah. i can't help, but mention first when you said is there a lot of anxiety at the white house over the bob woodward book. i worked at the white house when his book dropped and general jones my boss was asked to stay step down. there is always drama with a bob woodward book. i want to underscore general milley with what you were talking about with courtney, this sounds to me like someone who participated in many of these phone calls and read about them back when admiral mullen was the chairman and general mccarov in russia and this is standard operating procedure and there is no secret phone call to anybody in the world let alone to a chinese counterpart. so that is much ado about

nothing. to your broader point, however, on afghanistan, of course, i do remember -- you know, i was a back bencher for those debate, but because we had support through russia going to afghanistan. i participated in those debates in 2009, 2010, the vice president's position was very clear and as he's made clear subsequently, and people had different points of view on that and they still do including his administration today. on that decision he's decided to move forward and the buck stops with him. i appreciate that presidential clarity, that doesn't always happen, but it doesn't mean that everybody even in his own administration today agreed with the president about that particular decision and the way, of course, that it was conducted. >> and garrett, tony blinken was excoriated by democrats and republicans in two grueling days of hearings on the house side

with people telling him he should be fired and now he's in these meetings with the australians today. the u.s. and australia meeting and china is furious about this because one of the agreements that they've announced is that they're going to let australia have nuclear submarines which is a real defensive move against chinese aggression and the fact that the president talked to president xi at a lengthy call last week and we were told did not give him a head's up. so now we'll have a news conference coming up after this show. i'll be over there at the state department and we've got the australians and the u.s. defense and secretary of state, all of the four ministers there with this big hedge against china. >> yeah. i mean, the hearings this week were pretty rough. i'm not sure that secretary blinken certainly knew it was going to be not entirely friendly conversation so i'm not

sure quite what he was in for -- he knew exactly what he was in for. this submarine announcement was supposed to be a master stroke that the u.s. had pulled off this secret deal for the first time introduced u.s. nuclear submarine technology into the region by somebody other than the united states, the only other country with which the united states shares that incredibly sensitive technology and it is why great britain is a part of that agreement. it's essentially saying that australia in some ways is the new britain, sharing the technology with the uk at the beginning was largely a defensive move against russia. china is the new chief enemy and they're sharing it with australia and it was supposed to send a clear signal to china, which it did, but in the meantime they've managed to offend france which they either didn't think through or they

knew was coming, but they didn't do anything to ameliorate ahead of time and the other nuclear power france and they are mad, hopping mad and talking about it in every form possible. the plaintiffs have to deal with that, as well. >> and that's after france was already pretty angry about the afghan withdrawal and the fact that nato did not give enough head's up and there's also a lot in this new woodward-costa book about the brussels meetings that we all attended and i was there with you, and you know how much conversation there was at that nato meeting about what the nato allies expected. they were first in when we went into afghanistan and that was the one and only time in 70-plus years of nato that they ever voted to go to war and that was to go to war on behalf of the united states after we were attacked on 9/11. >> that's right. many of those nato allies had some pretty hard feelings about

the way the withdrawal was managed. they felt they were not consulted and the principle of in together out together was something that the united states was just relying on at face value and that the allies can just do whatever the u.s. wanted was the feeling that many of them came away from. they weren't expecting hot-handed treatment from joe biden and they were smacked by it and the feeling persists. >> ambassador, what is your takeaway on this move against china which has so offended france, but is it worth it to have this warning signal to china? >> yes, i believe it is. any time a close ally enhances its security capabilities and that's good for american security, and that's good for the security of the free, democratic world. so i applaud it. i do think the handling of the french piece -- remember, this

is not just about security for france. they were -- they were slated to build submarines for australia and this is a xhishl, economic interest, as well and they have work to do to repair that, but i think generally speaking we want our allies to be as strong as possible. this makes australia stronger and this is about on eye want to be clear. it's about deterrence, vis-a-vis china, and i think we need to enhance our deterrence and this is a positive step in the long term even if in the short term we have some alliance management and crisis management within the alliance. >> michael mcfall, thanks so very much and to jonathan lemire and courtney kube, thanks to all of you. empowered, elite athletes taking a stance against the fbi mishandling the sexual assault. for years we'll speak to the gymnast who paved the way for

them to come forward. fenced in, bracing for the weekend's protest and who's coming and why they may be hurt by their own conspiracy theories. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. , we want kis. living longer is possible and proven with kisqali when taken with a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor alone. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain,

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saturday's rally in support of the january 6th rioters. around 700 are expected at the event according to the group's permit requested by a former

trump campaign staffer who insists it will be a peaceful protest. with capitol police with a newly appointed leader are taking no chances this time and requesting that the national guard be on standby just in case. joining us now nbc news political -- capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell and former fbi director for counter terrorism frank ducey. what kind of preparations are in place for this rally? >> hi, andrea. you're exactly right. the capitol police are taking no chance wes this rally on september 18th. i'm at the base of the capitol right now and there's a new fence that went up overnight, the black fencing around the perimeter of the capitol right behind me and behind that perimeter is the west front of the capitol. that's usually where the inauguration takes place and that's one of the places where the rioters stormed the capitol as they scaled that scaffolding for the inauguration back on january 6th. i want to show you, i'm going to

ask my camera guy to turn around, the actual rally is taking place just over the water right there. this is the reflecting pool, and on the other side is a grassy area where the rally is permitted. there's about 700 people who are expected to attend. capitol police say that they have increased communication. we just saw capitol police guiding around other leaders from other police departments in the area from baltimore police department and prince georges police department and even the national guard to go over the preparations for that day. should those police departments and should the national guard be called into place. whale they are extremely prepared and perhaps overly prepared we don't yet know and this is also an attempt to show the country and the protesters that they're not going to make the same mistakes that they made last time and that they are ready. andrea? >> and leigh ann and frank, just this morning speaking at a g7

conference in the uk speaker nancy pelosi had this to say about saturday's rally. >> so when you ask the impact, was the impact continues? they will come saturday again. they have their plans to come. everybody will be ready more ready for them. >> it's very clear that they plan to be ready. frank, we certainly are reading more into the online communications because our friends, brandy and ben who have been well aware of all of the communications before january 6th couldn't understand how there wasn't better intelligence sharing since it was in plain sight that people were talking very violently about their plans before january 6th. >> i'm encouraged by the fact that law enforcement now seems very plugged in to the intelligence and the chat in these various rooms and that we should all be encouraged by and the intel right now has

fluctuated from weeks ago. hey, we're going to show up and we might show up en masse and we might get violent. as for the proud boys particularly saying we're going to get arrested. this is a setup. this is a false flag. don't go. with conflicting intelligence the capitol police are absolutely erring on the side of caution. my gut feeling tells me attendance will be low. this is why it's important far beyond saturday. because they're bellwethers perhaps for the future of our security. first, the attendance. numbers will matter as an indicator of how deep a disinformation the conspiracy theory that january 6th was not violent and these protesters are political prisoners and shouldn't be arrested. let's see who really will travel and spend their money and show up for that. i think it will be low. the second is the presence of violent extremist groups like proud boys, oath keepers, and

the january 6th investigation are having a positive and chilling effect on future acts. that's something to look for. lastly, the radical rhetoric we may hear from the podium. who speaks, who's running for office. who around trump's orbit or in congress shows up and we have georgia for congress. i'm not seeing the big names and that's a positive if people are distancing themselves from the nonsense that we have political prisoners and january 6th was a good thing. >> there's been criticism that they've not been prosecuting harsh enough and the way they've been charging some of these people. what about what you just alluded to, this false flag issues that people are communicating online and saying, you know, don't come because it's an effort to just round you all up. >> well, it's part of this conspiracy theory mindset to

think that everything is a trap, that the government's doing everything and remember the old claims that it was the fbi that actually pulled off january 6th and of course, that changed theories several times and here we are again with them referring to saturday as a false flag, meant to bring people into town for the purpose of arresting them and anything bad that happens it's going to be cops doing it. you see the organizer of this rally telling attendees don't wear anything trump-related. that's going to allow them to say see? that was antifa, that violent act or see, that was the fbi that did that. it's an interesting theory and i'm hoping for a peaceful saturday with real indicators to watch for the future of security, law enforcement and remote, local rallies scheduled for saturday in other cities even for next saturday on the 25th, a dozen already planned in other cities that could stress law enforcement in smaller communities. >> and to that point, congress is not in session, leigh ann, so

there will be rallies in some of these states and the home states. are any members going to be going to these? >> well, capitol police have told -- >> do i think people will show up -- >> they've stayed in contact with -- sorry, i don't know if that question was for me. i can't hear very well, andrea. capitol police have been in contact for their safety and for the intelligence of what is happening in these places. they've also increased security at the airports for when members of congress travel. so what capitol police is doing they're taking a holistic view of this instead of focusing just specifically on washington, d.c., and the capitol. >> they've got a new chief as we've been reporting and so far, he's been proactive and if very few people turn up and it turns out to be an overreaction for the fencing, it is too much.

our law enforcement people they always end up on the short end of public criticism in any case. thanks to you guys and thank you, leigh ann and frank and everyone will be working this weekend, as well, and to of course, the law enforcement people trying to keep us all safe. and we have a keep meeting coming up as experts argue who needs a third dose and when. more on that coming up. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions,

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conflicting opinions from medical experts are fueling the intensifying debate over those covid booster shots. the fda is, of course, not taking a stand ahead of a key meeting tomorrow on pfizer's third shot even as 70 million eligible americans have not received their first shot. the biden administration is strongly backing boosters amid rising cases in 24 states and breakthrough infections in vaccinated americans. joining me is nbc correspondent gabe gutierrez in new york city and dr. peter hotez from texas children's hospital. gabe, clear up for us exactly what you expect at the fda meeting tomorrow. this is an outside advisory

committee meeting on what to recommend to the fda on the emergency use by pfizer based on their data. we are getting so many mixed signals and there was the lancet study by the two fda officials who had quit over this issue and others, disagreeing with the third booster and dr. fauci saying he disagrees with their disagreement? that's right, andrea. it could be confusing for many americans and this is a highly contentious debate within the community and tomorrow pfizer will detail its findings for this panel of outside advisers to the fda and then that panel will then be expected to recommend whether or not more americans should get that extra shot to protect against the virus and pfizer releasing yesterday some new information, a 52-page report saying that people who were vaccinated in january, for example, had a much higher increased risk for

breakthrough infections than those vaccinated in april suggesting that the protection from these vaccines is waning, but critics say this research is based on israeli data and basically that the study that that involved is a very small study. that it can't be applied on a wide scale and so far, andrea, the staff at the fda has declined to take a position on this, saying there hasn't been enough verifiable data and other public health experts. they argued that listen, it's just too soon to tell that there isn't enough evidence and the increased case load that we're seeing is not because vaccine protection is waning and rather because of that highly transmissible delta variant. tomorrow this outside panel is expected to meet and next week, cdc advisers are expected to meet to discuss booster shots and this runs up against the biden administration.

it will begin its booster shot rollout on september 20th and that's next week and there are mixed messages as we get into the timetable, andrea. >> dr. hotez, your world is the world of science. the president promised by july 4th victory of this and the delta variant messed up that time to say the least. now you've got him again suggesting september 20th which is monday and it will not get emergency use authorization on monday and where do you come down as to whether there's enough data to warrant general use for the population as a whole or should you be limited to immunocompromise, to its citizens or something else? >> andrea, from the beginning i've been saying this will be a three-dose vaccine, likely the moderna is as well because we

gave those first two immunizations so close together and that was needed to fully immunize the government quickly and remember the nursing home residents we were losing in such a high number. you tend to sacrifice durability and most of them were first based apart. we wait six months to a year and then boost and it seemed to me the that that the mrna vaccines would go by that same playbook and i've been saying we'll need a third immunization. the question is what's the trigger? when would we do it and would we do it in breakthrough infects or breakthrough hospitalizations. the data from israel published yesterday, that those over the age of 60 that you are seeing

waning immunity and the problem is they weren't followed for very long. how durable is that third immunization and that's an important question so i think there's good evidence to support vaccinating those with a third dose and we'll see if the committee has additional data that they are looking at to confirm that and whether they also agree, concur to immunize those over the age of 60 or whether they'll even broaden it to other age groups and the other problem, andrea is israel and the uk can do a good job with the effectiveness and that's why we've had success with the vaccine. we are not collecting that data sufficiently and presenting it in the u.s. and is there any down side in the fact that the israeli data would come from a much more

homogenous population set? >> yeah, i mean -- >> not age, but ethnically. >> sure. israel is a small country. . it's 9 million people and a much smaller country and the size of harris county where i am here in texas and houston, but then the issue comes -- you know, if you start waiting for breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths given the cdc, there are consequences for that, too and it's a tough decision because of the science and the way we're collecting the data and political ramifications, as well but it will be a very interesting meeting tomorrow. >> interesting, to say the least and dr. hotez, we always appreciate your expertise. thank you very much for being with us and of course, my friend gabe gutierrez, thank you very much for all of your reporting. and we have breaking news in the stunning murder mystery right owl of a hollywood film

unfolding in south carolina. state authorities have now arrested prominent attorney alex murdaugh, following allegations that he arranged another man to stage murdaugh's suicide in order for his son to collect a $10 million life insurance policy. this comes three months after the unsolved killings of his wife and his other son. local police say they're also opening a new investigation into the 2018 deaths of a family's housekeeper. being heard, support is pouring in for our next story. the sexual abuse survivors holding the fbi to account for mishandling the nasser investigation. >> i ask that your work be guided by the same question that rachel hollander and many others have asked how much is a little girl worth? >> the first woman to publicly accuse larry nasser joining us

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a resounding message from the four gymnasts whose brave and emotional testimony gripped lawmakers on capitol hill yesterday. hold the fbi and top gymnastics officials accountable for the sexual abuse that they suffered at the hands of usa gymnastics doctor larry nasser. in gut-wrenching testimony olympian simone biles fighting back tears. >> i don't want another young gymnast, olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that i and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day in the wake -- of the larry nasser abuse. >> larry nasser is now serving up to 175 years in prison pleading guilty to abusing ten of the more than 265 accusers

who came forward. the survivors who testified also say they're angry that the justice department was invited and did not choose to attend. that's a sign that doj is just not taking their issue seriously. rachel denhollander was a 15-year-old gymnast when she started seeing dr. nassar at michigan state. she was the first gymnast to go public against him in 2016 and the last to speak in court in 2018. >> larry sought out and took pleasure in little girls and women being sexually injured and violated because he liked it. >> and joining me now is rafrp eldenhollander, the first gymnast to pursue criminal charges against dr. nassar. she is an attorney now and author of the book "what is a girl worth." exposing the truth about larry nassar and usa gymnastics.

thank you very much for being with us and thank you. you were such a groundbreaking, you know, person, survivor here, and you made it possible for those other women who followed you. what was your reaction to their testimony yesterday? >> i am incredibly proud of the athletes who testified yesterday, but it is also gut-wrenching to be faced over and over and over again with the systemic failure that led to this abuse and what we saw yesterday, the abject failure of law enforcement and gross negligence, outright corruption is unfortunately, a reality that sexual assault survivors face on a daily basis and few of us ever get the chance to pull back the veil and to show what's going on in law enforcement and the reality is most of the time the abusers are aided and abetted including the very systems tasked with protecting our children and i hope that what comes out of the hearing is we

start asking the questions about what has to change to better train and equip the law enforcement and hold them accountable when they behave in corrupt ways to allow the children to be abused. >> one of your fellow gymnasts talked about meeting young girls who went to see dr. nassar because they wanted to see the olympic doctor. let's listen. >> in his office nassar's office he had some photos of us and so they went to see him because they thought it was so cool to have the same doctor as us, and so it's -- that's been one of the hardest and most devastating parts for me is so many survivors suffer with guilt and shame, and so it takes everything i have to work on not taking the blame for that because it is -- it's horrific. >> i mean, let's talk about that. is that something you experienced where you blamed yourself even though you're a victim because you didn't somehow protect others?

>> absolutely. that kind of blame and shame is something that every survivor carries and when you have law enforcement that heaps it upon you the way the fbi did to mckayla moroni, by minimizing it, by not pursuing it like it mattered and that furthers the message that you're being over dramatic. you're making this up. this is not important and that compounds the blame and the shame and the guilt and you contrast that with what it could look like. when i came forward to detective mumford, the detective who investigated the case and the assistant ag who actually prosecuted the case. their response was so radically different than what our elite athletes and what most survivors are seeing when they disclose to law enforcement. they have to immediately pursue it, and the allegations like they mattered and in 15 month, the same amount of time that the fbi did nothing, in 15 months,

andrea and angela had secured a plea deal that left larry in jail for the rest of his life and secured the right of all of us to speak. we have the ability to stop sexual abusers. we have the ability to protect our children and the question is whether or not we will have law enforcement and prosecutors to our systems to keep them accountable for the actions that they take and well trained and equipped to do when they're supposed to be doing. >> and the fbi director chris wray who was not a part of this, and who was not in charge, and he's acknowledged the mishandling of the case. you're a lawyer. what can now happen because the two fbi guys, one was allowed to retire, no charges. no penalties and nothing on his record and the other was fired being that the firing was just announced, i don't know when he was fired exactly, but the firing was announced two days ago, the day before the hearing.

>> so what was really communicated, and i'm grateful for the recognition that things were mishandled. i think it needs to go much farther and i think it was outright corrupt when you have fbi officials who are lying to the department of justice and to the fbi, that's criminal, and were any other citizen to lie to our law enforcement they can and should be slapped with criminal charges. so the fact that that hasn't suspected disturbing to all of us, but in addition to that, we also have a system because of our qualified immunity and sovereign immunity lays and the criminal court and in civil court and we need to start having serious discussions about what needs to change in our qualified and sovereign immunity so that we have mechanisms to hold law enforcement accountable and when we don't do that, when there aren't criminal charges levied and we don't have access to the justice department to provide accountability for bad actors and restitution to those that we hurt.

when those are not available what it communicates is you don't matter enough and it communicates to bad actors and law enforcement even if you do the wrong things we're not going to do anything about it and we're not going care enough to change what we have to change to be able to do anything about it and it communicates to victims that you don't matter and there's no reason for survivors to speak up and trust our justice system unless we can communicate to them that there is a mechanism to hold our justice system accountable and right now we don't have those mechanisms and it's not being communicated. >> it's interesting, rachel, because it just strikes me that qualified immunity issue for law enforcement is the central stumbling block for getting the george floyd bill passed and that's what karen bass and senator scott have been dealing with with their colleagues and the heavy lobbying and that's why that bill has been stalled. so this issue does cross a lot of line, but there are a lot of victims who are not get anything help because of it. >> we have created a system

where law enforcement has all of the power and none of the accountability. that's a system that's ripe for abuse and that's exactly when we're seeing. >> and as a lawyer, what kinds of charges do you think should be even be considered? how about lying to an fbi official who as we know that that's been applied in past cases? >> absolutely. there was a list yesterday put out of the possible charges. again, the question is whether or not we'll care enough to follow up on the actions we can take. do we care enough? >> rachel denhollander, thank you for your bravery and thank you for being such a path breaker. we appreciate it. rachel's book is "what is a girl worth? my story about exposing larry nassar and usa gymnastics." we'll be right back.

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freshly baked. smells so good, i can almost taste it. but you don't eat bread. ♪♪ and right now as we speak, the first all civilian crew is in orbit after the successful spacex launch overnight, marking another milestone in the space race firing up all summer. what are the four civilian astronauts experiencing hundreds of miles above the world? kerry sanders filed this report from cape canaveral, florida. >> reporter: andrea, right now, the inspiration 4 crew is orbiting planet earth. they'll do it 15 times a day for what is now going to be a three-day mission, and they're experiencing the weightlessness. they have this incredible place

to stick their heads up and look around. i spoke to an astronaut, said it is as close to a spacewalk as anybody could get. lift off gear was picture perfect. let's watch that for a moment. >> vehicle is pitching down range. >> all of it going just as planned. the weather was cooperative. they launched off the first stage of falcon 9 rocket, releasing a second booster getting them up as they travel 17,500 miles around the earth. they'll be doing some experiments. remember, these are ordinary people on an extraordinary journey. so they'll be running tests on their blood, behaviors, cognitive abilities, all of that to see how ordinary people, not those extraordinary specimens that are astronauts who have gone before. i had an opportunity to speak to former nasa astronaut ron geren,

talking about his experience and what he believes they'll now come back to earth with after going through this incredible journey and how it will change them. listen. >> it is a very unifying experience. you see the true inter dependent, interconnected nature of our world. when you see that from space, it changes you. the light bulb comes on and it fills you with a expense that we need to take care of this place, take care of each other. >> reporter: one of the big questions we all have, what is it like to be weightless. i had a peek into that. i was able to go in a zero g flight years ago, i did two, and it is not like swimming. all i can say now is they're going through three days of weightlessness. it is going to be something they're going to talk about and probably remember the rest of their lives. andrea? >> indeed, thanks to kerry. joining me, senior writing of

bloomberg business week, author of elon musk. thank you for being with us. the crew is higher than any space flight since the apollo missions. what is the significance of the latest milestone? >> well, it marks another step in the trend we're seeing where basically for 60 years, a handful of governments dominated control of space. now private space is really arriving and spacex is definitely at the forefront of it. we have sent civilians to space before, never a total crew of untrained pilots or people from the military. >> is this what you would extremist space tourism of the future to look like? >> a little bit. it is interesting. you've got virgin orbit from richard branson and blue origin with jeff bezos, they're sending people on four minute trips to the edge of space. those are much cheaper. this is on the order of $55

million. but you get to spend three days in space, so it is quite the breadth of options at the moment. i think the biggest deal is this year we've seen a number of these missions. so finally after all these years, feels like private space, commercial space is getting real. >> is the cost ever going to come down so that more average people like you and me can go? >> i think so. i think short flights maybe cost on the order of $250,000. elon musk has been relentless about making rockets reusable and capsules reusable. both of those were reused machines, trying to drive the price down. i think it is many years away before a multi day trip to space is affordable for everybody but things are definitely trending that direction. >> you wrote the book on elon musk. we haven't seen him go to space yet, no giant steps from him.

what is in it for him? he certainly doesn't seem to be part of the vanity project we've seen from other billionaires. >> ever since spacex started, i don't think it is a goal lots of people would identify with. he is determined to make a colony on mars for humans and machines and this is his life's goal. he is dedicated to it. obviously he's afraid something happen to the rockets and him that mission won't take place. i think when we finally see elon go to space, he said he wants to die on mars. >> well, that's quite a goal, not to die on impact. what's next for him. it is funny. spacex has been running laps around the government, old government programs and new space programs, so spacex, their main business is sending thousands of satellites into

space every year, but they're doing more and more routine missions in the last 15 months now. just a mix of all these things and going to space as often as they can. >> we're all fascinated, of course. thanks so much. great to meet you. thanks for your help. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online on facebook and twitter. up next, garrett haake in for chuck todd on "mtp daily" only here on msnbc. ly here on msnbc. stuff. new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. it's non habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. new zzzquil ultra. when you really really need to sleep. what happens when we welcome change? we can transform our workforce overnight out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters,

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