Colonel Hatfield News Today

Spacecraft with a successful liftoff of its 19th flight, hovering more than 62 miles above earth, it hits speeds -- a total of an 11-minute flight. now its just hovering just on the edge of space. imagine what its like to see that view in that person. >> zero gravity, it looks like they have entered. this is astounding to watch live. lets bring in cnns rachel crane live at the launch site, and colonel hatfield. rachel, you are there on the ground. what was it like when it took off? >> reporter: ...

Large window, we saw someone waving, looking up into the sky. im trembling there with you. colonel hatfield, you were talking about how this is a perspective-altering trip, even if youre up there for just a few minutes. its also life altering. tell us what you expect to hear from them? how life-altering has it been for you? >> i spent about half a year up, but either way, the experience is the important thing. theyll have to think about it for a while. theres lots of video and stuff, but theyre ...

It appears that the door has been opened, as we wait, colonel hatfield, i do have a question for you. you were talking about the message that these astronauts will have for the world and the importance of what they share in their experience. you know, i know there are some folks watching this, who are cynical about private space travel, who suggest that perhaps these billionaires, jeff bezos, elon musk, should spend that money helping people here on earth. from your perspective, what do you say ...

People each time. you know that capsule can hold up to six people. we will start to see vanhorn, texas, become more and more prevalent as this launch site becomes used more by blue origin and reuse the capsule and reuse that thruster which i can tell you is pretty wild to see return after going to the sky, come back and land on a launchpad not too far away from where it took off. so the fact theyre able to reuse these tools is a positive sign of whats to come. >> let me bring in colonel hatfield...

Today and exciting, but to me thats what this signifies is the technological opening of a whole new capability. >> you sort of share a perspective jessica mir shared with me last week. let me play a clip about what she said these public. private partnerships. >> 4% of gdp was spent on these apollo missions. but now the nasa budget is about 4.3%. thats all of nasa. so we need this. we need these partnerships with private companies. we need these international partnerships. by leveraging these par...

Will spend three days in orbit. theyll circle and orbit 15 times a day and are much higher than the hubble telescope or international space station. more of what this means by retired astronaut and former commander of said international space station, colonel chris hatfield. whats the upshot doing this with four civilians? the capsules pilot themselves up in orbit, right? >> well, including the rocket that launched them, garrett. it piloted itself. spacex has flown essentially the same vehicle m...

Need to come back and let people know the human experience. i hope they dont squander the experience and help teach and motivate and inspire others. >> colonel hatfield, thank you. i will do the first "mtp daily" broadcast from upper orbit. i have to arm wrestle chuck for it. team usa had say over larry nassars abuse. do those survivors, a hearing isnt enough. it is barely a start. more on that next. you are watching "meet the press daily." you are watching "meet the press daily. clean. my fri...

The timing of it happening within a year and a half of itself. it really represents the end of the governments monopoly on human space travel. >> even though a lot of the contracts that spacex, bezos, and others are going for are government contracts. colonel hatfield, he wants to build a road to space, infrastructure that a few generations from now kids in a dorm room who have some, you know, idea like they would have about the internet today can actually build on that infrastructure and make t...

The architecture of their system is kind of over engineered for what you saw today. >> hey, miles, i want to bring in the colonel. colonel, what are we looking at here? why havent they just brought them out immediately? what are they doing? >> well, obviously the capsule is pressurized to some degree inside, and it has, you know, the tanks of pressurized air and other things inside that were keeping the crew cool and comfortable. those all now have to be saved and equalized. otherwise you have p...

In our pocket money to take one of these flights, it will come. it will come. but its going to be decades, i think. and were going to see -- i think the real change will be when they could bring down the price of orbital tourist flight. a lot of people have forgotten that there have been tourists on the international space station and even to jims point, a japanese journalist flew on mirror, i believe. so this is been building a long time. it will come. but im afraid we have to be patient about ...