nasa's role remains crucial. [inaudible] science and engineering no space activity in the global space international. [inaudible] expand our understanding of climate science and human impacts to make engineering great and dry economic expansion. however, the majority of facilities -- [inaudible] [inaudible] >> you are cash is coming in-and-out, almost cycling. let's ask the technical folks to help us. >> is this any better? >> just keep talking for a second. >> i'll try to of mike's. >> automatic gain control and it's taking him up and down. >> i'm looking at our tech guys and hopefully get this straightened out. if you could hear me, i'll continue. >> yes please. >> leads us to one thing, nasa's infrastructure is success. eighty-two% of the facilities are beyond the height. 5000 plus buildings and structures consistently underfunded due to competing priorities resulting in deferred maintenance of 2.6. recent nasa budget request is absolutely essential requirements and ensure mission success but nasser continues

but a decade ago, nasa seemed adrift in space. the space shuttle program was ending, and the u.s. had no means of reaching space. compared to 10 years ago, senator, where does nasa stand today? >> well, it was specifically 11 years ago that kay bailey hutchison of texas and i wrote the bill that put nasa on the course that it's on, a dual course -- one-course commercial companies that nasa would hire, specifically the delivery of crew and cargo to the international space station. and then the other course, nasa, to get out of low earth orbit and go explore the heavens. and that's the course that we're on. now, in that period of time, the space shuttle was coming to an end after the destruction of columbia. it was strongly encouraged to shut it down and come up with a design that was more safe for human life. and that's what we have now. and you will see that in the largest rocket ever will launch at the end of this year. the space launch system with its spacecraft, orion, on the top. >> i'd like to ask you about the sls space laun

>> speaking of nasa, and a recent presentation, nasa administration veteran bill nelson laid out his agency space flights efforts, including like you said john going to the moon. want to listen to what bill nelson had to say, and john elected react to it after against an. here's nasa administrator bill nelson del some. >> we are assembling the rocket at the very moment town at the kennedy base space center. he'll pave the way for american astronauts to the surface of the moon. that rocket is the space launch sense system. it'll launch our orion spacecraft on missions to lunar orbit and beyond. and soon, i mean like days, we are starting to stack that massive core stage between its two boosters and the vehicle assembly building it kfc. the s alas will be the most powerful rocket in the world, 8.8 million pounds of thrust at lunch. all this means we are on our way to land the next americans on the moon, and this time we are going to learn how to live and work in another world. america's long term presence at the moon, both robotic and human, we'll help develop the experience and capabi

what does nasa hope it might find, senator? >> it's going to look back in time to the beginning of the development of the universe. as a result, we are going to find out more about the development. in finding out about that, we are going to find out how did all of these solar systems occur in all of these millions and millions of galaxies. we are going to be able to determine what happened that we are so fortunate, on planet earth that we have a habitable atmosphere that will sustain life. by the way, the more and more we find out about that, we can be better stewards of our own planet and protect the life we have here on this planet. >> one final question, given what we know about the uaps , when is the right time, senator, to come up with a plan to handle intelligent life that we are looking for? >> we better identify first. once we identify it, then we will know what to do. we don't have any idea if suddenly an alien is going to appear. this is still great speculation. but, we are in the search for life out there. this pheno

>> speaking of nasa, in a recent presentation nasa administrator bill nelson laid out his agency's spaceflight's efforts, including like you said, john, going back to the moon. i want you all to listen to what bill nelson had to say and, john, i want you to react to it after he gets done. here is nasa administrator bill nelson. >> we're assembling the rocket at this very minute down at the kennedy space center. it will pave the way to return american astronauts to the surface of the moon. that rocket is the space launch system. it will launch our orion spacecraft and kharg dwoe on missions to lunar and beyond and soon, i mean days, we're starting to stack that massive core stage between its two boosters in the vehicle assembly building at ksc. the sls will be the most powerful rocket in the world, 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch. all this means we're on our way to land the next americans on the moon and this time we're going to learn how to live and work on another world. america's long-term presence at the moon, both robotic and human, will help develop the experience and capabilities we

it would be an issue with nasa and the u.s. congress which could be deep into spacex if that happened. that would be a terrible tragedy. it is certainly something possible. there are no guarantees with human space flight whatsoever. there are some pretty good safety precautions with the falcon 9 rocket which has an excellent record in terms of getting to orbit. the newest version has never failed, as i say, after about 70 attempts. if it does fail, unlike the space shuttle, it has a launch escape system. if something went wrong with the space shuttle on ascent, there was no way for the crew to get safely back to earth. with dragon there's a launch escape system such as if something goes wrong with the rocket, within a fraction of the second, it has powerful thrusters that can push it away. theoretically the loss of crew probability is about 1 and 240 missions. it is definitely not zero, but the space shuttle was 2 in about 135, theoretically, at least, it is lower than the space shuttle. that would be an extremely serious issue

nasa has nothing to do with these spaceflights.hey are regulated by the federal aviation administration and the department of transportation, which has to issue a license for these flights to take lace. again, there not making contributions to the nasa program. they are starting new businesses . they hope to make money with these businesses, and the regulations associated with them coming out of the department of transportation. jesse: is there anything being done by these private companies that nasa may want to emulate in the future? john: no, i don't think so. nasa has the capability -- has had the capability of putting humans in orbit since john glenn's flight in 1962. at the first two flights of project mercury, alan shepard and gus grissom, there were like these lights. just up and down. jesse: what is your comfort level right now in letting private industry seemingly take the lead in the space industry that is going on? john: this is one niche segment of the space industry. there is a $300 billion space industry, mainly priva

and for, senior editor for our next, nasa and beyond. his former reporter for the file you historically, he is is the city residents over so thrilled easier to read in my decision with andrea lance brown, since my read and being in stacy here we have a lot to talk about. when it comes to space to turn this over to a position. on this question and answer period. welcome andrea, thank you for coming. >> you down. >> is very exciting about your book i will have you started it off. right now we have so much happening in south texas with the source which now is in texas we learned today. but you know, it feels a little like maybe the cowboy days of the falcon one so i'm curious to, why you decided what similarities you see me must have a nap and then you. >> i will readers understand why we should care about this dinky low rockets that is so much is launching 50 years. agency. the way the speed at which space x moves the reality is that they had been successful with the falcon one rocket they finally lost in 2008 successfully never would have

>> reporter: well, listen, even the people who run nasa and have run nasa many years, believe that wes, nasa's mission should be about going long and deep. think return to the moon. think about mars. the low earth orbit stuff nasa has been doing for the better part of 40 years now, it is time to give that over to the private sector. and that's why they've been embracing spacex which has been servicing the space station. blue origin has been running missions to the space station. it's all about turning some of that over to the private sector because it's not been perfected, but nasa has been the ones that have gone out there, done the science, and really figured out how to do this right. hand that over to the private sector, let nasa, with deep pockets, focus on doing the deep space science stuff. so they are all on board on this. in no way is nasa reluctant to embrace this. in fact, nasa tweeted out today a congratulations to branson saying, making the point that branson is building on nasa technology over the decades. and that's absolutely true. >>> we mentioned it earlier, but it's

such as you, was road to nasa. i guess it was in michigan at the time and i'm interested in space. and they sent me back this envelope with pictures of like, taken by the voyagers. the planets in the solar system and theyut were beautiful like a by ten photos. with some press relief information about each that the voyager had discovered. i was like so cool so i opening. so i t think it speaks really to the power of nasa to really draw in people and like, it works for me. and i've had a lifelong interest in space ever since pretty. >> so the culture of space x, from other private companies and you mentioned their origin and. [inaudible]. and a lot of people want an answer to that pretty. eric: so the culture of those two companies, is vastly different and itt is because it is drawn from musk, he sets the tone. it's extremely demanding and the phrasing is the book is that he was to make the impossible, possible. so he asks great from people but then he gives them the freedom to go out and do that in the moves really

that nasa changed. the problem with the show program that nasa was a research organization. it was not designed to be running an airline. and then to turn the shuttle over to contractors but it's like hiring a contractor to fight your work for you if you are a nation something should be under the direct control of the people who don't have profits in mind and are there to serve the good of the people. so once we started flying lots of missions and then to 550 missions a year, that is one a week you cannot do it with the staffing we had. it was impossible that we do 512 in one year and it got busy. so we got into the mode to systematize everything that every flight controller would see the exact same set of failures in their training and when they saw them and we always had problems with it because they were not developing the basic philosophical skills but checking off dix on - - bits and pieces but not getting the subjective part so we do evaluations they have the training objectives met but not subjective zen fail. so that's when guys like me would help to mentor them on t

>> it would be an issue with nasa and with the u.s. congress which would be deep into the knickers of spacex if that happened. that would be a terrible tragedy. it's something possible. there are no guarantees with human spaceflight whatsoever. there are some pretty good safety precautions with the falcon nine rocket which has an excellent record in terms of getting to orbit. the newest version has never failed, as i say after about 70 attempts. and if it does fail, unlike the space shuttle it has a large escape system. if something went wrong for the space shuttle on ascent, there was no way for the crew to safely get back to earth really. with dragon there is a launch escape system such that if something goes wrong with the rocket within a fraction of a second, it is very powerful thrusts as i can i can pu. theoretically the loss of group probabilities that one in 240 mission so it is definitely not zero, but the space shuttle loss of crew was about two in 135 south theoretically at least it's lower than the space shuttle. that would

but nasa changed. the problem with the shuttle program was, nasa was a research organization. it was not designed to be an operational organization. it was not renter run an airline. we were always caught in this dichotomy of we want to keep flying the shuttle there were attempts to turn the shuttle over to contractors. this kind of like hiring a contractor to fight your work for you ifli you are a nation. some things should be under the direct control of the people who do not have profits in mind they're just there to serve the good of the people and serve the constitution. and so, once we start flying lots and lots of mission, the early program we were going to flight 50 missions a year the load a week you couldn't do it for shuttles in the staffing we had was impossible. that we did flight 12 in one year. i got really, really busy. so we got into this mode of trying to symphony eyes everything every flight conclude see the exact same set of failures, and their training they saw him all the ready to be certified. we always have problems with that they were not built in the b

nasa should be going to the moon. they shouldn't be trying to figure out how to get people back and forth to the space station. we've got that knowledge, we can give that to somebody. the predecessor to nasa would be naca, the national advisory committee for aeronautics and most of the this i think so that created the modern structure came out of basic naca research, but they did not try to run an airlines. >> and nasa, we've done my limited view as an aviate and airplane building. nasa is the source of all things research. you want to learn about an air foil it's going to be-- >> it's naca stuff. >> yeah. >> and there's an inside baseball for you, i worked with a lot of guys that actually worked at naca, and then they transferred to nasa sort of thing and they always said naca, but never said. naca n-a-c-a-. >> it has a-- >> the guys like chris, and krantz, out of naca they called it "the n-a-c-a-"and say an naca air foil. >> so who knows. you sort of answered a question that lawrence asked, and on the q & a, i'm sor

have things changed at nasa by then? and with the mission changing at nasa does that change the organization? >> i and a real traditionalist a when i learn something that is a tradition and an idealist i learned from the best and from the guys who through apollo who took us to the moon from dean kranz and the other flight directors i want to make sure we did not lose those lessons. the problem with the shuttle program nasa was a research organization not designed to run an airline and we were always caught and the dichotomy and there were over to to turn it contractors but but to fight your war for you something should be under the direct control for those that are just there t to serve like serve the constitution so to speak. so once we start flying lots of missions the early shuttle program flying 50 missions a year one a week and you cannot do with the staffing we had but we did fly 12 and one year and it got busy so we got into the mode to systematize everything they would see the exact same set of failures in their

>> i would not be an issue with the faa but it would be an issue with nasa and u.s. congress which would be deep in if that happened. that would be a b terrible tragy and there are no guarantees with human spaceflight whatsoever. there are some pretty good safety precautions with the falcon ix rocket which has an excellent record. the newest version has never failed and that's after 70 attempts. if it does fail unless it's a space shuttle if something went wrong for the space shuttle there was no way for the crew to safely get back to earth. withth dragon there is a launch escape system such that if something goes wrong with the racket with -- rocco within a fraction of the second a powerful force can move it away. it's definitely not zero but space shuttle loss of crew was two and 135 so if he radically at least it's a good ratio but that would be an extremely serious issue and it's a question about whether the promises of commercial space really are coming through. there is a lot of effort obviously being taken to protect against that for many reasons and that ain'

nasa compares this art of the the lunar module. the mission to _ the lunar module. nasa compares this part of the mission to win _ the lunar module. nasa compares this part of the mission to win 52 - the lunar module. nasa compares this part of the mission to win 52 years - part of the mission to win 52 years ago neil armstrong began a process what humanity knew about it, by bagging some understood as the first man to walk on the moon. the mars rover has been using its robotic arm to practice probing martian soil samples. nasa says it will take its six wheeled rover about 11 days to collect rock from the crater. that will be transferred to a revolving carousel before being placed into a tube and analysed before being sealed and stored. with the seismic scoop operation, expected to lift off in august. it may sound and look like a far—away movie, but these space scientists believe they are one step away from a leap in planetary science and discovery. many on earth now hoping their perseverance pays off. mark lobel, bbc news. hard to

you think nasa is going back to its roots going back into this business? >> i hope so and i stay connected with my friends using the newer generation of flight directors and i know was going on and they are working hard to get back to a lunar presence, i personally privacy a robust lunar presence before we go to mars to make sure when we go to mars, we can do it. we need to practice on the moon for we are only three days from first rather than get to mars for you are a half year from mars. >> i get that. one of the last question, how do you deal with the stress? i'll add this in, you were the role where so much of the weight of what was going on -- >> the answer to that, if you are reacting stress in a negative way, you're not going to qualify as a flight director. i can tell you before a mission, if i would get sprung up, i would get into my airplane fly on my arm about what center and relax me a bit. once you get into the middle, you are so busy, you don't have time to be stressed. you just plow ahead. >> i love it. we're almost out of time or two hit yo

to introduce our guest author and his conversational partner senior space editor covering space x, nasa, everything and beyond. a reporter for the chronicle and as we know we are so thrilled that he is here tonight. in conversation with andrea, sspace reporter for the houston chronicle and here we have a lot to talk about. i'm going to turn this over to eric and andrea to have a wonderful conversation and i will come back and help facilitate the question and answer period. welcome and thank you for coming tonight. so much happening in south texas withe the starship. it feels a little bit like the cowboy days of the falcon one so i'm curious what kind of similarity do you see between what is happening now and what was happening then? >> i want to help them understand why we should care about this rocket it's kind of ancient history. they finally launched it successfully and they never would have gotten to orbit. it's back in this composter was period from 2002 to 2008 when they started with the company. when he was hiring the people he thought would help him succeed in this quest to buil

he flew seven missions with nasa.advanced propulsion laboratory and founded the ad astra rocket company and so a lot of firsts here. great to have two astronauts on. and perhaps i could begin with you, franklin. listen, space is hard under any circumstances for anybody to get. this is a 11 minute flight, just aboof 62 miles so above the carman line known as the beginning of spaceal throw there is some debate there. tell us for someone like you that have flown seven missions what an achievement this was. put it into context for us? >> yeah, well it is a great achievement. space is hard. everything that is done, it involved a lot of risk and i'm very glad that everything went well. and you know, we've gone through many gyrations to actually get human news space over more than half a century now. but we're still just scratching the surface. we have a long ways to go. but it is exciting. it is really exciting thing to see how space is being open to the rest of humanity, not just to a selected few. >> doctor jameson, you h

host: speaking of nasa, in a recent presentation nasa administration lead to bill nelson let out hisceflight efforts including going back to the moon. i want you to listen to what bill nelson had to say and john, i want you to react to it. [video clip] >> we are assembling the rocket at this very minute down at the kennedy space center. it will pave the way to return american astronauts to the surface of the moon. that rocket is the space launch system. it will launch our orion spacecraft and cargo on missions to lunar orbit and beyond. soon, like, days, we are starting to stack that massive stage between the two boosters. the sls will be the most powerful rocket in the world, 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch. all this means is we are on our way to land the next americans on the moon and this time we are going to learn how to live and work on another world. america's long-term presence at the moon, both robotic and human, will help develop the experience and capabilities we need to eventually send the first astronauts to mars. host: first john, i want you to react to bill nelso

this is not nasa. this is not a government entity that is providing us that kind of data straight from nasa. this is, of course, a private company providing us their narration and so we are very mindful of that. you'll get spectacular views and the engineering expertise as well from blue origin's own mission control. >> unreal. awaiting separation here. >> ron gearon is with me, a former nasa astronaut and f-16 fighter pilot. ron, what is happening right now inside that cabin. what are they feeling and seeing? >> they had the engine cut off so they are feeling like they are pushed back in the air with a elephant on their chest. the whole way up they saw that view out the window and probably marveling right now at the indescribable beauty of our planet and the thinness of the atmosphere and curvature of the earth and i hope they are having a wonderful time. >> ron, there are so few people who have seen that view, that view that you and other astronauts have enjoyed. can you describe it at all for us? >>

they've been developing a moon lander in working with nasa on that, even though nasa has not done thatthat to spacex, which seems the main competitor. >> for the so-called, i hate to say, the average person, the average joe if you will who is interested in space travel, looking to this $28 million price tag for this most recent seat for the initial option and going there is no way that that is in my plane of existence. what do you see lime time line wise, space tourism opening up to regular folks the way that plane travel is today, if ever? >> if ever, one thing that we have seen already discussed on this program is aspect of risk and the appetite for risk. how much do their customers have, how much does the public have for us? this continues to ramp up and seeing things like mobile flights every day, they are reusable, you are getting reaction and nominal performance and have injuries if not fatalities at some point. is that an acceptable amount of risk from companies, acceptable amount of risk for the passengers. when the accidents inevitably happen, how will we move forward or back

no one has seen more liftoffs firsthand than paul dye, the longest serving flight director in nasa's history. he is now retired and has a new book. guy invited jeff glore to his home in nevada for a chat. >> reporter: there is no grass or a pool, but there is a runway. >> we just go. we kind of treat our airplanes like bicycles, you know. if you want to go to the end of the street, you go to the end of the street. >> reporter: on a windy morning outside reno, we went up in dye's rv-8. a flight path took us near air station fallon, home of the real top gun. >> we try to stay out of top gun's air space. probably a good idea, yes. >> reporter: for years he was head of kit planes magazines where he still contributes. his most impressive resume is with nasa where he worked more than 30 years, including 20 years as a flight director, more than anyone else in history. >> i consider myself kind of a feel general. i really like being in the battle. i like being in the thick of things. and i kind of recognized early on that unless i became a politician and ran for office, i wasn't going to be

whereas nasa wanting to take us now. well, what nasa is working on now is indeed activity of space station. this is the decade for the international space station to bring on more commercial and companies that want to develop a variety of products in 0 gravity because you can build better products in many different ways. but also we doing a variety of other types of science. in the meantime, we're developing the capability to be able to live and work on another planet, on another solar system object in the start of that will happen by the end of this year. with our launch of the space watch system to go to the moon. now it will be untrue. and soon after after that launch we will have a crew going out in testing every every system. and then in a few years later, we'll have the 1st woman in the next, perhaps next woman or the next man landing on the surface of the moon in the south pole. as we begin to work live and work on our planetary surface. jim just finding what are your thoughts on regulating all this now that it is

so it speaks to the power of nasa to draw people in. it worked for me. other companies mentionede blue origin and a lot of people want to know your answer to that. >> most are vastly different and it is because it's a drawn from elon musk. hehe sets the tone with his demanding workplace and the phrase i use in the book is he wants to make the impossible possible. so he asks great things of people but then he gives them the freedom to go out and do that. and he moves really fast. that is in direct contrast including blue origin. they hired a ceo of a guy named bob smith. he was hired to come in as the company moved from this hobby shop development to flying missions in space and working with the department of defense and smith made blue origin more like a company closer to boeing or nevada or lockheed martin. it's interesting there are some parallels in history in 2006, he hired his first ceo from a launch company and he was very much a s traditional ceo, kind f the adult in the room and lasted nine months because he didn't fith in with the culture. peopl

glenn didn't have a lot of supporters in the hierarchy in nasa.is triumphal flight he was edged out of the rotation. it took him a couple of years that that this was the case. he got the message and '64 to run success. i not the first time, but run for the senate. >> it takes another 30 years for him to finally get back to space. tell us how that happened and i love the scene talking about the children's reaction to what he's thinking about doing as a 70-something year old man. >> you know, i think one of the things that maybe we all underestimate particularly when there's a successful mission like glenn's. he came back okay and we see the cheering crowds and the family with him in those celebrations. that this was agonizing. if you can just put yourself in the mind of a couple of teenagers and glenn was the oldest of the astronauts so his kids were the oldest of the astronaut children. >> some of the children were too young to remember when their fathers went up in space, but glenn's kids were in high school and they were well aware what was goin

nasa compares _ if you look at it now. nasa compares this _ if you look at it now. of its mission and nearly 52 years ago, when neil armstrong began ago, when neil armstrong began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about it. by bagging some moon dust. as you can see here, the mars rover has been using its robotic arm to practise getting samples. it will take 11 days to collect rock from the crater. that will be transferred to a revolving carousel before being placed into a tube and analysed, before being sealed and stored. with the seismic scoop operation expected to lift off in august. it may sound and look like a faraway movie, but these a space scientists believe they are one step away from a leap in planetary science and discovery. many on earth, now hoping the perseverance pays off. mark labelle, bbc news. now, let's return to our olympic coverage where competition is a way ahead of friday's opening ceremony. as you know, our sports reporter is in tokyo covering every twist and turn. talk us through what has happened so far.- talk us through what h

he was asked about innovation efforts, satellite management and the relationship between nasa and the space force. this is 45 minutes. >> to be able to serve as the chairman of the space and science subcommittee for the department of within the senate as a former geologist i did have two geological research papers peer-reviewed and published but i think i'm the only scientist that has published the peer-reviewed papers. i was next to the astronaut and certainly in many ways he is one of the most inquisitive and curious people in the senate. he laughed and said i am an engineer. i perform experiments in space. i do not design them so he and i agreed to disagree. he's another scientist in the senate. we passed the act at the u.s. innovation competition act is what it ended up being called that strengthens the foundation and creates a directorate to help advance u.s. leadership in a number of areas including things like quantum computing and artificial intelligence and it creates a strategic plan our relationship between researchers and universities to expand how we create more stem work

took nasa payloads up to the virgin galactic flight. space x regularly flies things to and from space station. it is happening. courts keep going. it is always go to talk with you. thank you. brent: chancellor angela merkel visited areas devastated by last week's floods. she is facing more criticism about her government's inability to warn people to evacuate quick enough. almost one week after the catastrophe, at least 170 people are dead, many more remain missing. >> the cleanup is ongoing and it did not stop for chancellor angela merkel when they came to assess the situation on the ground. angela merkel took time to talk to those directly affected by the floods. six days after the disaster, people in the region are in an extremely difficult situation. >> we have no water, no electricity and no gas. the toilets don't flush. you can't take a shower. i have never experienced anything like it. i am almost 80 years old. >> tomorrow at the cabinet meeting in berlin, we will put together a policy that deals with financial aid, where the mone

it was never nasa's goal or business to fly tourists.'m so happy to see that the dreams of millions of people are finally being realized. >> alan, i did not realize that. how many people have signed up for virgin >> over 600. >> at $200,000 each. >> 200,000 to 250,000 because they raised the price. there's some rumors they may raise it even higher to perhaps 300,000. we still don't know what the price will be for blue origin. >> yeah. i'm still thinking about the person that paid $28 million to get on that blue origin flight and then had a scheduling conflict. who does that and then has a scheduling conflict. >> that is so true. i'm glad that -- i'm glad you did scheduling conflict in finger quotes. i'm thinking if you can afford to pay $28 million you can afford to make sure you get the exact schedule that you want. i'm always very curious about who they were. that name. that person wishes to remain anonymous at this time. the prices do sound so beyond the moon. 28 million that. was for charity. the 250,000. when do you think -- what do

host: speaking of nasa, in a recent presentation nasa administration lead to bill nelson let out his spaceflight efforts including going back to the moon. i want you to listen to what bill nelson had to say and john, i want you to react to it. [video clip] >> we are assembling the rocket at this very minute down at the kennedy space center. it will pave the way to return american astronauts to the surface of the moon. that rocket is the space launch system. it will launch our orion spacecraft and cargo on missions to lunar orbit and beyond. soon, like, days, we are starting to stack that massive stage between the two boosters. the sls will be the most powerful rocket in the world, 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch. all this means is we are on our way to land the next americans on the moon and this time we are going to learn how to live and work on another world. america's long-term presence at the moon, both robotic and human, will help develop the experience and capabilities we need to eventually send the first astronauts to mars. host: first john, i want you to react to bill n

and also the blue origin new shepherd, nasa can still do science experiments on them nasa does benefitch noelg, development and the fact there's new revenues, new investment coming into the space sector and nasa doesn't have to foot the entire bill >> this is only suborbital we should note that. when do you expect we would go full orbital with civilian space travel >> later this year so, very soon. and spacex is going to be the first company to do that they have the inspiration mission planned later this year, and those will be private citizens flying on the spaksx dragon and going orbital more than just a few minutes. they'll be going for days around the earth. that's much harder to do you have to travel about four times as fast. but the energy goes as the velocity squared, so that is four times as fast but 16 times as much energy >> can you give our viewers an idea of what mr. branson is going to feel, what he's going to see this weekend? >> yeah. so, he's going to feel some gs he's going to be pushed back into his seat. he's going to feel it head to toe as they pull back and zoom up

in 2020, dragon carried a nasa crew to i.s.s. than russia was charging the u.s. for the same service. >> spacex isn't alone. jeff bay zo's blue origin was among several companies receiving fund for space technology. marking the next giant leap in commercializing space. alix: for more we are joined by ron epstein, senior aerospace and defense analyst. that's where we are. i want to get your take. what's the opportunity? what's the space economy now? what do you think it can be in 2040, 2050? ronald: basic economy today is about $450 billion. we are expecting over the next decade to grow to about $1.4 trillion. that's approximately about a 10% per year growth rate. i think you could extrapolate that out to the next decade and following decade. if you look at space markets, there is all kinds of things going on. space tourism. there is satellites. low earth orbit, and higher orbit. there are a whole bunch of things going on. what you point out in the intertrow to this, this is an endeavor that was solely an endeavor of government. a

they want to vie with spacex for those nasa contracts. we could see two more missions this year as blue origin ramps up its activity. alix: thanks for that. really appreciate that. let's talk about u.s. housing market. it was in the stratosphere. starts rising in june, hitting a three month high. want to talk to michael mckee about the details. michael: we may be constrained in where we can go. housing starts are always very volatile if you have a pendant recession. the kind go away, then you have weather affect -- then you have weather effects. there's a lot of demand out there for housing. the bad news is in the building permits, or at least it appears to possibly be bad news, because building permits went the other way. building permits fell to an estimated 6 million annualized rate. that is the lowest since october. what's going on there? is housing peeking out? maybe not. the problem may be, we don't have enough construction materials because of costs or don't have enough construction workers. take a look at the number of civil famil

now aaron bass seems to be taking nasa's decision personally. so why is he fighting for a piece of berlin or lander contract, and what does blue origin stand to gain from it? well, i knew, i don't know, just phase i was, you know, i'm not going to know his mind, but i will say that his actions have demonstrated that he has a very personal and although, as far as a emotional connection to the progress of the space industry it's what he's using his fortune for, and he's, you know, said in multiple arenas that this is a dream of his. so for him, it's the prestige of it to say the least. but you know, they make a great point. our board makes a great point about the competition around having the space infrastructure in place, and by only funding space axes starship. we are running into a problem where you have a monopoly power scenario, right? space ex has a launch vehicle and then they have the landing vehicle. and a big part of the space industry is heritage. and if we don't have the opportunity to, you know, see additional technology gain that her

and finally, nasa wants to get astronauts on the moon by 2024. and jeff dave wants to be a part of the action. the blue origin founder who just returned from his 1st 10 minute trip to space is now calling for his company to be allowed to join the contract that was previously awarded to space x and you on must and an open letter to the administrator of nasa. they those offered to waive $2000000000.00 and fees over the next 2 years, as long as blue origin is allowed to contribute to the development and launch of nasa lunar lander, while nasa originally awarded 10 month contract to space ex, blue origin and dynamics before choosing space x alone for nearly 3000000000 dollar deal phases argued the agency should continue to allow competition in order to get the best possible result. now of course jeff pays us makes this a right this open letter to nasa about a week before it's expected that the government accountability office is going to rule on that contract, which eventually went to space x. they essentially suspended it while they researched what

in many ways taking the lead from nasa and all of nasa's engineering over the years and there have been setbacks and tragically a loss of life many years ago, but they absolutely persevered, drilled down on the engineering, and came up with a model that works. you have to hand it to the engineers, the brain power, and clearly richard branson who had this idea that he could make this assessable to everybody and to stephanie's point, you know, about the branding, richard branson is a master showman and master at branding but it matters if you're first because people remember. branson and virgin galactic were first to prove that it's safe and that's going to be the bar that others have to follow going forward. >> you're 100% right. overwhelming response was they got back safely. that's what everybody always hopes because the next brick gets built on the foundation that's laid by a safe mission that we just saw. to me, watching that touchdown and i want to bring the doctor back into this. i talked to an engineering student, a ph.d. student, but you have watched this forever and this is just